Honda ST1300 (ST1300) reviews

This machine is what I've been waiting for. It's a "ride-all-day" affair in terms of comfort and handling. The highway performance is super! You are in control on this agile, powerful, well balanced tourer. Everywhere I go people want me to stop and tell them about my '1300. I took delivery about five weeks ago and already have many miles of pure joy to recall. Show less

Picked up my new blue 2004 a few days ago. My last bike was an 1100 shadow. What a difference!! Very smooth, comfortable and powerful. Sort of hard to keep it at 70. I've read some people talking about heat issues, well I can tell you it is not a problem. It was around 90 degrees today and the bike felt and handled great. Very happy with my new bike. Show less

ST 1300 is pretty excellent machine for such a heavy girl. My only complaint is the cheap soft paint Honda puts on an otherwise excellent motorcycle. Will post new findings as time goes by. Show less

I have been riding Honda's for ever and this is the best one so far. I own a 03 and now thinking of trading in for an 04. No complaints. Show less

I have owned alot of bikes everything from a Goldwing to a CBR 1000F to a Ninja ZX-11. This is the best bike I have ever had the pleasure of owning. It starts so easily with assistance from the EFI, which means "no manual choke"!! I was amazed when I found out that it came with an adjustable seat, good job Honda. It runs very responsive, strong and smooth, and has plenty of acceleration that causes you to smile!!! I can see why they're so hard to find at the dealerships. Show less

Chances are you've seen quite a number of reviews of this bike from various mags and clubs. I can't say I have read anything that I don't agree with within whatever context it was put. I must say, I have never read a thing negative, so if it's out there, I am not agreeing with it, but I'd like to read it. This is just a plain good motorcycle. The Yamaha FJR seems to be the standard, but in the same breath everyone says, "unless you prefer the touring bendt". One of my riding pals has an FJR. we each appreciate the other's bike. As I am not reviewing the FJR I will not argue for it here. I think I made the correct choice with the ST1300. If you bought this bike for a thirty minute hrill ride now and again, you are a fool, and should carefully study each word of the phrase, "a fool and his money are soon parted." There are many many 600 class entries that will give you butterflies in the belly way more than the ST. This is not to say the ST would keep right up to your 600, it just wouldn't feel like it was. Reasons for owning. Simply put, I have only space for 4 bikes in my garage. This is a tip top quality machine that equals BMW for longenity, beats all comers for build quality, and is only "not as sporty" as the FJR in paper theory, or if each is jockeyed by a 24 year old expert racer. I can say with confidence that comparing passenger comfort between the Yamaha and the Honda, my FJR buddies wife is not going to be as easy to get along with after an all day ride as mine! There is no indication beyond a slight "busy buzz" that the ST is going 65 mph in second gear. It gets everywhere so effortlessly (speed up or slow down) that it is easy to understand the car-like reference. In it's defence, it ain't a GL folks! Its a highly evolved sport tourer all the way to the bone! Two can travel in comfort and style, one can travel with a sore face from grinning all damned day long. I know! If you can keep this bike within the speed limits you are a better man, or have more points against your license than I! The headlight array says, attention, there is something coming (or perhaps better: "something wicked this way comes"). The tail light array is large and hard to miss. The controls are easy to read, and not too "foo-foo". I do not have the ABS model, so also don't have the electro-adjust window. Rear suspension can be adjusted on the fly, and seems best at the middle setting (two up, moderately aggresive driving, lots of twisties). There is a fair bit of gear sound below about 30 mph. Bothered me for the first few hours, now just sounds "right". FI seems very well mapped, no surges anywhere (a point acclaimed by my buddies with an FJR and a BMW R1150R who have ridden it). There is a naught deceleration if one does not roll off carefully, but so far every bike I have owned was tat way .. I can only assume there are a few not like that as the point seems to come up as a negative in reviews of every machine I've ever read through. It's a great bike. If you want a touring bike that turns heads (people - bikers and grockels alike - LOVE this bike!), and gets you there (way far away "there") quickly, reliably and safely, this is one of two options. If you prefer the FJR, it is the better bike for you. If you are trying to understand the slight difference in price, I would say you're simply paying for the build quality, and I think my FJR pal would agree. Again, not slamming the FJR, I almost bought one, but fit and finish are better on the honda. Have fun choosing. Ride safe. Show less

