Looking at High Mileage ST1300

Congratulations on your purchase. The ST is a great bike and can live a long long time with some care and attention.

Honda service and owner's manuals are still protected by copyright law. Helm Inc. is the distributor for new ones and used ones can be found at eBay and other sites.

http://www.helminc.com/helm/search_service_owner.asp?Style=helm&class_2=AHC

The brakes on these bikes are not tolerant of neglect. A complete flush and replacement of the brake fluid along with a close inspection of all components should be a high priority.
 
Since the owner used moly grease on the splines, you might pull the rear wheel and use moly paste. There are a number of pastes available with > 60% moly. You can read the moly threads elsewhere here and choose which brand to use - the consensus here is that Honda's replacement for the original moly 60 is not good.

Here is one link and Here is another . The locktite product seems to be more popular.

My take away from the moly discussions is that regular cleaning of the male and female splined joints and relubing of same is what is important, not necessarily what you use. I will be fried for saying that, but we have guys here who swear they have used only heavy duty chassis grease for over 100k miles with no visible wear, so we either believe them or adapt our way of thinking. (I'm not in favor of moly-less grease, and I will use the locktite product if my original Honda moly is used up). Again, for me, the emphasis is on regular - no more than 10k miles between spline service (or every rear tire change if more frequent), clean it and lube it. If you ride hard and a lot in all kinds of weather and environments (I know guys who don't ride in the rain), then Honda's original recommendations strike me as the best way to go (second sentence above). YMMV.
 
SMSW said:
Since the owner used moly grease on the splines, you might pull the rear wheel and use moly paste. There are a number of pastes available with > 60% moly. You can read the moly threads elsewhere here and choose which brand to use - the consensus here is that Honda's replacement for the original moly 60 is not good.

Here is one link and Here is another . The locktite product seems to be more popular.

My take away from the moly discussions is that regular cleaning of the male and female splined joints and relubing of same is what is important, not necessarily what you use. I will be fried for saying that, but we have guys here who swear they have used only heavy duty chassis grease for over 100k miles with no visible wear, so we either believe them or adapt our way of thinking. (I'm not in favor of moly-less grease, and I will use the locktite product if my original Honda moly is used up). Again, for me, the emphasis is on regular - no more than 10k miles between spline service (or every rear tire change if more frequent), clean it and lube it. If you ride hard and a lot in all kinds of weather and environments (I know guys who don't ride in the rain), then Honda's original recommendations strike me as the best way to go (second sentence above). YMMV.
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You are one helpful dude, appreciate your advice and help - a lot :)

I don't ride in rain and definitely a fair and rain free weather (SLOW)rider. I'll follow your advice of lubing the splines this coming winter. Might as well do other things while I'll be at it. Owner said he has used Honda paste(while in person), when I asked if he has it, said he's out of it? Not sure if I should trust him? But at first he said a few times, he has always used moly grease on every tire change. Guess I'll find out soon.
 
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BTW is it me or it's normal, while pushing the bike forward in the garage, handlebars were kind of wobbly. Is it because of being a heavy bike or something else is going on?

No other vibration, while riding. Seriously if I don't see mileage, can't tell it's a high mileage bike :D
 
maverickfhs said:
BTW is it me or it's normal, while pushing the bike forward in the garage, handlebars were kind of wobbly. Is it because of being a heavy bike or something else is going on?

No other vibration, while riding. Seriously if I don't see mileage, can't tell it's a high mileage bike :D
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The handlebars are mounted in rubber bushings and have some 'give' so I think you are fine.
 
maverickfhs said:
Owner said he has used Honda paste(while in person), when I asked if he has it, said he's out of it? Not sure if I should trust him? But at first he said a few times, he has always used moly grease on every tire change. Guess I'll find out soon.
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I would imagine he just got his words mixed up, saying grease, instead of paste. If he knew about the Honda product, he probably used it.
 
v8-7 said:
Final drives can be had off e-bay for $30-100..They are cheap because they last ..
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I don't disagree with you re their durability, however, mine failed at roughly 26K miles and when I needed one, those with the ABS sensor mount were going for a bit more. Sure, scruffy looking ones and several with bad or no pictures of the splines were cheaper, but since my bike is quite young, I did not want a FD that looked like it was 25 years old. Bottom line, I think I paid 110 w/ shipping, but it was by far the cheapest one available and did not look as good as those going for 2 or 2.5 times the price. Regardless, at $300, a replacement FD is still cheap.... Wheels however, have prices ranging all over the map.
 
SMSW said:
Since the owner used moly grease on the splines, you might pull the rear wheel and use moly paste. There are a number of pastes available with > 60% moly. You can read the moly threads elsewhere here and choose which brand to use - the consensus here is that Honda's replacement for the original moly 60 is not good.

Here is one link and Here is another . The locktite product seems to be more popular.

My take away from the moly discussions is that regular cleaning of the male and female splined joints and relubing of same is what is important, not necessarily what you use. I will be fried for saying that, but we have guys here who swear they have used only heavy duty chassis grease for over 100k miles with no visible wear, so we either believe them or adapt our way of thinking. (I'm not in favor of moly-less grease, and I will use the locktite product if my original Honda moly is used up). Again, for me, the emphasis is on regular - no more than 10k miles between spline service (or every rear tire change if more frequent), clean it and lube it. If you ride hard and a lot in all kinds of weather and environments (I know guys who don't ride in the rain), then Honda's original recommendations strike me as the best way to go (second sentence above). YMMV.
Click to expand...

Thanks SMSW, one last question on spline lube, can this be used or no? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-OE...5&_sacat=0&_nkw=moly+77+paste&_from=R40&rt=nc
 
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