Well, I got to tell you the wait was worth it. I found a ST over in Longview TX at this shop-www.yamahasportscenter.com. Tony is the owner and posts here quite a bit. We exchanged several emails and I took over a PDP postion that someone backed out of back in Feb 2010. I'm always curious about what people pay for their bikes and Tony had priced his (on this site) at $12,500. Yep, still had to pay WA sales tax and license when I got back home and that was just shy of $1200. So price wise I figured I didn't do too bad. I was looking at this trip as my vacation so yeah, if you add the plane trip, motel rooms(some because I did some camping too),gas, food, etc., I suppose I spent just as much as if I were to buy local over here but the journey over there and back was PRICELESS!
Tony has a first class crew working for him. Jerry Wilson is the store manager. He treated me like royalty when I got there. My plane didn't arrive into Longview until 5:40pm. Jerry picked me up at the airport, brought my boxes of gear I had shipped down earlier, and took me to my motel room so we could drop my gear off. I knew that the shop stayed open until 6pm and fully expected to get the bike the next morning. Jerry asked me as we pulled up to my motel if I'd like to get the bike that night. He told me I could ride some tonight and then in the morning put a few more miles on it, bring it back to their shop to get the fluids changed and then I could head west. I didn't need my arm twisted to agree to this! The shop was of course closed when we got there but Amanda Myers who does the paperwork there had everything laid out and ready to go. I signed the paperwork, money exchanged hands. The bike was already prepped and ready to go. Jerry went over it with me and then sent me on my way with a big assed smile on my face. The following day,early in the afternoon, I pulled back into their shop. They got me in right away, no surprises, and I started my journey back home. Tony-you need to give your crew a pay raise!! Nice job and thanks for the great buying experience!!! Sorry I missed you.
As we all know- ::006::
I had to get the fastest color:
MarkJenn's bike was waiting there for him too. Looks like he got it set up with a few options. Nice!:
I went back to my motel room and threw on an AltRider skid plate and Great Basin saddle bags along with some camping gear. I uh, may have over packed!
I started heading back west on 9-11(Sunday). Eastern Texas had numerous fires going at this time and it was quite warm out. I'm damn glad I brought water!!
The bike had been parked for about 5 minutes(somewhere close to Austin) and the true temp was closer to 105 degrees.
My game plan was not to have one. I had some things I wanted to see, roads to check out, but in general this was going to be a "Get To Know The Bike" trip. When I got back home to Spokane, I figured I averaged about 300 miles a day. I didn't want to do the tourist stuff and tried to stay away from the crowds. My general route was Texas to New Mexico to Arizona to Utah to Idaho then back to Washington. I tried my best to stay off the I-Systems and just hit the secondary roads. If a road looked interesting, I took it. Some of the roads that really stand out were:
The three 3's- Located west of Austin. SR16 to Medina and made a loop sort of on SR 335,336, and 337. Beautiful area!!
SR16 south to Poteet TX was kind of intersting too but warm!!
I took SR90 west through Del Rio and continued until I hit SR118. I wanted to check out the Fort Davis area and Mcdonald Observatory. I then hit I-10 for just a bit and took SR54 up to New Mexico. I went as far north as Carrizozo then headed west on SR380. When I got to Socorro I took SR60 west through Magdalena. A really beautiful area!! I stayed on SR60 until I hit Show Low AZ. I then worked my way north up to Page AZ on SR89. I stayed on SR89 up through most of Utah. I took some secondary roads north doing my best to stay off I-15 and worked my way up to southern Idaho. Arco, Challis, Salmon ID were some beautiful scenery! Continuing north on SR93 through Hamilton MT and then I took SR12 because I wanted to do Lolo Pass. Sweet ride, alot of twisties! ::012:: Back into Idaho and through Kooskia. Looks like some great hunting/fishing spots around there. This area will deserve more of my attention in the future. I worked my way west over into the Palouse area of Washington and back up into Spokane.
My trip lasted 15 days. I rode through all kinds of weather except snow. I put just shy of 3100 miles on the bike and had no problems. I pulled into three auto parts stores along the way and they were all great. I'd buy oil from them and they'd lent me a pan to do my own oil changes(yeah I know, but it's a new bike and I wanted to baby it-probably too many oil changes). Some observations on the bike and what little farkes I put on it:
The drives seat slants down. Preaching to the choir here you guys know that by now and I'm going to get the shorter rubber thing a ma gigs to fix that. The zipper on my coat put a few light scratches on the top of my gas tank. Good! Now I don't have to worry about the first scratch! Doesn't show well in the below:
Altrider skid plate is a good option but their instructions need to be better written. It served me well on some of my off road adventures though! I don't mind undoing a few extra bolts for oil changes for the added protection. The stock skid plate is a joke and you're just asking to get your oil filter decapitated!
The Great Basin Bags I really like. I'm going to need to put some type of protection on the heat shield of the bike though as they rubbed through the silver paint. This was NOT a heat problem but a brain fart on my end. The supplied heat shield the GB sells with their bags consists of a large hose clamp and this would have dinged things up as well. Any ideas about this would be appreciated!
Stock windshield has got to go. Sounds like this forum likes the Parabellum. I'll look into that. I just want to make sure it doesn't get in the way during off road adventures. For me, the bike has plenty of power. As you saw, I was pretty well loaded down with "Stuff" and had no problems passing other vehicles when I needed to.
