Honda STX1300 (ST1300) Pan European Owner's Review

You are the proud owner of the ultra-sophisticated sports tourer Honda STX1300 (ST1300) Pan European. The following is a journal of your thoughts as you ride your STX for work, play and touring.

“Damn. Looks like I am going to be late again for this morning’s 9.00 am meeting with the department managers.” “Jessie, tell them we’ll start at 9.30 am”, you called your personal assistant.

Next, standing in front of the mirror, you select your dressing for the day: tie, cuff links, belt, leather shoes and chrono. “Hmm…Ok, today I’ll ride to work. The car stays behind.” You picked your helmet and the STX’s HISS ignition key and you are off to work.

Commuting to Work

The handsome, magnificent and futuristic sight of your STX greets you. From a distance, the STX looks ready to morph into a Transformer.

Unlike most other bikes, the STX’s side boxes are designed together with the bike, flushed and beautifully blended in. It’s triangular shape gives a larger space than Givi side boxes and can take in a full-faced helmet and riding jacket. It can also fit in most laptops.

Press the Start button, and the bullet-proof STX engine gets fired up once again. There is this electric-motor like whirring sound from the engine compartment. But this is not the STX’s V4 1,300cc engine sound. The sophisticated STX’s engine is too quiet at idling and you can’t hear it.

The STX is comfortable to ride, eager to steer, sporty and stops well.

It takes less effort than you expect to upright the 300kg STX. Even though the STX has a huge 29 litre fuel tank (to give it a near-500km range), thanks to Honda’s mass centralization principle in their bike design, 9 litres are hidden at the bottom of the bike, leaving only 20 litre of fuel at the usual fuel tank on top: not much more than the Fazers, Hornets and VFRs. The weight of the STX is noticable only when you manually push the STX around in the parking area.

You engage its slick light gear box into first gear. There is this surprising lack of any “clonk” sound that you hear from most other bikes. Yet another touch of quality on the STX. You turn the throttle slightly, the rev starts to climb and you can make out the low, quiet, deep burble-burble of the STX’s V4. It sounds like the other Honda V4 engine (VFR) and sounds a bit like a twin engine.

As soon as the STX starts moving, all its weight magically disappears completely and it feels lighter than most 200kg street bikes. As you make your way to your usual route to the office, you make left turns, right junction turns and U-turns. The STX is so willing to please you to lean over to turn. Its turning radius is also smaller than most 1,000cc bikes.

While waiting next to you at the traffic light, there are a factory worker riding a Honda wave and a sports bike rider. With the 1,300 cc engine between your knees, it is a little warm but it is not hot at all compared to many other 1,000 cc bikes. From your side glance, you can see that the factory worker can’t peel his eyes of your bike as he stares admiring at the body work of your STX. The sports bike rider is in a world of his own. His bike engine and exhaust producing noisy done and disturbing the people around him. Your STX 1,300 cc engine by comparison, is barely a whisper. But you know by now powerful is the one who can command with a whisper and not having to shout. Moreover, what matters in life, it is not how much horsepower your engine has, but how much you have in your bank account.

The traffic light turns green and the sports bike is off as he redlines his first gear. “Impractical people riding impractical bikes.” With only a gentle turn of your throttle, before the next traffic light, the rest of the traffic previously beside you are left half-a-world behind you.

Along the Expressway

As you hit the ECP expressway, it is peak hour traffic again. Traffic is slow moving. The STX may look huge, but it is really easy to squeeze in between the traffic if you want to. This is because it’s side boxes are flushed in, so they are narrower than other bikes’. The side mirrors also serve as a good guide to help you judge safe passage.

But today, you are not in the mood to squeeze traffic. What is the hurry? After all, you are not a courier. You are the senior person in the meeting. They aren’t going to start the meeting without you. “It’s alright. Let them wait.” You take up a lane and just follow the car, using the strong pulling torque of the 1,300cc engine pull you along in its 5^th highest gear from as long as 2,000 cc rpm, just a tick from idling rev.

As you start to ride at a more brisk pace on the rightmost overtaking lane, the cars in front of you start to change to their left inner lane and give way to you. You wonder is it because of your bikes huge presence and bright headlights that intimidated the car drivers or is it the drivers mistaken you for a traffic police bike?

