Full ST Membership.

[Keith W Peters <keith_peters@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Last Friday I picked up my blue ST. The wait is finally over. 

After around 160 miles I thought I would give my initial impressions.

1. On collection the dealer had made a 1cm scratch on the left hand fairing
upper. They pointed this out to me and said they would change the fairing
at the first service.

2. After all the talk of the gear box being tight from first gear over the
last few weeks I was more than pleased to find mine very easy to use. The
shift from third to fourth occasionaly refused to move but a reduction in
speed followed by a quick burst allows the change to go ahead. At around 80
miles this reluctant change seems to have gone away. If the gear box gets
better with more miles mine should be like a hot knife through butter.

3. The pannier straps holding the two sections together was not connected,
thus when I open the right pannier it falls onto the hot exhaust. The wife
thinks they are too wide as she is quite short she keeps kicking the right
on as she gets on. Maybe she just needs the practice. 

4. The Scottoiler does not work. As I am not too technical I think this has
something to do with no oil being in the system. The dealer also forgot to
give my the oil and instructions for it. This should be solved tonight as I
ordered some oil and instructions from Scottoiler. I will ask my dealer for
more oil when I get the service done. The system need moving, hence my
other mails asking about fairing and grab handles as they have put it in a
place which does not allow me to change the flow rate without removing the
sides of the bike.

5. The suspension. Yesterday I took the wife out for a spin. As per the
hand book I adjusted the settings. What an easy job, NOT. The idea of
poking a screwdriver in a tiny hole while trying to see the screw inside is
not much fun. Why, oh why did they not give the adjuster a knob which would
be easier to turn as I can see in time that the screw may become damaged as
you have to do it be feel and not sight. Maybe I used the wrong tool but
adjusting the front pre-load has caused a few scuffs at the top of the
forks as the screwdriver kept slipping and scaring the top of the forks. I
will look in the tool kit tonight to just check if I should have used
something else, otherwise I may keep the two up settings all the time.

Apart from these few areas of concern the bike is a real joy. 160 miles is
a lot less than I was hoping to do but what a great feeling of being able
to put the bike away knowing that I can now pick and choose when to go out
and play. Returning to biking after twelve years away on what seems to be
such a good bike, life can't be too bad. 

As most owners seem to have names for their bikes I thought I would have to
come up with one for mine, but it just came to me. I bought the bike with
panniers and the rear mudguard extention. With the panniers on the
extention does not look too bad, however with them off the tail looks
really long. I thought to myself 'wow thats a long tail' when I viewed the
bike from the back without the panniers on. 'Long Tail' maybe a strange
name for the bike but it just seems to fit.

Now for a dawg name, maybe I could claim 'Cymraeg Dawg' to show my Welsh
origins.

Glad to now be a full time part of the pack.


Keith W Peters
Senior Systems Engineer

Brother Industries (UK) Limited
Vauxhall Industrial Estate
Ruabon, Wrexham. LL14 6HA. UK

Tel:	+44 (0)1978 813465
Fax: 	+44 (0)1978 813495

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