Behold...my new acquisition!

As I'm a sucker for V4 Honda's I just added a new one to the fleet/herd. I flew to Christchurch on Friday and collected a well used 2005 ST1300, price was right and adventure was calling! I had a great Friday afternoon ride around Lyttleton Harbour with my brother in law Rob, on his nice VF1000FII, then spent the night at his house near Rangiora.

With Rob, Port Levy

Saturday was the start of the journey home on a cool and occasionally frosty morning but lovely weather, and I rode the inland alpine route from Rangiora to Kaikoura, then around the coast to Blenheim. The Picton ferry was delayed by nearly 3 hours so I had a spin out towards French Pass in the Marlborough Sounds, great riding and I will have to come back again one day.

At Mt Lyford


The road to French Pass

The ferry docked in darkness around 9pm and I then had a dry but blustery run in the dark some 200km to Whanganui, arriving in the motel after 11pm and pretty buggered. I was on the road again at 8am and had a cool and drizzly start through the Paraparas but the sun came out from National Park and I had a "spirited" ride home through some fabulously twisty roads, avoiding the main highways for the most part. Arrived home at 3pm and started the cleanup process.

SH22, 2 hours from home

After the first decent bath in a number of years...

The bike has 110,000km but runs very nicely, suspension is tired and one seal is leaking, and the rear brake is a little draggy but that's all I've found so far. The engine is very smooth running and sounds great. Looking forward to many happy hours in the Mancave bringing this machine back to its best.

 

Beautiful bike!

I wish we had roads like that in Texas. Nothing but straight lines around here.

 

If you like corners, come here! Not good for tyre wear but the smiles/mile ratio is high. There are some roads here where you actually find yourself wishing for a straight or at least some sweepers to break the unending run of tight curves; the Forgotten World Highway is a fine example. First world problems I guess. We also have a suprisingly high vehicle accident rate, and few proper divided highways away from cities. Darwin would understand.

 

Nice color i have one to

 

Awesome Terry congratulations.
Have you recently expanded the garage to suite your expanding bike collection? Have driven some of those South Island roads. Funny, my partner said to me if she had a dollar for every time I said "wish I had the VFR here" she'd be a millionare! No doubt about it, both North and South Islands are prime VFR country.
Enjoy the ST Terry.
Cheers.

 

Thanks Graham; don't tell my wife but yes I do have more bikes than before, all acquired in the last two years. Bluejay the Vespa had to migrate to the main garage alongside my car, which leaves room for the three real bikes in the Mancave, Marvin the MT-10SP, Bumblebee (yellow 99 VFR) and now Nozomi (the ST1300). I definitely have a bike for every occasion now except for off-road; hmmm...

The 1300 is currently in a state of disassembly as I address some deferred maintenance; valve clearances were out of spec (tight) on 3 exhaust valves, the starter valves need a synch and I have a replacement thermostat on order. While the valve access is easy, getting to the cam tensioner for the right bank is horrid, it lives in the V below the throttle bodies and lots of coolant hoses...that may be tonight's job. Based on the state of things I suspect the airbox may never have come off before, and I had to drill out one screw so far. Even a JIS screwdriver couldn't move it.

The leaking fork seal turned out to be an assembly boo-boo (upside down, BTDT myself many years ago) but the bushings were worn and the inside of the fork was ghastly black, dirty and smelly so it needed attention. The brake issue became bigger than planned when I cross-threaded a sliding pin in the calliper, and had to source a 2nd-hand replacement, and I still think I need some better front pads as the current Goldfrens get a bit wimpy when hot.

I have had some really good rides on the 1300, last weekend I did 520km and had an absolute blast, and in great comfort.