Of course, occasionally, there are some car drivers who are road hogging and oblivious to your presence behind them. But you do not get flustered by these drivers but you sympathized with them. “Pity these poor souls, driving cars so small with an engine that is the smaller cc than your bike!” Without the need to drop from its tallest 5^th gear, you twist the throttle and over take these cars with ease.

Just then, the brake lights of the car in front of you suddenly flashed red!!! The car in front brakes hard. Oh, no can you brake in time without slamming into the rear of the car?

No worries, the STX comes with an advanced Combined Braking System that links and balances the front and rear wheel braking effort for you. It gives you great worry-free ability to stop the STX. And on road emergency riding situation like this, it cuts your road emergency stopping distance by half. All you need is just one-two finger effort, you squeeze the brake lever and the STX brake system brakes hard and brings your STX to a stop. The STX also comes with ABS. But like the lawyers that you have, you hope you never have to use it.

Pillion Seating

You managed to get a date with the young fresh graduate who has just joined your firm. The thought of going on a date with you on a motorcycle both excites and worries her. “Don’t worry, it is not dangerous and it will be comfortable,” you assure her. She gets a comfortable ride on the broad rear pillion seat. You raise the windscreen to shield her from the windblast and she arrives at the restaurant neat, composed and not disheveled. Along the way, you noticed that she uses the large and vibration-free side mirrors of the STX to check her looks and make-up. The evening was great and the ride went as you promised. Things are going your way: she has agreed to your next date.

With its good looks and comfortable rear perch, the STX gets the babe.

Trunk Road Riding

The STX is at home on twisty trunk roads and shows its sports touring capabilities.

Surprisingly, the STX is very agile and loves to tackle corners. The quick steering and willingness of the STX to lean over reminded you of the Honda CBR954 FireBlade, the sport bike of the time when STX was first conceived in 2002. The FireBlade might have influenced the STX design from the aggressive headlight looks, to the steep steering angle and relatively short wheel base.

The Honda CBR954 FireBlade.
Note the similarity of its headlight design with the STX's.
The 954 excelled in agility, braking, control and finese over brute power and top speed.

You look forward to seeing corners and bends coming up. The STX has a great riding position where the handle bars is near and below you, almost sports bike like. You find yourself ducking below the windscreen and assumed a sports-bike like prone position and sliding sideways out of the smooth seat to counter steer the STX down, once again scraping your toes against the tarmac.

The V4 displays its sporty part of its range. From a gentleman, it transforms into a fighter. The V4 shows it means business when the rev climbs above 4,000. And when it hits 6,000 rpm, it gets angry and gives a unique deep throaty V4 growl, almost MotorGP like. The V4 loves to climb the rev range and with its linear torque and a light smooth gearbox and clutch, you find yourself playing the rev and the gears as you tackle corner to corner. The quickest bike is the one with the ability to stop best, the mantra goes. And the STX’s quick stopping power allows you to fully utilize its V4 power to go fast and remained confident of stopping in time.

NorthSouth Highway Riding

Some bikes make you look forward to the excitement of trunk road riding but makes the long NorthSouth riding boring and even uncomfortable. The STX is a bike that lets you play with trunk roads and also makes long NorthSouth riding a pleasure.

The electrically adjustable windscreen, the broad comfortable seat and the great riding position all contribute to allow you to ride all day long and yet remain fresh, composed and alert when you get to your destination.

The STX’s engine is optimized for cruising speed from 90 to 180kmh. While it’s top speed is around 240kmh, it takes a while to get there from 180. Between 90 to180, the STX has great acceleration power. Sure, there are other bikes that have more power at above 180 speeds, but with all the travel around you, it would be foolhardy and risky to travel at such speeds for long distances.

The STX gives a plush luxurious feel. It is Mercedes Benz of motorcycle. At the press of the button on your left hand, the STX’s windshield glides up. All of a sudden, all the wind noise and windblast gets shut off, just like in a car, when you wind up the car window. In this quietness, you can now hear the low gentle drone of the V4 pulling at 3.4k rpm at 100kmh, barely breaking a sweat. No, at this speed, you still can’t feel any vibrations from the engine. The STX can be Lexus quiet and smooth.