As I said, all in all I'm really happy with this bike. I'm coming off a BMW GS. For me, the ST is a much better animal. ::012:: Some more pics:
These little boneheads almost got me!!
Wonder if I can out run the rain?-YES!!!
I couldn't out run the rain this time-and no rain gear! MISTAKE!!
Thanks for looking!!
Pete
Tony has a first class crew working for him. Jerry Wilson is the store manager. He treated me like royalty when I got there. My plane didn't arrive into Longview until 5:40pm. Jerry picked me up at the airport, brought my boxes of gear I had shipped down earlier, and took me to my motel room so we could drop my gear off. I knew that the shop stayed open until 6pm and fully expected to get the bike the next morning. Jerry asked me as we pulled up to my motel if I'd like to get the bike that night. He told me I could ride some tonight and then in the morning put a few more miles on it, bring it back to their shop to get the fluids changed and then I could head west. I didn't need my arm twisted to agree to this! The shop was of course closed when we got there but Amanda Myers who does the paperwork there had everything laid out and ready to go. I signed the paperwork, money exchanged hands. The bike was already prepped and ready to go. Jerry went over it with me and then sent me on my way with a big assed smile on my face. The following day,early in the afternoon, I pulled back into their shop. They got me in right away, no surprises, and I started my journey back home. Tony-you need to give your crew a pay raise!! Nice job and thanks for the great buying experience!!! Sorry I missed you.
As we all know- ::006::
I had to get the fastest color:
MarkJenn's bike was waiting there for him too. Looks like he got it set up with a few options. Nice!:
I went back to my motel room and threw on an AltRider skid plate and Great Basin saddle bags along with some camping gear. I uh, may have over packed!
I started heading back west on 9-11(Sunday). Eastern Texas had numerous fires going at this time and it was quite warm out. I'm damn glad I brought water!!
The bike had been parked for about 5 minutes(somewhere close to Austin) and the true temp was closer to 105 degrees.
My game plan was not to have one. I had some things I wanted to see, roads to check out, but in general this was going to be a "Get To Know The Bike" trip. When I got back home to Spokane, I figured I averaged about 300 miles a day. I didn't want to do the tourist stuff and tried to stay away from the crowds. My general route was Texas to New Mexico to Arizona to Utah to Idaho then back to Washington. I tried my best to stay off the I-Systems and just hit the secondary roads. If a road looked interesting, I took it. Some of the roads that really stand out were:
The three 3's- Located west of Austin. SR16 to Medina and made a loop sort of on SR 335,336, and 337. Beautiful area!!
SR16 south to Poteet TX was kind of intersting too but warm!!
I took SR90 west through Del Rio and continued until I hit SR118. I wanted to check out the Fort Davis area and Mcdonald Observatory. I then hit I-10 for just a bit and took SR54 up to New Mexico. I went as far north as Carrizozo then headed west on SR380. When I got to Socorro I took SR60 west through Magdalena. A really beautiful area!! I stayed on SR60 until I hit Show Low AZ. I then worked my way north up to Page AZ on SR89. I stayed on SR89 up through most of Utah. I took some secondary roads north doing my best to stay off I-15 and worked my way up to southern Idaho. Arco, Challis, Salmon ID were some beautiful scenery! Continuing north on SR93 through Hamilton MT and then I took SR12 because I wanted to do Lolo Pass. Sweet ride, alot of twisties! ::012:: Back into Idaho and through Kooskia. Looks like some great hunting/fishing spots around there. This area will deserve more of my attention in the future. I worked my way west over into the Palouse area of Washington and back up into Spokane.
My trip lasted 15 days. I rode through all kinds of weather except snow. I put just shy of 3100 miles on the bike and had no problems. I pulled into three auto parts stores along the way and they were all great. I'd buy oil from them and they'd lent me a pan to do my own oil changes(yeah I know, but it's a new bike and I wanted to baby it-probably too many oil changes). Some observations on the bike and what little farkes I put on it:
The drives seat slants down. Preaching to the choir here you guys know that by now and I'm going to get the shorter rubber thing a ma gigs to fix that. The zipper on my coat put a few light scratches on the top of my gas tank. Good! Now I don't have to worry about the first scratch! Doesn't show well in the below:
Altrider skid plate is a good option but their instructions need to be better written. It served me well on some of my off road adventures though! I don't mind undoing a few extra bolts for oil changes for the added protection. The stock skid plate is a joke and you're just asking to get your oil filter decapitated!
The Great Basin Bags I really like. I'm going to need to put some type of protection on the heat shield of the bike though as they rubbed through the silver paint. This was NOT a heat problem but a brain fart on my end. The supplied heat shield the GB sells with their bags consists of a large hose clamp and this would have dinged things up as well. Any ideas about this would be appreciated!
Stock windshield has got to go. Sounds like this forum likes the Parabellum. I'll look into that. I just want to make sure it doesn't get in the way during off road adventures. For me, the bike has plenty of power. As you saw, I was pretty well loaded down with "Stuff" and had no problems passing other vehicles when I needed to.
As I said, all in all I'm really happy with this bike. I'm coming off a BMW GS. For me, the ST is a much better animal. ::012:: Some more pics:
These little boneheads almost got me!!
Wonder if I can out run the rain?-YES!!!
I couldn't out run the rain this time-and no rain gear! MISTAKE!!
Thanks for looking!!
Pete
