Lamonster
SpyderLovers Founder
I'm sure you guys know how it is when you want something, you want it now, right? That's how it was the day my wife gave me the go ahead to order the new Spyder. As most of you know you can't just head down to your local Can-Am dealer and buy a Spyder, as a matter of fact your Can-Am dealer may not be an authorized Spyder dealer at all. That was the case with me. There were no dealers that could sell me a Spyder in Tennessee so I got on the BRP site and tried to hunt down a first production run Spyder. I got a hold of Frank at Motorsports of Tampa and placed my order. Two days later my buddy Ron ordered a Silver one.
This all happened in the beginning of June. Now here comes December and I get a call from Frank that my Yellow Spyder was ready to be picked up but he didn't have any Silvers for Ron. That was a bummer because we had planned on taking a trailer down to Tampa and picking them both up at the same time. So now I had to figure out a plan to get mine.
The weather has been sort of crazy here so I wasn't sure if I should try and fly down and ride it back or if I should just trailer it back home. I really wanted to put some miles on that bad boy and I found a one way ticket for $128 bucks and there looked like there was going to be a break in the weather so I went for it.
I flew down to Tampa Thursday morning and arrived in Tampa at about 10am. Got a cab to the dealer (that was $40 bucks) and met with Frank and got the ball rolling. I brought tools with me so I could wirer up my GPS to the Spyder and Frank was kind enough to let me use his shop and get a hand from Chris, one of the wrenches there. Chris was a good guy and showed me a few good tips on getting the panels on and off. He's the guy that puts all the bikes together.
Got the GPS mounted, got all the paperwork done, took a few pics and I was on my way home. I had decided to take the coast up 95 to 26 seeing I knew that way pretty good and I didn't have to deal with Atlanta. Google maps and my GPS said it was about a 700 mile trip. Well somehow I managed to add another 110 miles to that and at this point I'm going to blame it on my GPS. I have one iway 600 and I liked it so much that when I saw a killer deal on another 600 I decided to get one for the truck/Spyder. My other one is mounted on my 109. What I didn't do is test it before I took it with me down to Tampa. Right off the bat the stupid thing started acting up and while I was messing with it my missed my first critical turn. I knew I was in a bad way when the next ramp I took detoured me all over the place where I couldn't even get back on to the freeway I got off of. I started to get a little freaked out on this new bike that wasn't a bike at all and a GPS that was freaking out and I'm hungry and lost. I decided to get a bite to eat before I figured out what the problem was.
Pulled into the Wingers favorite eating establishment (DQ) and got a foot long hot dog. I'll be dog gone if that thing wasn't 14" or better! That didn't set well on my nervous stomach. That's when I knew that there was going to be no parking this thing without a thousand questions. I'll get to that point later.
When I routed my wiring on the GPS I ran it along side of the Spyders wiring harness. I got to thinking that maybe I was getting some sort of RF that was messing with the GPS so I pulled into a local hardware store and bought some zip-ties and black tape and I rerouted everything so there was nothing near the GPS power. That took a lot longer than it should too because I had to do the thousand question thing with three different people in the parking lot.
Got her all buttoned up and headed toward Daytona and then the GPS freaked out again. Now I'm starting to get upset and to tell you the truth I wasn't real happy with the Spyder either. I had a dog of a time not trying to ride it like a motorcycle and to ride it more like a four wheeler. At one point I thought about the video I watched where BRP called the Spyder the Y-Factor. I was thinking Y did I buy this thing, it's going to kill me before I make it home.
I got stuck in some pretty bad traffic and I had a full leather jacket on and I was burning up. So here I am trying to get my GPS to work while in stop and go traffic and the whole time people are hanging out their windows asking me a thousand questions about the Spyder. I just want to get to 95 so I know where I am and then I can chill-out a bit.
I got to Daytona right at dark and I don't see to good in the dark so I decided to get a room there and hit it in the morning. I got a little over 200 miles in that day and I was beat. I didn't sleep at all that night and left for the airport at 3:30am that day so I was done. I did start to get use to the Spyder in the last 50 miles or so.