The STX has many nice touches such as two very useful pockets in the front fairing. The STX has an on-board compute that tells you everything from the outside air temperature, to the fuel consumption at that moment and the remaining distance to dry tank once the reserve light is on. After all, the STX is about excesses and refinement.

STX1300, the Lexus of motorcycling.

Parting Shots

I named my STX, Vice.

Why vICE?
Because:
- It's V-shaped headlight looks inspire a name starting with V.
- It's such a cool bike, it needs a cool name. (My previous bike had a cool name too. It was called Frost).
- The STX has a solid build to it. It feels like the vice that you use to clamp your works during your technical classes.



The Japanese Gatsby Commercial



I was told it was performed by some famouse japanese actor.
But I think he looks so gay in the ad.

Original Performance

Play and dance along to the cheesy Gatsby song in its original form.
Thanks to Angkuguay.blogspot.com for pointing out.

Yamaha Fazer1000 versus FZ1 Comparison Review

The Fazer is considered by many to be one of the best and affordable all-rounder bike.
The Fazer1000 (above in silver) was the previous model and the FZ1 (above in red) is the current model.

This comparison may especially be of interest to you if you are thinking of buying either a used Fazer1000, or a FZ1 (new or used).

Newer of course better lah! This is no brainer what.
You can save your Fazer comparison test report liao.

Wait, wait, wait. Newer doesn't always necessarily mean better.
Son, life is not so simple understand?!

You know the meaning of trade-off?
It means that if you are good in one thing, you may have to compromise on some other aspect.
Don't understand?
Let me think think...Ah, I give you example and you will understand.

It is like girls, you know.
Girls who are thin, usually have no big breasts.
Girls who are good looking, usually need to spend more time and money, of theirs and yours, to maintain their looks.
Girls who are rich (because of their own career), have little time for you.
And girls who are rich (because of her parents' money) and beautiful, don't marry you.

U understand liao?

So comparing the old Fazer (Fazer1000) versus the new Fazer (FZ1) is like this.
There is no perfect bike out there, just like there is no perfect girls out there.
You pick the one that is most suited to you.

Overall Conclusion

The types of condition that I test-rode the two different Fazers for an hour were through slow traffic and fast, through twisty trunk roads.

I will begin by telling you my overall conclusion first.

If you like to do lots of long distance touring that requires riding through the NorthSouth Highway, the previous Fazer1000 is a more comfortable touring bike. If you like to play road corners going in fast and low, and like to do once-in-a-blue-moon track riding, then the FZ1 is a more sporty bike.

Power Characteristics

I hear Ah Tan, the Mr-Know-It-All starts to say:

Of course the newer FZ1 more powerful lah, it's got more horsepower what.
The Fazer1000 makes less horsepower.

Yes, on paper it is like this.
If it all comes down to the more-horsepower-wins, then don't need so many engineers and scientists in MotorGP and Formula F1 liao. Just build the bike and car with the most horsepower wins.

But it is like this, you see. It is not so simple.
Especially for road riding, away-from-track riding.

A large factor depends on how much and when the torque is delivered.
Other factors include the gear ratios, gear box and clutch swift.
And also the brake system to control the power.

The Fazer1000 is a slightly more "torquey" bike. Meaning that it delivers higher torque at a lower rpm, than the FZ1. For instance, to get the same speed on the FZ1, you need 1,000 more rpm than the Fazer1000. The Fazer1000 builds up a mountain of torque from 5,000 to 8,000 rpm. Because of the strong mid-range torque of Fazer1000, it is a bike that you can just stick to one gear and you rarely need to change gear.

But the FZ1 can rev to a higher rpm. It is also much more willing to rev than the Fazer1000.
The FZ1 engine behaves like a sports bike engine. It is very willing to rev high, rev low and you can pull its rev across the rev range (10,000 rpm) like a big rubber band. So it is a very fun sporty engine. And to overtake, you play with the slick light gearbox to drop 1-2 gears.

The Fazer1000 is carburetted-fueled whereas the FZ1 is electronically fuel-injected.
Because of this, you need slightly longer time to crank up the Fazer1000 from cold.
But with carbs, it is almost fail-proof, and good for riding into uncharted territories.
The fuel injected FZ1 gives more instantaneous response at low rev.
The FZ1 I rode is of 2006 model and I found it's infamous snatch at about 4,000-5,000 rpm which many bike magazines complained about.

