Mile Eater!

Here’s all you need to know to grab a super touring bargain!

- Greg Leech 

Honda’s big sports tourer, the ST1100 (known as the Pan European in other markets), first found its way Down Under in 1990, gaining slow showroom response at a new price of $13,990. The Australian bike marketplace has always viewed entirely new models with a little suspicion and the ST was no exception. After all, here was a bike that was falling smack bang into a sportsbike-mad retail atmosphere, weighing in at 288kg and using a longitudinally mounted V4 powerplant. Big and different.

It wasn’t a pretty motorcycle, either, and a short demonstration ride was never going to sell the bike. Short of the full dresser-style category and the brand’s GoldWing, the market was a little new to the idea of purpose-built tourers that could be shoved along at the sort of clip that the ST was capable of. It was remarkably stable, even at low speeds, but there was no hiding that he of 288kg dry (298kg for the ABS version) weight.

The bike underwent some minor mechanical and superficial body changes over its nine-year model run. Significantly, this included replacing the bank-angle sensor. The whole idea was that the bike would be switched off if it fell over, which made a lot of sense. However, while the idea was good, the execution not so. There was a recall and replacement program for this (affecting bikes made up to and including 1993) — the engine could shut down unexpectedly with the obvious dire consequences.