First long trip...3000 miles on a '07 Sprint
Just got back last night from a week long trip on the Sprint, and you know if it weren't for that work thing, I'd do it all again tomorrow!
The route took me from Daytona to Atlanta, where I met up with my buddy Aaron and together we headed to Mid Ohio. We took only 2 lane roads for most of the trip, and of course hit the "dragon" on the way up. (Funny story about that, as when we were there on a sunny Tuesday there were about 300 bikes in the lot at the resort, the next week, at 8am on rainy Tuesday morning there were only 2 bikes, mine and Aaron's! It's still a great road when it's wet, you just need to be really smooth and take it easy...)
A few random notes on the trip that may be of interest to the rest of the trumpet community.
-The Corbin seat for the ST is a magic! Can't say enough good about it, time in the saddle was no problem at all, and was a huge upgrade over the standard seat. Highly recommended
-Triple torque is intoxicating!! No need to rev this baby, just roll into it, as long as you're north of 3000 rpm it just pulls and pulls and pulls...What a fantastic motor!
-The Triumph Tank bag was a bit of pain: The zipper that attaches the bag to the tank failed and required a little "handywork" at the side of the road, but will need the zipper replaced now that I'm back. Could have been worse, but it was brand new a week before I left. I also don't like the look of the "bra" that covers the tank. The bike just doesn't have the same appeal with the bra on it. On top of that it's a bit of a pain to buy gas, you need to loosen the 2 buckles before you can undo them, one of which is directly under the l/h grip when you park the bike.
-Upgrading the high beam to xenon lighting is the answer if you are doing any night riding. I bought the H7 kit from xenondpot.com and oh my GOD the light is fierce! Really good idea if you are doing any night riding. I also upgraded the low beams to the philips silverstar bulbs, and while these made a slight difference the nature of the cut off of the beams made this upgrade less noticeable.
-The rear panier's are completely waterproof! We got caught in two big rain storms, and one of which we rode in for about 3 hours, when I opened them up in the hotel room, everything was completely dry!
-I used a bit of oil on the trip. At about 1200 miles I needed to add about 1/3 of litre of oil to make the dip stick happy again. No big deal...
-I averaged 44.9 MPG according to the display, that's a combination of hustling it at times and cruising at times.
-Average speed when you are taking 2 lane roads seems to be about 45 mp/h, I'll use this figure next time I plan a trip to figure out the time required. Sure you go faster at times, but when you roll through small towns, and get traffic, this is the number I came up with. Note that this does not include stopping for gas/eating etc, this is the number from the trip computer, so it's only when the bike is running.
-SR14 through Kentucky was the suprise road for us, great fun, and takes you almost completely through the state running north south, highly recommended.
-I bought a BMW "Klima Comfort" rain suit for the trip, fully gore-tex so it's breathable, and it was really comfortable with hot rainy weather that we had for a few days, I spent a fair bit of time looking for a suit, and to me this represented the best value for money for a performance fabric motorcycle suit. I would highly recommend this if anyone were looking.
That's all for me, hopefully evertone else is enjoying their sprint as much as I am!
Cheers,
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