My twenty one years old Honda ST1100 Pan Euro. I want to like her – in fact I do like her for there are some things she is absolutely brilliant at. As a main road charger she can be sublime – some of the time – but unfortunately – not all of the time.
The fact that she carries a lot of her weight in her fat butt doesn’t help.
Instead of being up-front – the heavy 28 litre capacity fuel tank is mainly under the seat. Only the filler cap is hiding under that shiny little lockable flap where most bikes carry their fuel.
Her huge old fashioned heavyweight battery – it would probably start a tractor – nestles behind a panel under the rider’s left bum cheek.
Add the well fed rider and carry an occasional pillion – or a weekly shop from Aldi in the panniers and there’s a lot of weight for the tired old single shock fitted under the rider’s right cheek to handle. I like my corners – but not with sparks flying from some heavy metal down below when the saggy-ass Pan is heeled over.
Which is why I’m out on the Tenere today —
riding my favourite back roads including the dirt track down to Otter’s Pool —
where I contemplate the cost of having to order a new shock for the Pan.
The sun may be shining on the righteous – but it’s bl**dy freezing out here 🙂
from-a-distance 