I remember when I first passed my bike test and wandered around several bike showrooms thinking there was no way I was going to ever be able to ride a big bike! My first bike – which certainly felt big enough! – was a Kawasaki GPZ500. I recall thinking that there was no fairing to replace if I dropped it, no fancy bits and small tyres that were readily available and not too expensive!
How times have changed – six years later and with more than 46,000 miles under my belt, I am onto my third bike, a Triumph Sprint ST 955i and it’s a beauty! It’s everything that I once doubted I could handle – a big engine, full fairing, sports (made comfy by touring version) position, and it even came complete with shiny panniers 🙂
I must admit it took me a good 2,000 miles to really get to grips with my new boy. Those of you who know me or who follow my blog will know this was mainly due to nerves from the bike smash which wrote off my second bike, my beloved Buz, a Yamaha FZ6s. But a new set of round Michelin Pilot Road 3s, as opposed to squared off Bridgestones, has done wonders to restore my confidence along with time. Still get a bit nervous but refusing to allow it to stop me doing new things.
For example, I made it to France last year on a four day trip 🙂 and enjoyed the twisties in Charleville Mezieres. Thankfully I was concentrating so hard on making sure Silvano was lined up straight for entry and exit off the ferry that I never noticed the cars wheel-spinning infront of me lol!
This bike loves corners, sweeps and twisties 😛 – He’s so smooth I can feel the grin factor coming from him lol! Whilst he does tend to need a bit of back brake before front is applied just to settle the weight on the back, he does stop very much where you want him to.
Pretty heavy – particularly if you drop him but light and flickable once you get going. Have had him lowered just a tad which allows me to get 3/4 of each foot down which means I can walk him out of most difficult situations if need be.
Having an alarm on him does drain the battery if left alone for several weeks and often sends him into sleep mode which is nigh on impossible to reverse (thanks Datatool!) but an Optimate does do the trick of trickle charging him to a wakeful state. Water in the petrol tank as a result of blocked breather pipes was also my other non-favourite trick! But once that was sorted, and a new fully charged battery on, he’s been good as gold and starts on the button first time, every time.
Usually I feel the need to bling my bike – but not this time. Having been converted to the joys of a topbox I was delighted to find Silvano already had a rack and just needed the plate and box. He also came with those all important and, quite frankly essential, R&G crash bungs which is great since I’ve already dropped him twice!! Silvano came with lots of unexpected and lovely toys such as heated grips and a gel touring seat – see the list below. The only other thing that I really wanted to add was the Steibel compact nautilus air horn – once you’ve had one of those on your bike you will never want anything else lol!
The tank takes 20 litres and apparently, according to MCN, this gives a range of 185 miles. Well I regularly hit 200 miles and more before I need to fill up 🙂
All in all I am delighted with my new boy – I honestly thought I’d never really love another bike – not the way I loved my baby Buz. But just goes to show that broken hearts do mend – and there’s more than one guy for a girl to love 😛 !!
Bike Spec:
- Engine size – 955cc
- Engine spec – 12v inline triple, 6 gears
- Top speed – 155
- Power – 118BHP
- Torque – 78ftlb
- Weight – 207kg
- Seat height – 805mm
- Tank range – 185 miles/20 litres
Accessories:
- Touring screen
- Touring comfort gel seat
- Scottoiler
- R&G crash bungs
- Steibel Nautilus Compact Air Horn
- Givi 56 litre top box
- Heated grips
- Gear indicator
- Colour coded panniers
- Bagster road harness for a small tank bag
- Leads: heated gear, Optimate charging
- Electrical accessory socket
Ride safe
A bird's eye view to biking! 
Hi Lil Miss Bump, nice blog!! I just bought a Sprint ST 955 last week. Loving it!! We have great roads here in Piemonte Italy. Looking forward to the really hot weather and enjoying them. I’ve just put some photos on my blog: http://www.piemonte-property.com/blog-motorcycling-langhe-roero-triumph-sprint-st-955.html
Ciao! Richard Edwards
Many thanks Richard and congrats on choosing such a great bike. Those are lovely pics you’ve taken and she looks to be in great condition. I hope you get loads more fun out of her – particularly if you are into touring.
Thanks! We’ve had great weather but I haven’t had so much time to spare.. but so far the bike is fabulous. Very fast and great to ride. I was messing around racing a sports bike through the centre of Turin (by that curve roof in The Italian Job) last week and was stunned when I looked down as saw I was doing 160km/h.. woops.. Every time I park people come and speak to me about it – Italians love bikes. Stay safe!!
Good morning !
I just moved to MK and decided that my SV was not up to the task of commuting to the North every now and then – so I have just put a deposit down on a 2000 Sprint ST ( collect next week !)
Having bought it, I’m now reading what everyone else thinks about it (!) hence I came across your cracking blog — sounds like its a good bike, too 🙂
Ride safe, and if you see a red ST looking lost , that’ll be me !
Cheers
Chris
hi there – how are you finding the sprint? i have to admit that whilst i’ve commuted on mine i preferred using my Fazer as it was lighter in heavy filtering traffic on the roundabout known as the north circular! my sprint always feels too hot if we are filtering for mile after mile – but we’ve never broken down from it (she frantically touches wood and sends a quick prayer out!)
Hopefully you’ll also have found some cracking roads to ride on out here too – try the road from bedford to Grafham Waters!! now that’s got some twisties on it.
Hi L’il Miss Bump
Yeah, I’m REALLY liking the Sprint, its a wee bit different to the V-Twin in character, and I think I’m going to have to change my riding style a bit ( especially pulling away – not enough revs -> stall ! ) There is just soooooo much creamy smooth power, though, its awesome !
I agree about the heat build up when filtering though — I did 600 miles bank holiday weekend ( Cumbria -> Durham -> Cotswolds etc ) and on the M6 (surely worse than the M25 ??) I filtered for 22 miles (!!!) I did feel the heat in my legs, but it all worked OK 🙂
Enjoying being down here, and most of my riding has so far been Cotswolds / Northamptonshire, generally exploring around – found a few good roads, but not used the Grafham Waters road yet … hmm … as its a nice sunny evening and I have nothing on I might have a look … 😉
I think I have been spoiled with good roads in the N West – popped back home to see the kids this weekend, and took the A515 Ashbourne – Buxton – Cat n Fiddle road to Macclesfield … If you get oop t north, you gotta try that one at least once — but watch the speed the Police monitor speed by aircraft – not helicopter – aircraft (!!)
Stay Safe
Chris 🙂
Update — just done the Grafham Waters road ( B660 ?) … interesting – thanks for the tip 🙂
Chris
Hi there – yes up to the Cotswolds is really great – anything near the Broadway Tower is pretty good 🙂 I know what you mean about the power band – you really need the high revs with smooth clutch but it is sooo worth it. I love turning on that throttle and it just eases up the powerband. My guy rides a Kwak ZZR1400 which he says is mental but now and then he borrows my sprint as he says it is loads more fun and really goes for it. Ride safe 🙂
HiYa
Broadway Tower – that’s gotta be near Broadway village, right ? Not quite made it that far over yet, but its on the list , Broadway is a beautiful village ( if it wasn’t for all the tourists lol )
I’m glad you said that about your guy – a Kwak 1400 was also a possibility but it was just a bit too much cash – I feel like I made the right choice now 🙂
I’m also glad you said what you said about the throttle – I though t it was just me or my second hand bike (never had a triple or fuel inj so not sure if mine is representative or not !)
Sunny Day tomorrow – Bike !!!
Ride safe Lil MB 🙂
Chris