This is an update from my first review on the ST. I have now had this bike for 6 months and 6K Miles. This is a great Winter and Fall Bike. However, all of the pleasures that this bike brings to you in those months is quickly erased when the temperature rises. Needless to say this bike is uncomfortably HOT. It handles good and has tremendous power but the stock seat is very poor and you need bar risers in order to be comfortable. Just what age group is Honda going after? Anyway, after six months with this particular Honda, I have choosen to take a financial hit and trade the bike in on something else. I live in a hot climate and IMO Honda definately has a problem. don't get me wrong, the bike is fantastic in a lot of ways but Honda leaves a lot of work for you to do on your own. Show less

Have owned my Pan European (ST 1300) for one week now. It is without a doubt the best motorcycle I have ever owned. I live and work in Seoul, Korea and ride throughout South Korea. Korea has beautiful mountains to be enjoyed in addition to excellent sections of new highways. The bike feels comfortably stable with tremendous V-4 power. The transmission is smooth, instruments excellent, power windshield first class, and ABS brakes the best ever. This is a high quality bike and a dream to ride. I also own a Suzuki Hayabusa and H-D FXDX, so I feel somewhat able to understand the quality of a well made motorcycle. I am selling the Hayabusa. Would recommend this bike to anyone who enjoys carving turns once in a while, wants comfort on the highway, but is tired of the unique riding position associated with a sportbike. Ride safely..... Show less

