G'day G'day.
Proud new owner of an 05 ST13 in beautiful blue. That said I may spray on a white plasti-dip "bra" to protect the front end (read get people out of the way) at some point soon.
The story of how I ended up here...
I have a heavily modified postie (enough fuel tank to ride Brisbane to the Cape without filling up) and a GSX650F. I also have a wonderful partner I'd like to spend more time on the road with, understandably she wasn't too happy bundled up on the back of the GSX so we only went out a few times a year. I was driving through the snowfields in southern NSW recently when I decided I would get something bigger, more comfortable and able to pull a trailer. The rationale behind this was I could get a van, car or camper but I would still end up stuck behind *insert your name for them here* doing 20km\h under the limit through the hills with no real overtaking zones to be be seen for what felt like hours. However, if I had a large displacement bike I'd be able to nip around any roadblock I encountered with ease.
My original idea was a Suzuki Boulevard or similar and remained that way for a good long while. While researching bike trailers I came across a picture of an ST13 with highway pegs, thinking that was a pretty good idea I Google image searched ST1300 highway pegs. Enter Diesel, there he was in all his glory, sitting on an ST13 with a yellow line showing the more simple folk where his legs were. I still don't know why but that picture drove me to visit the site, I then proceeded to read everything he had ever posted on his blog then watch all this YT videos. I spent the next day furiously researching large displacement Sport Touring bikes and settled on the ST13 being the bike for me (us).
As you can probably guess from my other bikes I lean towards the most reliable and all round bike I can find in the category I am interested in at the time so the ST13 was the obvious choice. Within a day of the ST popping on my radar I had arranged a test ride for my partner and I, she fell in love with it instantly. The comfort, the feeling of safety, the size, the windscreen were all selling points. Within 2 days I had arranged the purchase of a rather nice blue ST13 from Cairns, as stock as they come but had some other perks I liked the sound of, namely 18 months of dealer warranty from the last person that brought it and a GIVI top box.
Unfortunately work called me away and I had to spend the beginning of the week in Sydney so I arrange my return flights to take my to Cairns instead of Brisbane (somehow cheaper :S ). I arrived in Cairns late Wednesday night and checked into my Air B&B. Thursday morning I headed to Team Moto to meet
one of the best seller I have ever come across and look at his bike. The bike he had already had the bike shop do a top to bottom check on as well as a roadworthy and taken to the lock smith to fix a problem with the locking glove box. I went for a lap around the block, not that I needed to and was happy as a pig in sand (children might be reading).
We headed to the near by bank, sorted out all the $ and that was that. I loaded all my luggage into Steph, pointed my nose south and set off. I made it as far as Bowen before what I will refer to as a falling ocean drove me into a motel. I was up bight and early the next morning to the sound of birds and the warm rays of sun on my face....
I woke up to the rain I fell asleep to :\ I put on my rain suit and off I went. First stop was Mackay to get some kind of cruise control or throttle lock, the ST is great but it's got a bloody heavy throttle, something I will look into sooner or later. From Mackay I had planned to stop at Rockhampton for the night, Rockhampton soon passed by and I didn't stop (other than roadworks and fuel) until Childers. Given it's around 4 hours from Childers to home I couldn't justify spending the night so I filled my tank with a lovely McDonalds wrap and made trails. I arrived home at 11:58pm on Friday night.
The bad bits... The dreaded FI code 26 stuck after about 8 hours of sustained 110km\h+, I sand (could still be kids) myself, stopped as soon as I could and jumped on google. Soon enough my mind was put at ease so I cleared the fault and was on my way. It reappeared a few times during the remainder of the trip so I put some tape over the FI light and took the reduced fuel economy on the chin. I will address that at some point soon or might take it to the shop and make use of the warranty.
The SS1600 doesn't feel like too much of a challenge anymore
Long story short or as the kids say TL:RD: Discovered ST1300's less than a week ago, flew to Cairns to buy one and rode it back to Brisbane in 2 days.
I will do a little photo shoot when I clean off the 13 kgs of bugs I collected on the way home.
If anyone knows where I can get Highway pegs I would be forever grateful. All the links I can find are to the motorcycle larry site but it's very clearly replacement parts and not the kit.