Friday morning and I'm rested and ready to roll. Got out of the hotel at 6:30am and was feeling pretty good. I spent a lot more time focusing on the Spyder this time seeing the GPS was toast. I really started to dig the ride and all the good things about the Spyder started jumping out at me.
Besides the bike being a real looker, it handled pretty darn good once I quit fighting it and just relaxed a bit. The Spyders suspension was great. It would soak of the roughest of roads and really handled anything that came up during the trip. I had to dodge chairs, tire treads, dead dogs and a bunch of other stuff that you run across on a road trip. I was able to do all that without incident. Having three wheels instead of two makes for a challenge seeing you pretty much have the whole road covered but it's not like you're going to fall over if you do hit something. I was really surprised how quick the Spyder handled. If you need to move in a hurry it will move quicker than any bike or even a car I would say. Never drove a sports car so maybe that's the way they are but it was really quick and responsive, maybe to quick for me at first. Once I got use to it I loved it.
The power on the Spyder is just about perfect. It seems to handle any gear at any rpm. I found that the Spyder had a wide range of rpm's that it was happy in. I ran at 4K most of the time and seeing I was breaking it in I worked all the rpm's along the trip. Getting on the highway was a blast. This thing just eats up the road and if you're not careful you'll fine yourself in triple digits without realizing it. The thing just keeps pulling if you keep on the throttle but it's not unruly either. My wife and 16 year old son have plans on driving the Spyder and they are both novice riders and I think they'll do just fine. As a matter of fact I let my son drive it today with me on the back and he did good.
The gauges! Man I love the gauges. This thing displays more info than any bike or car that I've ever seen. I'm still learning how to get to all the info but here's a few of the thing's I really like and some I don't like.
Gear indicator- I love having a gear indicator! I've never had one before but it sure is nice to look down and see if you need to shift up or down especially when getting on the highway. I know we all have looked for that 6th gear that wasn't there. I didn't know I needed that till I got use to having one on the Spyder.
Digital and Analog- That was kinda cool to see and for the wow factor they have the analog go to 200 mph, the kids love that! I found that the speedo was within about 3 mph at 80 mph according to my GPS (when it worked). I thought that was pretty good.
Fuel Gauge- The fuel gauge works great but I was never sure how much the tank held so I never really knew how empty was empty. Now that I've read the manual I see I have a 6.6 gal. tank and when the light comes on I have 1.2 gals left. I was getting 35 mpg most of the trip. With all the info on these gauges I wish it would give you mpg and how many miles you had left. My Dodge truck has that and it would have been nice to have that on the Spyder too. That's not a complaint, just would be one more cool thing to have.
Trip and hour meter- I forgot to tell you one of the coolest thing about this Spyder, when you want to change the mode you don't have to reach for a button (although you can if you like) but all you have to do is squeeze a trigger on the left side of the controls. You can scroll though about five different screens of info without taking your hands off of the bars. That is very cool! You have an A and B trip meter and you have a total hours and trip hours meter too. That was cool.
Temp Gauge- I like having a temp gauge but they must have the sensor in the engine compartment because it was never even close to what the banks signs were saying or what my body was telling me. I would say it was running about 20 degrees hotter than real world temps.
Idiot messages- It has a few scrolling messages to tell you that your parking brake is on and one of the messages is to read the safety card before operating the Spyder. You have to click the mode button or it will not start if that message is scrolling. I'm sure there's a good reason for that but I sure can't think of one. The gauges are very clear and easy to read, even in direct sunlight.
I'm a Cruiser guy so it took me a while before I sort of got use to the posture of this bike. It's not bad but I like my feet out in front of me. I found myself resting my legs on the side ducts from time to time just to get my legs in another place. I'm 5' 11" and I'm not sure how a really tall guy would handle a long ride on the Spyder. I would run about 120 miles before stops and I must say after every stop it did get better. I would think about how some of the old bikers would travel cross country with much less comfort and here I was whining that I needed another place to rest my feet. Guess I'm getting soft in my old age. That being said, a highway peg setup is next on my list of things to do to make the Spyder perfect for the long haul.