My disclaimer. I'm just a regular guy not a professional tester. I wrote this for friends to let them know of my ride home. I wanted a St 1300 and bought one despite the reviews that compared it to a car. The story is below. Feb. 19th started out with me flying to Los Angeles. Then on to the super shuttle for the ride to the shop to pick up my new Honda Sports Touring bike. I walked in and asked for Dan the salesman I had talked to when I ordered the bike. He was busy with another customer so I had to wait awhile. It was quite a shop full to the brim of all kinds of bikes. My new St 1300 was sitting outside waiting to go. It just needed one clip to hold the mirror on, it was dangling on the right side. I gave it a good inspection and it was/is flawless. Dan was busy rounding up the manuals for the bike. Then I went into the finance guy and wrote him a check, that was $2000 less than my local dealer would have charged me. Dan took me outside and went over the bike with me. All the switches, gauges and answered any question that I had. As we were talking another guy from the shop comes up and, talking about my bike, tells Dan that the bike was OK after it fell down yesterday. Now I know from Hondas literature that the mirrors are supposed to disconnect if the bike falls over. So that's why it needed a new clip. Nothing was wrong with the bike. After the guy left I told Dan that he shouldn't be doing that in front of the guy buying the bike and I laughed. Dan goes " I could have slapped him. Then he tells me he also checked the bike over yesterday. So I put all my over night stuff in the saddlebags, put all my riding gear on and took the bike for a short test ride up and down the block. On the St the seat is adjustable 1.5 " up and down. Well the seat I'm sitting on is way to low. My legs are cramped and I'm sitting right on top of the tank. So Dan and another salesman work on getting the seat adjusted and now that I know how to do it its easy. It was adjusted to suit me. ( After 1200+ miles the seat is not perfect but I can live with it.) With nothing left to do I ask directions to the Freeway and hit the road. The 405 Hwy. to Interstate 5 and on North. In LA the normal traffic flow if its not rush hour is 80 mph. that's what I did. On the St that's 4200 rpm. I had the windshield set at its highest setting and the air flowed right over the top of me and just like the magazines said I had a negative pressure pushing me in the back. At its highest setting there is some flex at the top of the windshield as your riding. You are well protected on the St. The bike has a thermometer that showed 68 degrees as I left the shop. There had been complaints of to much heat being put onto the riders legs from the engine. You could feel it, the heat,but it wasn't uncomfortable.( It still hasn't been over 75 degrees here in Northern California and with riding boots the heat isn't a problem. The gas tank does get warm and you could cook a meal in the left side fairing storage box. Never put a candy bar in there!) Traffic was light and in no time I was at the Grapevine heading North out of LA. It is the road over the hills into the Valley. You go from Sea level to over 4000 feet in altitude. The temp. gauge was showing 46 degrees as I got to the top of the grapevine. I could have used some of that engine heat right about then. The St treated the whole thing as if it were flat. I dropped down into the valley and was going with the flow still right at 80 mph. I don't know if it is the proper break in procedure but that's just how this one was getting broken in. Somewhere on the flats I crossed over a bridge that crosses over one of the many canals and suddenly I was airborne, just for a split second. Just long enough for my heart to stop. Not even a wiggle out of the bike. Then I saw a sign nailed to a tree that said " Trust Jesus. I'm sure everyone that hit that bump was praying for just a little bit. I passed an uncountable number of trucks without even a shake of the handlebars. The same for the rain groves on the highway, they didn't affect the St at all. It must be the new technology. About 20 miles outside of Kettleman City I saw a huge bank of black clouds. At almost the same time it started hailing and then rain. I was pretty well hidden behind the fairing but was still getting a little wet. Ahead was a motorcycle riders best friend, an overpass. I stopped there and put on my rain suit. I didn't have the mittens or the shoe covers. I pulled out into a downpour and heavy head winds. Feet and hands got soaked in a little while, fairing helped but ...they can only do so much. The thermostat was showing 40 degrees. This wasn't turning into an ideal ride. I had checked the weather forecast before I went to L.A. and this wasn't in the cards. So for 45 miles I rode in the rain. I did run into head shake on the St passing trucks in the rain with this headwind. As an experienced rider I just let the bike do it's thing. It was busy moving back and forth, you just have to relax. Finally I ran out of the rain. I rode a few more miles and pulled over to a rest stop. My right hand was curled into a claw shape. I couldn't unhook my helmet. Where was the experienced rider I talked about earlier? I should have pulled over and let the rain pass. Eventually I got warm and got all my gear off. I called my daughter and told her I was an hour away. I turned off on Hwy. 152 to take me over to Hwy. 99. Hwy. 152 had miles of expansion joints. You know, the rhythmic bumps that make your your car bounce up and down. The St front suspension soaked them all up, no problem. The rear was a little stiff. I was cruising at 75 all by myself , riding one hand on the bars when a California Highway Patrol car pulls up along side and looks me over. Then he just drives off, Thank you, Officer! Boy was I asleep at the switch, I never saw him coming. The mirrors are excellent though a little low for some riders. They reminded me of the bar end mirrors I had on my Matchless. Well I made it to my daughters house 341 miles from the shop in LA. Got off the bike and all my bones creaked. Awful old for a hard day like that. There is a group of motorcyclists who ride 1000 miles a day for 6 days. The event is called an "Iron Butt Rally." Boy my hat is off to them, no way I'll ever do that. Next morning I got up and waited for the temperature to go up. While I was waiting I dropped the windshield down to its lowest setting. I also adjusted the rear shock to a slightly, 3 clicks, softer setting. Around 10 A.M. it was 48 degrees so I hit the road. Right off the bat I noticed that with the windshield at a lower setting it made no difference in the wind flowing over the top of my helmet. I raised my hand up in front of my eyes and up to the top of my helmet. I could feel the wind still flowing an inch or two over my head. What I did notice was my estimated gas mileage jumped up. The St has an on board computer gives you a running estimate of gas mileage. With the windshield down it was showing an average of over 40 mpg. When it had been at its higher setting it was averaging around 34 mpg. I was running into a head wind all the way until I turned to head for the San Francisco Bay area. All of a sudden I had a 25-30 mph wind from the right side. I don't know if you have ever seen this following a motorcycle but I know it looks weird. The riders head stays in one place and the whole bike moves off to the side. I was doing this for 20 miles, windy as hell. When you would pass a truck all of a sudden there would be no wind then as you finished the pass, whoosh the wind was back. I pulled in to Novato, Ca to get something to eat. While I was there 3 guys came up to quiz me about the St. So we went outside to look over the bike. Each of them took turns sitting on it. They had all looked at the same comparable Yamaha model. None of them liked the seating position on the Yamaha. Show less

I rode the new ST1300 for awhile, then proceeded to a Yamaha dealer that had a FJR 1300 on the floor because the guy who ordered it could'nt close the deal. Just my luck--so I bought it on the spot. What a bike. The ST1300 is a horrendous piece of s*** up against the FJR! The ST felt loose and sloopy, especially around fast 'sweepers'. And the way that windshield vibrates around was awful. The noise the engine makes reminds me of a bike the 'Jetsons' would ride. Make the comparison before buying the ST1300...Hommie Show less