After four years without a motorcycle
I bought a Triumph Sprint ST on July 30th, 2003 with 13,644 miles on it. It
is now one year later and it is currently has 28,019 miles on it.
Taken August 16th, 2003 - NJ
When looking for a bike I also considered,
- Honda VFR (I had previously owned two VFR's and you cannot get factory hard
luggage for a 1999)
- Aprilia Futura (More than I wanted to spend and I was worried I would get
tired of the styling)
- Ducati ST4 (Great bike but too expensive)
- BMW R1000S (I rode a Rockster and did not get along with the engine)
I was looking for a bike that was an all rounder and a good compromise. A sport-tourer
with an emphasis on sport, something I could ride long distances on twisty roads
and have fun doing it. When the Sprint ST was designed it was aimed squarely at the VFR. I believe
it has more character and that its best asset is its three cylinder engine.
You can read many reviews of the Sprint ST on triumphnet.com.
I have only made a few changes to my Sprint. The first thing I bought was a
set of soft panniers. I would have preferred hard bags but I have to say these
bags have been great with their body protectors and built in rain covers. The
next thing I did was to put Race Tech cartridge emulators and springs in the forks. These
have made a huge difference to my confidence in the front end. The only problem
is that now the crappy damping of the stock shock is more obvious. The third change I made was to install SkyKing frame sliders. I said I was going to get these when I got the bike but
it took a 0 mph drop for me to get them. Finally when it was time to
put a new chain on the bike I changed the gearing to 18/45. 1st and 2nd gear are
now much peppier and it only adds a few 100 rpm on the highway.
Taken June 24th, 2004 - NC
Like any bike the Sprint ST is not perfect. My biggest complaint is that I wish
they had put a better rear shock and forks on the bike. For the most part the
ST is very reliable but there have been a few unexpected problems (see below).
For me the trade off in extra character over something like the VFR is worth
it.
So far the valves, which are shim and bucket, have never needed adjusting (I had them checked at 28,000 miles). I have also been impressed with the fuel economy and range of this bike. On a trip down south that was a mix of all types of riding the worst I saw for a tank was 43mpg and the best was 52mpg. Usually I get about 45mpg which gives 214 miles until the light comes on and 250 miles until pushing becomes necessary.
I have ridden 12 hour days on twisty roads, 1025 miles of highway in 18 hours
and done a track day. I am happy with my choice.
Problems
- Around the middle of May, 2004 I thought I smelt gas a few times. I was starting
to think I was imagining it until a friend said he could definitely smell gas.
Since I had taken the tank off a few weeks before I thought it was probably the
infamous quick disconnect fuel fittings. I was about to go on a three day trip
so on 5/20/2004 (approx 21,000 miles) I decided to have a look. The fuel fittings
were fine and I was tempted to leave it at that but decided to take the tank
off. What I found was that the bottom of the fuel gauge sender was leaking onto
the engine! After a little research I discovered that this was the third sender
that had been on this bike. The original was replaced because it was not accurate.
The next one was replaced under recall because the sheathing around the wires
had be left in place when the wire was epoxied and this leads to leaking. Now
a few years later the third sender was leaking. No dealers had one in stock so
I ended up re-epoxying it all the way out to the edges. Update 8/12/04
After 7000 and 2.5 months the sender started leaking again. The gas ate through the epoxy that I used.
- At about 22,600 miles I started to feel a few strange impulses from the front
end. I thought this was a suspension problem at first. Then it was fine for
a while but 300 odd miles later a constant vibration set in. If I pulled in
the clutch and coasted I could feel regular impulses. I was able to get the
bike home but one of the front wheel bearings was toast.
- At about 23,400 miles I noticed that the exhaust had gotten louder. It turns
out that the bracket that is welded to the back of the exhaust header was no
longer attached. Two of the welds had ripped out and part of the bracket had
cracked. Triumph wanted $960 for a new one! I removed the header and had it
welded. When I went to put it back together I found out what the problem was.
When putting the exhaust can on I had to force it a 1/4" forward to get
the bolt to line up. This means that the header always has a forward force on
it.
- At about 26,200 miles I noticed that oil was leaking from around the clutch
arm where it enters the right hand side engine casing.
- When fixing the above two problems at 27,647 miles I discovered oil on the
bottom left hand fairing. Once I removed the lower fairing I discovered that
one of the bolts that holds the engine cases together had vibrated loose. If
it was not for the radiator hose below it, it would have vibrated all the way
out and all the engine oil would have drained out! It turns out that there was a recall to replace all the bolts that hold the two engine cases together. So either the dealer did not torque this bolt properly or they did not replace this one bolt since they would need to drain the coolant to get to it.
- After did the above repairs I thought I could smell antifreeze but could see no leak. A few hundred miles later the radiator started leaking. Even though I was careful I assumed I must have damaged the radiator. However after cleaning the radiator and running the bike I discovered that the fins were not damaged in the area that was leaking. It turns out that there was a problem with some radiators on 99 ST's that would cause them to crack. Quite a few people had them replaced under warranty by Triumph and the issue was fixed on later bikes. I believe that removing and replacing the radiator flexed it enough to aggravate this defect.
Update 8/12/04
- At around 24,000 miles I started to notice that the damping on the rear shock was failing. By about 27,500 miles it had gotten so bad that I no longer felt comfortable riding briskly. So on 8/12/2004 at 28,268 miles I replaced it with a used stock unit with 8,000 miles on it.
Update 8/14/04
- On the morning of August 14th (28,335 miles) I went to leave for a two day trip. As I went to push the bike off its center stand it died. I wiggled the key and got the lights to come back on started it up again and went to push it of the stand and it died again. Then I could only get the lights to come on if I turned the steering all the way to the left. I figured it was a short or a loose connection so tugged on a few wires. After doing this the lights would not come on at all. I was almost ready to give up when I pulled back the sheath around the wires going into the ignition switch and saw that two of the wires were cut. There was a recall to re-route the wires to the ignition switch on some ST's because of this exact problem. The original owner told me that the ignition switch was changed to try and cure another problem (I have two keys). I still do not know if the wires were routed properly when the dealer installed this switch.