The seat wasn't too bad. I think it was a little too soft for me but after a 600 mile day I didn't feel any better or any worst than most seats. I am going to recover it and I may throw a gel insert in it while I'm at it.
Having the storage up front was a big plus. I had that thing packed with gear and it was great to have it out of site. You got to understand that the whole bike is plastic so if someone want's in they can pretty much just rip the lid off so I wouldn't be storing your guns and ammo in there but most folks didn't even know it opened till I showed them. I really like having the trunk and it makes it nice when I need to run to town for little this and that's.
I guess if there was a downside to the Spyder it would be that you can not stop anywhere without talking to people. Now I've had some good looking bikes and all of them have the same effect, just not as much as the Spyder and to tell you the truth I didn't think it could get any worst than my other bikes. If you're not a social person don't even think about getting a Spyder. You will have people flagging you down everywhere you go. I had guys running off the road taking pictures, I had guys and gals follow me off of the highway waiting for me to stop so they could get a better look. I'll bet there were over 100 pictures taken with camera phones just on that trip. If I was running for office I would campaign on a Spyder. I'll bet you if Obama and I were in the same parking lot I would draw a bigger crowd than he would. I told my wife that this must be what it's like when a women gets a boob job. It's like a bike with a boob job!
If you're thinking about getting one to drive to work you better make sure you fillup the tank before you go to work because if you stop anywhere you're going to be late. It's funny that the age group that likes the Spyder spans from the Bling Bling Gang Banger looking guys to the old guys with a walker. I can't tell you how many folks said they would ride one of those and when I told them the price some of them said they were going to order one. Most folks who asked how much the Spyder cost thought they would be about $45K. When I told them they were $16K you could see the wheels a turning.
On the way home I was going through the Asheville highway and I was thinking about trying to pass a big truck but I really wasn't sure if I could make it by in time or not, at the last minute I decided not to and right about then a big deer jumped out in front of the truck and near as I could tell the truck missed it but when the deer landed I think it must have broke it's leg because it was struggling to get up. I thought you stupid deer, why didn't you just wait one second like I did. Funny how we get in a hurry for no reason sometimes. That was just about the end of a 12 hour 600 mile day and it kind of made me think of how blessed I was to make it back all that way safe and sound and I did finally fall in love with my Spyder. I wasn't sure if I was going to at first but I did.
It was hot but I don't think it was that hot.
Frank is the Spyderman of Motorsports of Tampa
This all happened in the beginning of June. Now here comes December and I get a call from Frank that my Yellow Spyder was ready to be picked up but he didn't have any Silvers for Ron. That was a bummer because we had planned on taking a trailer down to Tampa and picking them both up at the same time. So now I had to figure out a plan to get mine.
The weather has been sort of crazy here so I wasn't sure if I should try and fly down and ride it back or if I should just trailer it back home. I really wanted to put some miles on that bad boy and I found a one way ticket for $128 bucks and there looked like there was going to be a break in the weather so I went for it.
I flew down to Tampa Thursday morning and arrived in Tampa at about 10am. Got a cab to the dealer (that was $40 bucks) and met with Frank and got the ball rolling. I brought tools with me so I could wirer up my GPS to the Spyder and Frank was kind enough to let me use his shop and get a hand from Chris, one of the wrenches there. Chris was a good guy and showed me a few good tips on getting the panels on and off. He's the guy that puts all the bikes together.
Got the GPS mounted, got all the paperwork done, took a few pics and I was on my way home. I had decided to take the coast up 95 to 26 seeing I knew that way pretty good and I didn't have to deal with Atlanta. Google maps and my GPS said it was about a 700 mile trip. Well somehow I managed to add another 110 miles to that and at this point I'm going to blame it on my GPS. I have one iway 600 and I liked it so much that when I saw a killer deal on another 600 I decided to get one for the truck/Spyder. My other one is mounted on my 109. What I didn't do is test it before I took it with me down to Tampa. Right off the bat the stupid thing started acting up and while I was messing with it my missed my first critical turn. I knew I was in a bad way when the next ramp I took detoured me all over the place where I couldn't even get back on to the freeway I got off of. I started to get a little freaked out on this new bike that wasn't a bike at all and a GPS that was freaking out and I'm hungry and lost. I decided to get a bite to eat before I figured out what the problem was.