You can find it when at that rpm, you roll off your throttle, pause a while, and then turn it back on. The bike response by pausing a while...and then just as you thought when is the power going to come back on again, it gives a slight tug forward.

Having said that, I must say that is is really more an imperfection than a factor that is so severe that should deter you from getting the FZ1 if you really like it. If I don't consciously find it, I can't notice it. When I found it, I could live with it. It's alright. It's not a big deal.

















The FZ1 (red) feels like a sportsbike without fairing.
When you ride the Fazer1000 (silver) fast, you feel like a traffic police.


Brake System Characteristics

Both bikes inherit brake systems from the R1 sports bike of their respective time. Actually, same also for the engines.

The Fazer1000 already has strong brakes. But I just love the FZ1 brake feel much more. Maybe because it needs even less effort to brake hard. Possibly the effect of a larger master cylinder rather than due to bigger discs.

Handling Characteristics

There goes Ah Tan again:

Of course the FZ1 easier to turn lah. Because it is lighter and got a shorter wheelbase what!

Dear Mr Tan, you are wrong again. It is not so simple.

The surprising thing is, when you ride the Fazer1000, you need less effort to turn it than the newer and more sporty FZ1.

How come like this?

This is because the Fazer1000 has wider handlebars. So with the principle of leverage in physics to assist you, it takes the rider very little effort to turn the front wheel of the Fazer1000. You don't really feel the weight difference of the bikes when riding on the road.

Then why make the FZ1 harder to turn?
You do need to exert slightly more effort to turn the handle bars of the FZ1. But the FZ1, I realised, is designed to be ridden and turned like a sport bike. That is, you wriggle your body side-to-side, or even slide your butt off the slippery seat to hang off, when attacking the corners fast. The same stance when you are like riding a sport bike.

Whereas on the Fazer1000, you ride it upright and turn the bike with your body pretty much upright. The same stance when you are like riding a ST1100 or BMW.

When you do your sport riding stance right on the FZ1, it gives a very rewarding feel when you rush through the corners. The bike feels more precise and stable when going through corners fast. And due to its shorter wheelbase, it is easier and faster to change its direction mid-corner compared to the Fazer1000.

For the suspension, the Fazer1000 has a rear suspension that is a tat too soft. I counter this problem by raising (hardening) my rear preload from one click from max. And it works fine since. The front suspension of Fazer1000 is fine.

For the FZ1, its suspension is harder than Fazer1000. It is a bit on the hard side, but it is not as hard and harsh like a true sports bike. Between the VFR and FZ1, I think the FZ1 has a harder suspension.


Comfort

This is the department that Fazer1000 wins hands-down.
Once you get onto the bike and sit down, its big cushy soft seat allows you to sink down and go 'Ahhhhhh, so comfortable'.

The FZ1 bike is harder and does not sink in.

In the Fazer1000, you ride it almost upright and you see the road ahead with your head level. The grip is at chest level, like a BMW bike. Your hands are on at a 'puppy-beg' position.

On the FZ1, your body is leaned forward. Your head has to tilt up somewhat. The lean is no so severe like a full-fledge sport bike and you wouldn't get hand aches or palm numbness. If you were not previously riding a leaned-forward bike, you might experience some neck-ache initially. But it should go away in due time as you get more used to the bike.

I find the leg positions for both bikes alright.

The ability of to take windblast of the rider for both bikes, depends very much on the type of windshields that you install. I think for bth bikes, the stock windshields should allow you to ride comfortably up to speeds of 130-150 kmh. For both bikes, there should be a greater variety of aftermarket windshields for you to choose from.

















That's it. To sum up:
You would want to take the silver Fazer1000 when you ride on the NorthSouth.
And you would want to take the red FZ1 when attacking the trunk roads.

















Thanks to AC_Devil64, the slim and bubbly lady owner of the nice looking red FZ1 for lending me to ride her lovely bike!

Parting Shots

Here are some pictures of this really low-passing, brewing angry storm clouds, off Kupkup in Malaysia.





In life, every now and then, and once-too-often, we tend to experienced storms.

But remember, the best thing is,

It can't rain forever.
And after each rain, there is a beautiful sunshine that awaits you.

Picture is courtesy of BornFree.