ST4sABS
 

Picked up my new yellow wonder yesterday and the weather gods were with me. Sunny all day, fairly warm. Put on about 300 kilos after leaving the dealer at 11. Nice riding and can't wait to get the engine broken in. Did a lot of variation from toll way to back roads and some traffic splitting. ABS is a little spongy, but easy to get used to. Ohlins and Showa combi is great, very compliant on all road surfaces. Seat is good for distance, engine is strong, handling stable, side panniers not too obtrusive and looks are eye-catching. A joy to ride so far. Couple of things though. Seems it has a tendency to kind of spit and quit around 2000 rpm. I can understand that happening when letting out the clutch at slow speed, but when moving and the clutch is pulled in somewhat (like when rolling up to a changing traffic light) it will just spit (sounds like spitting back up the carbs did on older bikes) and quits. New engine?? Next is the clutch and I think I need to work on my wrist muscles or get a servo. Definitely more work than my 750SS. End of the day had me pretty much using all my fingers to pull the lever in. Good fun. Got pulled over by a stealth patrol car. Guys clocked me at 122kmh, but I told them I was doing way more (actually about 165). They laughed and after some more conversation, they let me go with a warning. THink they liked my bike as tit couldn't be my personality. 165 is grounds for pulling my license on the spot! :barfy:

The clutch thing is common to most modern Dukes i think. It can be reduced to some extent by fitting an after market slave cylinder for about £100. The spluttering is something that both my Ducatis did and it was cured by getting the things set up correctly! My ST2 did exactly what you describe (spitting back), you could feel it though the right hand bar and if the tank was up i could see the smoke!

Thanks Paul,
Talked to the dealer about it and he said they do a full set up again at the 1000 km mark after the engine has been broken in a little. He said that usually cures the problem. I am learning how to control it. Otherwise, I just need to get used to splitting traffic with the side panniers on. Kind of like driving a truck!

If you stand behind the bike i think you will find that the widest part is the mirrors so if you can fit them through a gap then the panniers will follow!!

RIght Paul,
I came into work yesterday through a normal day in Tokyo traffic jam....about 12 km all told. Mirror watching did the trick. I feel a little more confident now. Roads are pretty narrow here so the is less leeway for mistake, but the mental image of my space is getting stronger and my time into work was just an hour, only five minutes slower than a normal run. Going home was a cruise at about 140-150....smooth

It took me a while to get used to it James! The biggest problem i have with the panniers is catching my boot on them as I swing my leg over. They do however make rather effective crash bungs if you ever drop the bike.

yep, boots do get in the way. Really have to be a cowboy and mount it on the run! Don't want to hear about crash bungs though:rolleye: Another thing I hav noticed is the cold start performance. Hit the starter and the engine doesn't really catch, but kind of gallaps along for awhile (10 seconds) so that I can then put on the fast idle. Interesting phenomena.

A friend of mine has a simular problem with spit back, this come in at about 3500 rpm, sometimes it is the CO setting which should be reset during the first service.

Happy New Year from Snowy Japan. Came back from California and had a nice snow storm the next day. Kind of precludes riding for a while. SO, I started to wrench on my new ST4. Decided to take the side panniers off for the time being and see what it is like to ride without having to worry about a big butt.
Anyway, pulling the beast out of my very narrow bike garage, I popped the left mirror off while I was watching to the rear. It seems there would be two springs to this but I only found one. Is this a repairable accident if the spring can be found. If so, any tips on how it is done?

Next, I decided that was not so bad, and continued with the original task. Did the right side alright (a little cold outside though) and moved over to the left. Pulled the screws from the pannier bracket at the bottom on the passenger peg and then undid the exhaust muffler. Tried to bolt that back up to the original bracket and the screw would not go in very easily. Not wanting to strip anything, I pulled it out, moved the exhaust hanger out of the way and inspected the threads in the bracket.....basically very stripped all the way to the other side! I did not even get that far on the initial turns, so I think this was done when mounting the panniers before I picked up the bike at the dealer. Anyone have this kind of problem?

Cheers ( I want to ride this thing while I still have some New Year vacation left!)

Mine dont line up that well and i read a road test in Bike it might have been where they couldnt raise the cans because the holes were so far out of alignment.