  We have accumulated multiwavelength (X-ray, optical, radio) lightcurves for
the eight black hole X-ray binaries which have been observed to enter a
supposed `soft X-ray transient' outburst, but remained in the low/hard state
throughout the outburst. Comparison of the lightcurve morphologies, spectral
behaviour, properties of the quasi-periodic oscillations and the radio jet
provides the first study of such objects as a sub-class of X-ray transients.
However rather than assuming that these hard state X-ray transients are
different from the `canonical' soft X-ray transient, we prefer to consider the
possibility that new analysis of both soft and hard state X-ray transients in a
spectral context will provide a model capable of explaining the outburst
mechanisms of (almost) all black hole X-ray binaries.
