Where did you ride today?

Uncle Festive said:
Took my recently acquired ST1300 on a 125 mile shakedown ride. Rode from Brunswick to Waterville on the backroads getting used to the bike and hitting the m/c shops along the way. Bought a mesh jacket and a pair of summer gloves as I’ve been out of riding for a while and need all new gear.

The bike totally blew me away! A perfect mix of the power and handling prowess of a sport bike and the cushy comfort of a touring bike. I love the adjustable windshield, played with it all ride. Slow for traffic-down for breeze, open road riding-up for quiet. The bike haz 61K on it but you’d never know unless you looked at the odometer, it seems every bit as tight as many other bikes are when new. The whole bike just oozes quality and refinement, perfectly focused for long distance sport touring. I’m looking forward to a long and happy relationship with my new ride. Now if can just get my old body up to the task....

P.S. A shout out to Starting Line motorcycle shop in Waterville. A great selection of riding gear and parts, a busy repair shop and friendly and helpful staff. If you find yourself in the area, stop in and check them out. Highly Recommended!
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Welcome aboard Uncle Festive, enjoy your 13.
Unfortunately this site can't help with ageing limbs, I wished it could.
Upt'North.
 
TerryS said:
We had another beautiful winter's day yesterday, 6-12C so a tad nippy but dry and sunny so no real complaints. I did the local favourite referred to as the "Coro Loop" , basically a hot lap around the Coromandel Peninsular which is a little more than 90 minutes from home, and gave me a nice 470km run. To add interest I avoided where possible the main highways and took lots of twisty secondary roads.
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Coromandel is a stunningly beautiful ride, you can revel in the bush, mountain or sea views, or you can get down into the most fabulously twisty roads which dip in and out of river valleys and over the spine of the ranges. This is an area to avoid during summer when far too many drivers tow boats and caravans and generally impede swift progress, but yesterday I had it mostly to myself. There is also a good collection of lookouts and cafes if you fancy a break, that's not really my style and I did the ride with just a single rest break at Whitianga and a refuelling stop at Kaiaua on the way home. While I was trying to take it reasonably easy, the roads do encourage riding in a brisk and spirited manner at times, and so I hit the secondary tank after 380km, which may seem low to superslab riders but is typical for NZ twisty roads with plenty of braking and acceleration.
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This is the view across Mercury Bay at Whitianga, shame the tide wasn't in. If you kept going in this direction, the next landfall is around Concepcion in Chile!

This was my first ride on a Michelin PR4 GT rear tyre after I had barbecued a BT023 in 4500km. The PR4 appears to be a taller tyre with a lot more tread curvature, and where I was bashing pegs on the BT023 and cutting up the edges, the Michelin has kept the hard parts further up and I still have some tread left untouched. The tyre also seems to be coping with the heat, weight and torque a lot better than the Bridgestone so I hope for a better life. I can't fault the handling or braking of the ST when used hard, and I'm really enjoying the improvement over the ST1100.
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On the homeward leg, this is the view from Kaiaua across the Firth of Thames, the land on the far side is the Coromandel Peninsular which I had just ridden around. I was glad of a couple of strips of tape across the top of my visor as I headed north west into the setting sun.

All in all a great way to use 6 hours on a Sunday.
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Ah, the sweet memories! My wife and I rode around NZ on a rented R1200RT 5 years ago. Motorcycle Nirvana
 
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Day 1: Moncton NB to Pictou Lodge. I highly recommend the lodge. Excellent dining experience. Superb service.

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Day 2: Pictou Lodge to Baddeck.

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Day 3: Exploring around Lake Ainslie area. Nice twisties. Good pavement. Little traffic. We did not do the Cabot trail: lots of road work, lots of delays and we have done it many times in the past.

Days 4 and 5: Ride to Sydney, NS to visit grandson

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Day 6: Sydney to Antigonish.

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Day 7: Antigonish to Moncton. Mix of twisties on good pavement, technical riding on fair pavement and highway. Long day, but very manageable with two coffee breaks and late lunch break at the Black Rock Bistro and Cafe (highly recommended) in Parsboro, NS.

Anyway.....that is what I did with my ST last week
 
Bikeric said:
Went to visit friends near Falmouth, got lost and wound up losing the front end on a steep hill dirt-track. Not much damage, but my first tip-over! Duly logged!
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Yeah, I've done that. The ST is not much good on steep dirt and gravel roads; doesn't seem to stop me from trying, though
 
Uncle Festive said:
Yeah, I went off into the windshield threads to read up, what a can of worms! Looks like I’m only going to use it at low speed and I’ll be pulling the mechanism out for preventative maintenance this winter. 400 bucks for replacement, Yikes!
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Welcome, Uncle Festive!
Re: the windshield....I, too, own an '04 ST1300. It has 105,000 kms on it. I have put the windshield up and down about a bazillion times at speeds ranging from 0 kph to 140(+/-) kph. Never a problem. I may have just jinxed myself
 
After many days of rain and/or excessive heat around here we finally had a really nice day today. Needed to get out of the house at least for a little while so went for a short ride around the county on the local country roads... away from traffic. Not very far, just enough to call it a ride. Not even gone for an hour.
 
Just to work and back. I88to I355 north. About 100 miles round trip. Maybe 24 miles of it is nice 2 lane. Other than that nothing worth taking a photo of unless I extend the ride home a bit..
Next trip back from work maybe?
 
The heat wave finally broke so I just went out dubbin around on the back roads. Rode about 150 miles all on 2 lane some with no center lines just as I like. Enjoyed the fresh air sunshine and scenery, and reflected on just what a fine competent sport tourer the ST1300 is. I promise I’ll get some pictures up when I hit some more scenic destinations.
 
Took a 11 mile trip to the grocery store that is 1.4 miles away. 90% of that was getting there... sort of, then straight home to get the eggs and bacon in the fridge right away.
 
This is becoming a habit. I could get used to this. Another beautiful morning starting out around 67*F so took off early for a 29 mile ride around some more country roads. Early for me since I retired is between 7-8 am.
Have to mow the lawn today since the grass is looking a bit shaggy all over. Also have to run to the eye glass store later since my glasses broke (the bow hinge broke) so need a new frame.
.
 
ardykay54 said:
Let's see...….go riding or mow the lawn...….no wonder my grass is two feet tall!!:biggrin: Russ.
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Actually the choices for me is mow lawn or vacuum or do some other thing on the honey do list. She won't let me go for another ride today since I "already went for a ride" today. I actually don't mind doing most of those things on "the list" as long as I planned to do them anyway and not just BECAUSE they are on the list.


BTW- she said the front doesn't really need mowing... yet.
 
Yet another short ride today. Needed to take some hazardous waste (old brake fluid from when I replaced it on my CTX) to the drop off site on the other side of the metro area. Stopped by the dealer to try on a few new jackets for size. They didn't have the TM Intake Air 5 but did have the TM Intake Air 4 in stock so tried those on since sizing really didn't change. Good price on the series 4 they did have but no stock in the color I wanted (gun metal and black). Found out the dealer is having a Ural demo day with demo rides and food on Saturday. They are a dealer for Suzuki, Kawasaki, Triumph, Urals and a few others and carry the most inventory of gear of any other dealership in the area (other than possibly the HD lifestyle dealer just down the street). Took the long way to get to places as usual and ended up with only 57 miles added. Rain was getting close on the weather radar or the ride may have been a little longer.
 
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