ST-Owners Forum

ST Community Site


While researching the purchasing and fitting required of the Bike-Quip and HID lamp I came across the ST-Owners forum again - and registered.



I'm not rightly in to community sites and I struggle to keep up with Facebook where I have many valued friends and a few "Friends" who may only be collecting as part of a "total number of friends race" for all the actual contact they have made. I find it all daunting - not as an age thing, but I really do value my friends but lament never quite having the time I feel I should have to invest in their routine maintenance: thus, I fall in and out of contact as easily as the talibanees seem to. However, here's a community of not-all "hairy-arsed" enthusiasts who facilitate and engage newbies - and that's quite rare of any similar site I've lurked over.

Already, I've been welcomed. Given that here were some 30-odd new members over the few days either side of my joining the group I'm impressed there is time in anyone's day to write a reply to every newbie's post. And, it's not (all?) a bunch of red-necked Yankies kick-arsing around plugging dynamite and nitrogen up their pipes or wearing crotchless leather pants like the Harley mob; there are fellow fellows of British culture on board and even such gentle folk as Canadians qualify! In truth, even the Americans appear well behaved - measured against the Americans I know; not counting that Alaskan woman who I do not, nor would because she makes more of her gender and maternity than she does of politic.

The info some of these peeps (off the forum, not the politicians) discuss is entirely useful, too (again, unlike the politicians - or other forums!) It's not easy buying stuff for the ST as everything is so expensive and not everything is as good - or as effective as anyone might claim and there's no borrowing an item for a weekend to see if its suitable; no, just one long and continuous rip-off from the motorcycle industry based on our fears of safety, poor conspicuousness, and of being "cheap" renegade or delinquent "bikers" (so get your middle-class money out to prove your worth, the industry demands). Using the forum you can gauge others' opinion against their own needs rather than the presumed needs made up for you by a marketing team somewhere in the front window of a trendy (with wi-fi) coffee shop.

So, if you've an ST 1300 or 1100 and haven't checked the site out, go have a look. You may even be as pleasantly surprised as I am that a community site can not only be a community in spirit, but also useful, helpful, and free t'boot.

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