+ Click to Enlarge SHORT ON BLING, LONG ON COMFORT: The Honda ST1300 Pan-European is built to take two people and 70 litres of luggage anywhere there's a tar road.

July 30, 2005
By Dave Abrahams

Sports-bike riders tend to forget how big real touring bikes are; these days a 1000cc superbike weighs about 165kg and Japan, Inc gets excited if it can shave two kilos off a new model.

Honda's new ST 1300 Pan-European, launched in South Africa this week, weighs 283kg – dry; add engine oil and 29 litres of unleaded and you have more than 300kg of motorcycle between your legs.

There are times when you feel all that weight, like when you pick it up off the sidestand or try to muscle it round a slow corner, but mostly it's surprising how well-balanced - and how rideable - Honda's luxury bus actually is.

Its wheelbase is unexpectedly short at 1440mm, its rake steep for the class at 26º and the wide, cast-aluminium handlebars have plenty of leverage for changing direction in a hurry.

This is not a Gold Wing or an Electra Glide. Both those behemoths are built in the US of A, with its spacious freeways and enormous distances. The ST1300 is designed to do the same job in the Old World with its narrow city streets and crowded main roads – hence the name.

Therefore it is surprisingly compact by Winnebiko standards, sumptuously but plainly finished with a minimum of chrome - it even has a centre-stand.

The engine room is occupied by a 1261cc longitudinal V-four with two overhead camshafts per bank and four valves per cylinder, which has more in common with Honda's car engines than its other bikes.

It's short on top end (75kW at a conservative 8000rpm) but long on torque (117Nm at 6500rpm) and it'll pull quite strongly from 2200. It runs like an electric motor up to six.

The bike's best cruise is around 140km/h, obtainable at the expense of 5000rpm in top. Above 6500rpm the engine vibrates quite strongly and the intake roar – a gruffer version of the VFR800's growl – becomes intrusive.

No 283kg motorcycle is going to accelerate like a drag bike but if you rev it to 8000 through the gears the big Pan will gather momentum with authority – at the expense of some very rude noises.

I generally changed gears at six to stay out of the vibration zone and wound it on in top. A couple of times on the launch ride I saw 210km/h on the speedo, two up at about 7500rpm, and it got there quite quickly, given the size of the bike – but without any feeling of strong acceleration

This bike is faster than it feels; keep an eye on the speedometer.

The rest of the drive train is standard two-wheeler stuff: a multiplate wet clutch with a light and superbly progressive (if rather remote) action, a five-speed constant mesh gearbox and shaft final drive.

Seamless gearshifts

The transmission also runs fore and aft so the shift lever sticks out of the back of the gearbox instead of the side. It has an odd action but, once you get used to it, very slick shifts are possible, with or without the clutch, in either direction.

It's one of the best shaft-drive gearboxes I've tried – and certainly the quietest.

The final drive is generally clonk-free, although it is possible to generate some lash by opening and "sawing" at the throttle at very low speeds, as sometimes happens in traffic.

It's actually caused by that old bugbear, the fuel-injection cut-off. Most first-generation spritzer setups were over-sensitive at small throttle openings and the Honda PGM-FI system is no different. Its metering, however, is commendably precise, returning as low as 6.75 litres/100km on the open road in fast-cruise mode.

Agreeably agile

The ST1300's handling was ponderous (although beautifully balanced) at low speeds but agreeably agile on the open road; the front suspension (conventional 45mm cartridge forks) was initially supple but firmed up under braking to prevent excessive nosedive

The rear monoshock was a little undersprung to begin with but once preloaded (using the remote hand-wheel) to suit two big passengers, it dealt admirably with the stresses induced by half a ton of bike and payload.

There was little or no tendency to wallow on long fast sweeps; once settled in the groove this big cruise liner rumbled through with the power on as hard as you liked and came out perfectly collected.

Where I did pick up problems was on long downhills and in crosswinds; at more than 160km/h the front wheel sometimes began to waver slightly, not enough to upset the chassis but enough to make me close the throttle – which definitely didn't help.

A Honda staffer later told me that a customer had experienced the same thing and was experimenting with slightly harder than standard front tyre pressures – which would have been my initial reaction as well.

Linked brakes

The Pan-European is fitted with the latest version of Honda's linked brakes, now also with ABS.

The two front discs and the rear disc each have a three-piston calliper. On the two front discs the outer pistons are operated by the handlebar lever and the centre pistons are operated by the footbrake

The outer pistons on the rear brake are operated by the foot lever but the left front calliper is pivoted at its lower end and has a tiny master cylinder at the top – so the harder you pull the front brakes the harder it pulls in, thus operating the master cylinder for the middle piston on the rear brake.

It's by far the most complicated braking system on the market and the best thing you can say about it is that you can't feel it working!

The brakes are, however, enormously powerful, although there's very little feel for what's going on between rubber and road - as you'd expect with all that plumbing.

Comfort is a primary concern with full-dress tourers and a lot of detail work has gone into this one. The rider's seat is broad, flat and deeply padded; it's adjustable for height over a range of 30mm.

The sitting position is upright and all the controls fall naturally to hand.

Pillion accommodation

The pillion accommodation is a little less successful; the grab handles built into the rear carrier are too far back to be comfortable on a long ride and the panniers extend forward to within 120mm of the passenger footpegs.

My partner complained that she could not place the balls of her feet on the footpegs and that after several hours of resting on their insteps her feet went to sleep – which made getting off at the next stop interesting.

Honda has taken a leaf out of BMW's book by integrating the mirrors and the indicators and making them part of the fairing. As with the Beemer, you have to look a long way down – under your own hands, in fact – to see behind you but the mirrors provide a clear field of view and work well.

Electric screens are the flavour of the season for touring bikes - every bike is this class now has one! – and, as with the BMW, I found the screen worked best in its lowest position when riding solo but induced buffeting for the pillion rider unless raised to its highest setting.

No matter where it was set, however, it didn't affect the stability of the bike.

Automotive influence

The instrument panel is an interesting mixture of styles; it owes more to Honda's car design department than its bike stylists, which in this context works very well.

It has a large analog speedometer and rev counter, a full complement of warning icons and a comprehensive "black" LCD to tell you about distances, average speeds, fuel consumption, air temperature and remaining fuel range.

There's a small, lockable compartment under the left handgrip where the optional radio/CD player goes. The controls to heat the handlebar grips are also under your left hand.

The weatherproof, colour-matched 35-litre panniers are standard and open with the ignition key in a simple one twist, one lift operation. A 45-litre top box is also available at extra cost.

Unfortunately Honda SA was unable to give prices for either the top box or the radio at the launch.

The Pan-European is a breath of fresh air; BMW has had the Euro-tourer market to itself for far too long. It's fast and comfortable, can be made to hustle through bends with the right amount of body English yet will happily rumble down the boulevard at little more than walking pace in traffic.

It's a very civilised motorcycle - and costs R125 000, exactly the same as the BMW R1200RT, despite initial estimates by Honda of up to R138 900.

Honda ST1300 Pan-European specifications