My lovely wife, for Valentine's Day 2010, upon discovering that I had identified a 2007 ST1300A ("A" for Anti-lock brakes), significantly upgraded by the owner and ridden less than 3k miles, said "Get it...NOW." So I did. As you can see, she's a beauty. As you can also see, I am writing this months later. The ST is now up to just over 8k miles, over 1400 of them collected last weekend on a trip to Los Alamos, NM and back between Friday noon and 9:30pm Sunday. WOW! What a difference. She is a magic carpet.
I cannot in one sitting cover all that has transpired since February. That will dribble out in future posts...but I will say that after 3 years on my Shadow 1100, it took me a little while to get used to the ST. I even wondered at times if we would become great friends. I have pampered and further upgraded her over the last few months...an exercise that has even involved re-doing a couple of the upgrades already done that were not up to snuff or even counter-productive. Despite all that...we just weren't quite comfortable with each other. I found her impressive in virtually every regard...but we were not quite in sync.
Two weekends before leaving for Los Alamos, she got one key additional upgrade. I removed the HeliBars Gen2 handlebar risers and installed the Gen3 versions. Huge difference! Now we were ready to travel. I was no longer having to spend most of my time resting my weight on my palms thanks to more than an inch more rise, over an inch more pull-back and a better wrist angle. So... I was more comfortable...physically at least... Was she?
There has been an interesting development since we got back. She shifts better. Significantly better. Smoother. Nice. Not bad before, but much nicer now. OK, so she needed a while for break-in...and may benefit from more yet...is that it?
No. I think STella and I are well on our way to becoming great friends now. What happened? I think maybe she wasn't sure I was willing to let her be who she is...and last weekend I did. She loves to run...for hours...for hundreds of miles. Maybe she didn't think I could keep up. I did. We had a great time together...flying down empty New Mexico desert two lane highways, climbing into the mountain curves and on Sunday swinging easily through central Texas hill country curves on our way home. We had a great time...and have more adventures to come.
