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ST1100 Pan European


Marmalade43
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After having 8 of these bikes in the last 7 years, I've found them amazingly reliable, comfortable and reasonably economical to run.


Truly a pleasure to ride, the fairing keeps the worst of the weather off of you and helps stop you getting so tired.


28l tank will keep you going for up to around 300 miles and will drag you up to 137mph (top speed of my current model)


They are mighty heavy beasts at standstill but get it rolling and it'll outrun many bikes and you can ground it out at speed on tight turns, brakes are great but remember that you have a 300kg+ beast to stop.


Most of mine have made it over 100,000 miles, one retired at 86,000 in Portugal resulting in a bodge repair to get it back to blighty.


A couple of them have had the engine block crack at around 120,000 miles leaving me with useless but perfectly running engines that hold no water.


Problems I've found with these bikes.


The starter relay controls ALL the electrics, the fuse melts, the contacts melt and suddenly you have no power at all, nothing.

A new relay is a 10 min change but at £60 they are not cheap. I've found that keeping it clean and replacing the fuse regularly before it melts will avoid failure.


Front wheel bearings. They have a lot to deal with and i've had 2 sets fail. Nowadays i replace them every 30,000 miles or so at about £8 a pair from a bearing stockist rather than a bike parts stockist and all is good.


Callipers pick up loads of crap and should be cleaned regularly, I strip and clean mine when i do the pads every few months. they bind badly if not kept clean.


Alternators can be an issue. prior to around 'P' reg bikes will have a dynamo and reg, the regs can fail but it's not hugely common. More problems come with the newer models with a 40A alternator mounted on the nearside rear of the bottom of engine. They corrode, especially on little used bike, rust causes it all to expand, crack and fall apart.

Not only is a new alternator £500, the seat, tank, rear wheel & swing arm needs to be removed to get it out in any kind of realsitic order.

Refurbs are possible but only if your unit is complete and unbroken, this is rare.


Steering lock. they can seize if not kept lubricated, removal, lots of wd40 and persuasion will sort it if it does.


Rear bevel, whenever rear wheel is removed, splines should be checked, cleaned and greased, if it wears and fails, you lose all drive suddenly, repair isn't too much hassle for someone handy with the spanners but the part from honda is £600+, second hand ones can be rare/expensive.


Swing arms are prone to corrosion ans apart from safety, they fail the mot. If buying one, check it, especially in front of the rear wheel.


All of these issues are from multiple high mileage ownerships. I would highly recommend these to anyone needing to cover miles, do touring, use for a holiday etc


My current one is on 98,000 miles.

In the last 50,000 miles, other than the usual brakes, tyres, servicing etc it has had one complete set of brake seals and pistons, 2 sets of front wheel bearings and the ignition switch removed to free off the steering lock and that is it.


my previous one had at 113,000, rear bevel and spider, cush rubbers,

94,000 starter relay

2 sets of wheel bearings in 70,000 miles


When you look at many bikes/owners that never reach 50k, you could well never need a repair on one of these bikes outside of normal servicing.

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I set out to buy either an ST1100 or a K1100LT and as it turned out, I ended up with the K bike. I still fancy an ST1100 so thanks for the positive write up.

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