Pulled into the Wingers favorite eating establishment (DQ) and got a foot long hot dog. I'll be dog gone if that thing wasn't 14" or better! That didn't set well on my nervous stomach. That's when I knew that there was going to be no parking this thing without a thousand questions. I'll get to that point later.
When I routed my wiring on the GPS I ran it along side of the Spyders wiring harness. I got to thinking that maybe I was getting some sort of RF that was messing with the GPS so I pulled into a local hardware store and bought some zip-ties and black tape and I rerouted everything so there was nothing near the GPS power. That took a lot longer than it should too because I had to do the thousand question thing with three different people in the parking lot.
Got her all buttoned up and headed toward Daytona and then the GPS freaked out again. Now I'm starting to get upset and to tell you the truth I wasn't real happy with the Spyder either. I had a dog of a time not trying to ride it like a motorcycle and to ride it more like a four wheeler. At one point I thought about the video I watched where BRP called the Spyder the Y-Factor. I was thinking Y did I buy this thing, it's going to kill me before I make it home.
I got stuck in some pretty bad traffic and I had a full leather jacket on and I was burning up. So here I am trying to get my GPS to work while in stop and go traffic and the whole time people are hanging out their windows asking me a thousand questions about the Spyder. I just want to get to 95 so I know where I am and then I can chill-out a bit.
I got to Daytona right at dark and I don't see to good in the dark so I decided to get a room there and hit it in the morning. I got a little over 200 miles in that day and I was beat. I didn't sleep at all that night and left for the airport at 3:30am that day so I was done. I did start to get use to the Spyder in the last 50 miles or so.
Friday morning and I'm rested and ready to roll. Got out of the hotel at 6:30am and was feeling pretty good. I spent a lot more time focusing on the Spyder this time seeing the GPS was toast. I really started to dig the ride and all the good things about the Spyder started jumping out at me.
Besides the bike being a real looker, it handled pretty darn good once I quit fighting it and just relaxed a bit. The Spyders suspension was great. It would soak of the roughest of roads and really handled anything that came up during the trip. I had to dodge chairs, tire treads, dead dogs and a bunch of other stuff that you run across on a road trip. I was able to do all that without incident. Having three wheels instead of two makes for a challenge seeing you pretty much have the whole road covered but it's not like you're going to fall over if you do hit something. I was really surprised how quick the Spyder handled. If you need to move in a hurry it will move quicker than any bike or even a car I would say. Never drove a sports car so maybe that's the way they are but it was really quick and responsive, maybe to quick for me at first. Once I got use to it I loved it.
The power on the Spyder is just about perfect. It seems to handle any gear at any rpm. I found that the Spyder had a wide range of rpm's that it was happy in. I ran at 4K most of the time and seeing I was breaking it in I worked all the rpm's along the trip. Getting on the highway was a blast. This thing just eats up the road and if you're not careful you'll fine yourself in triple digits without realizing it. The thing just keeps pulling if you keep on the throttle but it's not unruly either. My wife and 16 year old son have plans on driving the Spyder and they are both novice riders and I think they'll do just fine. As a matter of fact I let my son drive it today with me on the back and he did good.
The gauges! Man I love the gauges. This thing displays more info than any bike or car that I've ever seen. I'm still learning how to get to all the info but here's a few of the thing's I really like and some I don't like.
Gear indicator- I love having a gear indicator! I've never had one before but it sure is nice to look down and see if you need to shift up or down especially when getting on the highway. I know we all have looked for that 6th gear that wasn't there. I didn't know I needed that till I got use to having one on the Spyder.
Digital and Analog- That was kinda cool to see and for the wow factor they have the analog go to 200 mph, the kids love that! I found that the speedo was within about 3 mph at 80 mph according to my GPS (when it worked). I thought that was pretty good.
