I am just glad I finally got my ST, even if it is a bit rough around the edges. I thought I would forever lament selling my fifth gen VFR800 but for my stage in life I like my ST even more. The specific sport touring model, like the ST is probably dead due to declining ridership, declining purchasing power and declining interest in riding as leisure. This has everything to do with Boomers shuffling off this mortal coil. Their taste in bikes is dying too. It's the Harley-Davidson problem. In any case, I am just glad to have mine even if my family has to sell it for scrap after I'm gone
Well said, Sir! I had been lamenting caving to the wife's whining and selling my '82 Gold Wing Interstate 5 years ago. Saw a Valkyrie Interstate in a local for sale site, and secretly went out to test ride, just to see if I still could. I quickly remembered why I sold my first year Valk -- lots of fun in a straight line, but too long and too heavy for much of anything else. However, once I got the itch again, I kept looking. Test rode a BMW RS and didn't like it at all. No power at all off the lights, and vibrated like a leaf in a big wind. Looked at a lot of old Wings, but anything past the 1200 just got too bulky. Came really close to buying another GL1100 base model with just 14K miles on it, but if you think parts are hard to come by for the ST's, try sourceing carb parts for a GL1100. Then, in doing some research and reading, I stumbled across a '96 ST1100 at a dealership. Yeah, it had purple flames on blue paint, but what a great ride! I took it direct to a big mall parking lot that was mostly empty and put several miles on it just doing figure 8's and such. Fortunately, as it turned out, the dealer was just a little too impressed with it (honestly it was really dirty inside the bags and on the outside) for the condition it was in, and they turned down my offer. Then I found the 2003 ST1300 on cycle trader. It was listed well below similar bikes, and as soon as I saw it I figured out why. belonged to an 80-year old guy who was plenty tall enough, but not big enough to handle it. He had only had it a year, and thank God the original owner had taken good care of it. The tires were shot, the brakes were shot, the fork seals were for all practical purposes gone. It was sitting out on a dirt storage yard beside what looked like the hoarder version of the Partridge Family bus. and he had duct tape on both mirrors. Broke my heart to see what I could tell was still a diamond in the rough, "living" in those conditions. I now have more in it than I paid for it, but it is starting to look like it should and it is running like a new one.
But back to the point of the thread. I was one of the youngest Gold Wing riders in the country when I got my GL1000 back in about 1980. It wasn't "sexy", but I could ride it cross country all day and all night, and have tunes the whole time. I grew up in Kansas, and I really liked the solid feel of the big bike in strong cross winds.
Looking at what is out there today, anything smaller than the ST just gets knocked around too much by gusting winds, and I now live in Colorado, with even worse winds than KS had. Had the ST out last weekend, trying out the new Clearview medium windshield, and didn't look down at the speedo until I got to where I felt the bike was in a good groove in 5th. Was a tad surprised when I looked down at 95 MPH! Not quite as comfortable as my old Wing....yet....but that likely comes down to the seat, which also has duct tape on it.
I am pretty sure my heirs will have to figure out what to do with the ST another 15 to 20 years down the line, but until then....
