I'm not trying to argue. You might think of this as more of passing on personal experience. But first, I'm all for the ST1100 and ST1300. If you don't want all the electronic gizmos, there's nothing wrong with them at all. They are great bikes. And I think it is the smart rider who buys one and doesn't get caught up in all the eye candy as the reason for passing on them.
I'll take it item by item.
- Not sure what you mean by "living room floor ADV bike", but the ADV style does have advantages ergonomically. The seating position on my bike is pretty much upright with just the slightest forward lean. Enough forward lean to keep your spine from absorbing all the bumps in the road, and not so much that your wrists and hands take a beating. I may get foam hand grips some day, but so far I haven't felt I needed them. And I have about 10K miles on the XR in the last year...with two months of down time for foot surgery. That ADV style riding position is really sweet.
- The gizmos...you can use what you want and disregard the rest. The cruise control is handier than I thought it would be. I have a hard time holding the speed down, so in the areas locally where speed traps are prevalent, I just set the cruise control and quit worrying about going too fast. The Dynamic ABS and Traction Control are gizmos that I want just-in-case, but I don't intend to ever ride so I'm depending on them. My XR will tell me things like my coolant temperature, tire pressure, average mpg and remaining range. A lot of us add mods on our bikes to provide that info. In this case, they are built in. Heated grips are nice if you ride year around as I do.
- Two-cylinder engine. The only four cylinder engines I've had are in cars. My VW Beetle had a 1300 cc engine. If my parallel twin engine vibrated a lot, I'd say it was a negative, but not all twins are bad.
- Chain. Oh my gosh, my bike has a chain!...as do almost all new motorcycles. It hasn't been a big deal at all. I have yet to adjust mine. Keeping it lubed is a no-brainer with the oiler I purchased for about $30. On all the trips I made last summer, I don't remember ever sitting on the ground cleaning my chain. And people say that chain if kept clean and lubed, will last about 35K.
- Tip over protection. I bought crash bars for a couple hundred. Yes, they aren't built-in, but they are available. That to me, is a huge plus for Honda, but there's a workaround for other bikes.
- Weather protection. I'll combine that with the "insectoid appearance" comment. I think the beak on ADV bikes is dumb, but otherwise the appearance on these bikes was driven by aerodynamics. My XR cuts through the air better than my older F800GT did...and that was really decent. Cross-winds are not an issue on the insectoid XR, and I bet it is the same on the NT1100 and others. It simply works and keeps the rain and cold off me.
- LED headlights. How many of us add auxiliary lights to make up for our inadequate halogen lights? Nuff said.
- Proprietary workshop service. It's not really an issue. On my F800GT, which was a 2014, I did just routine maintenance; oil & filter changes, tires, brakes. The bike just worked, mile after mile. I don't expect my newer XR to be any different I did buy a GS-911 to reset the maintenance interval, but that was all I needed it for. It was kinda cool to hook it up to my laptop and feel like a "real" mechanic. But other than the rear wheel bearing that failed at the end of my time with it, I never needed a shop manual. Everything could be found online. I did go to an independent mechanic for the valve checks. That was because it was more work than I wanted to bother with, not because I couldn't do it. On most of these bikes, you can buy service manuals or the equivalent. Even on my current BMW, I found a place to download a service manual.
- The switches...eh, some are better laid out than others. I think BMWs switches and TFT display are possibly the best. They were the first on the market (I think) and probably filed patents to stay ahead of the competition. I was amazed at how logically the TFT screen on my XR was laid out and how easy it was to find what you wanted without being overly distracted. The others may not be as good, but once you get used to them, I'll be you find them just fine too.
- TFD or TFT...there's a brightness setting you can make on it. I'm sure all the other manufacturers have one too. The nice part about it, is you can see it clearly in the daytime and in bright sun light. And at night, they automatically adjust.
- Required Wi-Fi connection? Mine doesn't have it. It'll connect to your phone using BT, but that's it. If I decide not to connect my phone to the bike, I just loose the ability to use the bike's display to make phone calls or play music. A "gizmo" that can be ignored if you don't want it. The XR does have a screen that'll give you GPS directions, but it uses the phone's GPS transmitter. I rarely use it, and consider it a backup to my Garmin Zumo XT.
I'll add one more thought. BMW really wants you to use their Connected App. It requires BT and your phone's GPS tracking enabled all the time. Even in the middle of the night, with the program turned off, it'll check your location. I don't use it. I figure BMW is tracking my location and selling my information...even though they say they aren't. So I just don't use the Connected app, 99% of the time.
- RF-radiation. ??? The only thing that comes to mind, is the radar being offered on some bikes interfering with your radar detector. I used the Garmin GPS and Uniden radar detector for most of those 10,000 miles and never encountered that.
And...I realized that I had the bike for when I got older and couldn't handle the weight.
Smart riders that know enough to not follow all the latest and greatest trends, will buy bikes like the STs. But there are alternatives as well.
Chris