Fuel Gauge- The fuel gauge works great but I was never sure how much the tank held so I never really knew how empty was empty. Now that I've read the manual I see I have a 6.6 gal. tank and when the light comes on I have 1.2 gals left. I was getting 35 mpg most of the trip. With all the info on these gauges I wish it would give you mpg and how many miles you had left. My Dodge truck has that and it would have been nice to have that on the Spyder too. That's not a complaint, just would be one more cool thing to have.
Trip and hour meter- I forgot to tell you one of the coolest thing about this Spyder, when you want to change the mode you don't have to reach for a button (although you can if you like) but all you have to do is squeeze a trigger on the left side of the controls. You can scroll though about five different screens of info without taking your hands off of the bars. That is very cool! You have an A and B trip meter and you have a total hours and trip hours meter too. That was cool.
Temp Gauge- I like having a temp gauge but they must have the sensor in the engine compartment because it was never even close to what the banks signs were saying or what my body was telling me. I would say it was running about 20 degrees hotter than real world temps.
Idiot messages- It has a few scrolling messages to tell you that your parking brake is on and one of the messages is to read the safety card before operating the Spyder. You have to click the mode button or it will not start if that message is scrolling. I'm sure there's a good reason for that but I sure can't think of one. The gauges are very clear and easy to read, even in direct sunlight.
I'm a Cruiser guy so it took me a while before I sort of got use to the posture of this bike. It's not bad but I like my feet out in front of me. I found myself resting my legs on the side ducts from time to time just to get my legs in another place. I'm 5' 11" and I'm not sure how a really tall guy would handle a long ride on the Spyder. I would run about 120 miles before stops and I must say after every stop it did get better. I would think about how some of the old bikers would travel cross country with much less comfort and here I was whining that I needed another place to rest my feet. Guess I'm getting soft in my old age. That being said, a highway peg setup is next on my list of things to do to make the Spyder perfect for the long haul.
The seat wasn't too bad. I think it was a little too soft for me but after a 600 mile day I didn't feel any better or any worst than most seats. I am going to recover it and I may throw a gel insert in it while I'm at it.
Having the storage up front was a big plus. I had that thing packed with gear and it was great to have it out of site. You got to understand that the whole bike is plastic so if someone want's in they can pretty much just rip the lid off so I wouldn't be storing your guns and ammo in there but most folks didn't even know it opened till I showed them. I really like having the trunk and it makes it nice when I need to run to town for little this and that's.
I guess if there was a downside to the Spyder it would be that you can not stop anywhere without talking to people. Now I've had some good looking bikes and all of them have the same effect, just not as much as the Spyder and to tell you the truth I didn't think it could get any worst than my other bikes. If you're not a social person don't even think about getting a Spyder. You will have people flagging you down everywhere you go. I had guys running off the road taking pictures, I had guys and gals follow me off of the highway waiting for me to stop so they could get a better look. I'll bet there were over 100 pictures taken with camera phones just on that trip. If I was running for office I would campaign on a Spyder. I'll bet you if Obama and I were in the same parking lot I would draw a bigger crowd than he would. I told my wife that this must be what it's like when a women gets a boob job. It's like a bike with a boob job!
If you're thinking about getting one to drive to work you better make sure you fillup the tank before you go to work because if you stop anywhere you're going to be late. It's funny that the age group that likes the Spyder spans from the Bling Bling Gang Banger looking guys to the old guys with a walker. I can't tell you how many folks said they would ride one of those and when I told them the price some of them said they were going to order one. Most folks who asked how much the Spyder cost thought they would be about $45K. When I told them they were $16K you could see the wheels a turning.
On the way home I was going through the Asheville highway and I was thinking about trying to pass a big truck but I really wasn't sure if I could make it by in time or not, at the last minute I decided not to and right about then a big deer jumped out in front of the truck and near as I could tell the truck missed it but when the deer landed I think it must have broke it's leg because it was struggling to get up. I thought you stupid deer, why didn't you just wait one second like I did. Funny how we get in a hurry for no reason sometimes. That was just about the end of a 12 hour 600 mile day and it kind of made me think of how blessed I was to make it back all that way safe and sound and I did finally fall in love with my Spyder. I wasn't sure if I was going to at first but I did.
It was hot but I don't think it was that hot.
Frank is the Spyderman of Motorsports of Tampa
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