Thursday morning I headed off from Los Angeles to have dinner at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona and then continue up to Williams, Arizona and back for an SS1000. I needed to know if I was again up to the task (I've been off motorcycles since the end of 2023 due to medical issues - now thankfully pretty much resolved) and to see how the Spyder works for me doing long distance runs.
Mixed results and some observations.
First, mission complete. A total of 1045 miles in under 24-hours. Yea! So yes, I can still do this and the bike can do it.
The highway speeds in California are 70, and in Arizona 75. Most folks are running a bit faster than this. While I can neither confirm nor deny cruising speeds of 80 MPH or above, I can say that my average moving speed was 65 MPH over the run. I averaged 29.737 miles/gallon in fuel use, using 35.141 gallons of gas. I don't like cruising over 80 as mileage on any bike I've owned goes down rapidly over that.
Initially the seat was a mite uncomfortable. Under my right thigh was the biggest discomfort. Once I had been going for six or eight hours it got comfortable until the last 50 miles or so, then the same pressure point let me know it was again not happy. Not sure what to do about this. I'm thinking of trying the Air Flow before spending big bucks on a full custom seat. Need to find someone who has an RT with the Comfort seat to try.
I hate the short legs of this bike. A touring motorcycle should have at least a real 200 mile range at highway speeds. The most range I got was 176 miles and it was on fumes when I rolled into the gas station, putting 6.025 gallons in the tank. The rage indicator went to - - at 20 miles remaining, and I had about 5 miles to the next gas station. While I did have one leg with 34 MPG, it was slightly downhill most of that 160 miles. On flat or varying terrain, it was mostly below 30 MPG with a low of 27.7 MPG. Figure 5.5 gallons of gas, that is only 148.5 miles. Really unacceptable for a touring motorcycle. My Norge runs about 225 before looking for gas, my old C10 Kawasaki was about 215, and my Goldwing 210 (if I count the aux tank, then 325 before I started looking for gas). I had range anxiety on more than one occasion. I need to adjust my planning to take this into account, AND get the aux fuel tank figured out. An additional 5 gallons of gas would make me feel a lot better on these rides. Also, seven fuel stops when that should have been only 4 or 5 adds time to the ride. On the SS1000, it's not a big deal, but on more challenging rides, where time off the bike is a killer, this could become an issue.
I added a back rest pad in addition to the Show Chrome seat back to move the support further forward than the seat back allows. That helped a lot.
I also recently added highway pegs that came in very handy on the ride. Being able to stretch my legs is always a good thing.
I use a Garmin Zumo 665 for GPS navigation, XM radio, and MP3 listening; and a SPOT Gen3 for ride tracking.
Bottom line? The Spyder worked flawlessly. I was, for the most part, comfortable, and the ride itself (other than the range issue) was a non-event. Just the way I like them. Oh, and the pizza was OK - thin crust, which is not my favorite, but the music and seeing that pipe organ was worth it. Their lemonade and tea are freshly made each day and were excellent. Recommended.
Picked up a couple of Tour of Honor bonus locations as well.
jdg
