Sprint ST, test ride, new owner, yippee!! crap high beam

Hi All,
(sorry for the long post)

I only post here about once a year (or less), last time i posted was to
ask what
everyone thought about Triumphs (might have even been 2 years ago!)

Anyway i've finally gotten myself a nice shiny new Sprint, from P.S. in
Elizabeth St.
,Melbourne VICTORIA (i've been paying attention)
I'll make some comments for anyone else interested in one of these, although
my comments are of course "coloured" by MY riding history.

The test ride was fun, P.S. don't seem to like people taking bikes on
their own, a
sales person "leads" the way on another bike, however.......

Takeoff from the shop in Elizabeth St. and turn into Latrobe St., come
to a redlight with a
truck at the front, sales guy immediately lane splits, i hang back, as
i'd never ridden either
a brand new bike, or a liter class bike before, and this bike seemed so
wide (at the mirrors) compared to my previous bikes, that i wasn't sure
if it'd even fit!

Light turns green, sales guy takes off and zooms through the next
intersection also.
By the time i manage to get past the truck, the next traffic light is
red, and so the last i see of
the sales guy is as he dis-appears at warp factor 9, over the bridge
leading to the
Melbourne docklands!
"Damn!" i think "I'm supposed to stick with the sales guy, should i just
go back to P.S. now?"

Well let's just say i had a very nice test ride through the docklands,
over Bolte bridge, up
and down city link, and through North Melbourne. I wanted to vary the
road types
and speeds a bit, and see how it felt in both "highway" and "city" riding.

I was quite impressed with how the bike felt, not 50% bigger and heavier
than the 650 i'd
been riding, but really very nicely balanced at both low and high speeds.

It's definitely not for people with short legs, i can get my heels down
on the ground ok, but
not really stand up with my bum off the seat. (I'm about 5'10"), and
that's even after
winding down the rear spring pre-load.
I also rather like the sound of that triple!
Absolutely STACKS of torque from that motor, i reckon you'd have a real
job stalling it
even if you wanted to!

Of course i was so impressed i bought one, and picked it up last Friday!
However..........

One thing i didn't (and really couldn't) pick up on, in the test ride,
was the headlight
performance, low beams are nice, in fact if anything they're too bright!
And that's part of the problem, the bike's got 3 headlights, the two
outers are lowbeams
and are permanently on with the ignition.
The center light is "high-beam" (deliberate use of lower case letters),
and is actually
quite pathetic.

I've managed to do some country riding, day and night, done 400k's so
far in 6 days,
and i'd almost go so far as to say that the headlight performance on a
dark country
road is bordering on dangerous!

The problem as i alluded to earlier is those brilliant lowbeams! They
don't shut-off when
switching to high-beam, all that the highbeam switch does is light up
the centre
headlight.
So i end up with a moderate glow out at 100 feet away, but it's washed
out by this
brilliant glare from the lowbeams which ends very sharply about 30 to 40
feet in front.

So when traveling at 100kph, on a dark country road, with the occasional
bit of oncoming
traffic as well, it can be very hard to see if anything's on the road.

The road i've been going along occasionally has kangaroos (Sunbury to
Lancefield for anyone
that knows it), and i doubt very much if i'd be able to see a 'roo with
the lights on the
sprint the way they are!

I've already mentioned it to P.S., and i'm even thinking about writing
to Triumph, i'm
really beginning to wonder if the design of those headlights was chosen
more for the
way the bike looks when parked, than actual use!

The projector style lenses certainly look fancy, but they are so sharply
focused that i think
they're useless on a bike, even the lowbeams, when i'm cornering must
flash up
into oncoming traffic and blind oncoming traffic.

Anyone else had similar experiences?
I'm referring to where instead of the design of something on the bike
being dictated by
function (Practicality?), it's chosen to look good, and functionality
takes second place!


Andrew

'81 GSX250 -> '91 FZR600 (worn out after 185000 K's!) -> '90 NTV650
(traded in) ->'06 Sprint ST

 

1. Upgrade the high beam bulb to a higher wattage - fairly common to
have to do

2. get an electrician to fit a switch (plus relay etc) to allow you to
switch off the lowbeams when on high (but have them come back on when
you switch to low of course)

JL

 

(use a relay, too ... less voltage drop buys a lot more light ...)

-----sharks

 

Is that the Victoria in Australia or in Canada? ;-)

 

Oh, congrats on the new bike. ;-)

 

HTH. ;-)

 

Sweet stuff Andrew!
There's a small amount of headlight adjustment that can be made to the ST's
but I'd suggest replacing the stock globes with higher wattage variants.

When did you pick it up?

justAL

 

Cheers Dale! I was distracted by Futurama.
Beer?

justAL

 

<Bender>Someone say beer?!?!</Bender>

 

Heaven forbid!

 

Wouldn't want to be blind stinking sober would ya?

justAL

 

As opposed to jack off?

 

We could just jack on?

justAL

 

Abuse electricity not yourself.

justAL

 

Yeah, i reckon P.S. didn't adjust the headlights too well, i've brought
the lowbeams up a bit, and just got back from a quickie test ride, no
probs there, still not too high.
Might try raising the high beam as well just a bit, but i'm
suspicious P.S. or someone screwed something up, the lowbeams are so
SHARP, but the highbeams just an un-focused BLOB, and yet they're
all those "Projector" style lenses.....

I'll try and get a new H7 bulb tomorrow morning, a quick google
suggests that the Philips bulbs are pretty good, i'm just cautious
about putting too big a bulb in, there's so much plastic in the
headlight (maybe even the lens????), would be embarrassing to
melt something.......

If that doesn't cut it, i'll look into driving lights and a
change-over relay, so that when i flick highbeam on, it cuts power
to the lowbeam and puts it on the driving lights.
(I'm pretty comfortable with that electrickery stuff, i'm in I.T.
like so many others here)
That's a last resort though, but i have found a few webpages where
people have done it to earlier sprints.

coupla examples:
http://www.triumphnet.com/st/acc/piaa/index.htm
http://www.triumphnet.com/st/acc/motolight/index.htm


Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Andrew


justAL wrote:>

 

It's the nature of the beast. I wish my SV's lights were like that. I get
to this point about 50ft in front then it becomes too dazzling for other
road users. It's the same on the ST however due to the projector lens it's
always dazzling.

Check your warranty paperwork for the technician's name. If it's A.
Gardner, I worked on your bike.

justAL

 

Hi All

All the info you will need to know about your new go to this site

http://www.triumphrat.net

I am on there look me up

Cheers

Det

 

So you work for P.S.?

If you worked on a new (Blue) Sprint St for pickup on the 8th of
September, then i have to say that i didn't mean to imply you
did a shoddy job on the headlight adjustments! (apology! apology!)

Everything else on the bike is a dream! Still very happy!

I'm up to 600K's now, (i've had it just over a week now).
Be at least 3 more weeks before the 1000k first service though,
going O/S with work for 2 weeks.

If you're in the service centre, maybe i should say g'day when i
drop it in...

 

I have A Gardner, usually mows the grass , wont touch bikes

 

Not a wonder his lights are stuffed! Here's Al "adjusting" a
watermelon: http://zoic.smugmug.com/photos/96329162-M.jpg

-----sharks