st ride sixteen days i had put off test driving the honda st finally the th was a saturday without much rain in fact it cleared up became warm and sunny and the wind died about three weeks ago i took a long cool ride on the hawk down to cycles for a test ride they had sold and delivered the demo st about fifteen hours before i arrived and the demo vfr was bike locked in the showroom surrounded by other bikes and not likely to move soon today was different there were even more bikes used dirt bikes used street bikes cars and a big tent full of outlandishly fat touring bikes with trailers were all squeezed in the parking lot some sort of fat bike convention shelly and dave were running one msf course each at the same time one in the classroom and one on the back lot plus there was the usuall free cookout food that cycles gives away every weekend in the summer hmmm it seemed like a big moto party after about ten minutes of looking for rob c cheif of sales slime and another minutes reading and signing a long disclosure libility pray to god form i helped jt push the st out into the mess in the parking lot we went over the the controls i put the tank bag from the hawk into the right saddlebag and my wife put everything else into the left saddlebag thats nice having helped push the st out to the lot i thought it best to have jt move it to the edge of the road away from the bikes and people he rode it like a bicycle it cant be that heavy i thought well i was wrong as i sat on the st both feet down all i could think was big then i put one foot up heavy came to mind very quickly with cindy on the back was she on the back hard to tell with seat three times as large as a hawk seat the bike seemed nearly out of control just idling on the side of the road by rpm in second gear all the weight seemed to dissappear even on bike with miles on the odometer slippery new tires and pads that did not yet bite the disks things seems smooth and sure cycles is on a section of that few folks ever ride about miles north of the computer concentration about five miles north of where i splits away is a lighly travelled two lane limited access highway it goes through heavily forested sections of hamilton manchester by the sea and newbury on its way to gloucester on its way there it meets a road that winds from the sea about miles inland to andover on its way it goes through many thoroughly new england spots perfect if slow sport touring sections cindy has no difficulty with speed rd gear th gear purring along in top gear this thing has less low rpm grunt that my hawk lane changes were a new experience a big heft is required to move this thing responds well though no wallowing or complaint behind the fairing it was fairly quiet but the helmet buffeting was non trivial top gear car passing at mph was nearly effortless smooth smooth smooth not sure what the v sound reminds me of but it is pleasant if only the bars were not transmitting an endless buzz the jump on to caused me to be less than impressed with the brakes its a down hill reversing camber twice reversing radius decreasing radius turn a real squeeze is needed on the front binder the section of we were on was tight but too urban the st works ok in this section but it shows its weight we went by the clam shack oft featured in spencer for hire a place where you could really find spencer his house was about miles down after putting through traffic for a while we turned and went back to about half way through the onramp i yanked cindy s wrist our singal for hold on tight head check left time to find redline second gear gives a good shove third too fourth sees dod speed with a short shift into top on the way to we saw no cops and very light traffic did not cross into dod zone because the bike was too new well now it had miles on it so it was ok tried some high effort lane changes some wide sweeping turns time to wick it up i went until the buffeting was threating to pull us off the seat and stayed there when i was comfortable with the wind and the steering i looked down to find an indicated mph not bad for up touring beverly comes fast at more than twice the posted limit at the get off in a mile sign i rolled off the throttle and coasted i wanted to re adjust to the coming slowness it was a good idea there were several manhole sized patches of sand on the exit ramp back to the slow and heavy behavior cycles is about a mile from i could see even more cars stacked up outside right when i got off i managed to thread the st through the cars to the edge of the concrete pad out front heavy it took way too much effort for cindy and i to put the thing on the center stand i am sure that if i used the side stand the st would have been on its side within a minute my demo opinion heavy put it on a diet smooth comfortable hardly notices the dod speed i d buy on for about less than list just like it is too much for the bike as it is frank evan perdicaro xyvision color systems legalize guns drugs and cash today edgewater drive inhouse frank marvin x wakefield ma outhouse frank contex com x
