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Wheel alignment specifications
- Thread starter RedRover
- Start date
RayBJ
Well-known member
I believe that equates to 0 - 5/8 in toe-in.
Cobwebs
New member
Weights,suspension settings,road conditions,riding style all play a part if you want to be pedantic about it so no one recommended setting.
BRP and lots of dealers pass the buck to the experts.:banghead:
Poorest example of vehicle setup I've ever encountered from a manufacturer and most of their dealers.:banghead:
BRP and lots of dealers pass the buck to the experts.:banghead:
Poorest example of vehicle setup I've ever encountered from a manufacturer and most of their dealers.:banghead:
PMK
Active member
Red Rover, in the interest of your safety, you might find this informative and correct, maybe not. Sorry, I prefer to simply hang out behind the scenes, if at all, these days with no intentions of posting unless I notice important safety information posted incorrectly by folks here.
There is a lot happening with the Spyder front suspension and simplistic kart type steering. The Spyders are prone to large amounts of bump steer, and this further complicates good handling manners, minimal tire scrub, reduced tire wear and best fuel mileage.
Your post mentions following the manual at 0 to +- 0.2 degrees. Choose wisely. Myself, you need all toe in, not 0 and certainly no toe out.
I have aligned our Spyder and friends Spyders myself without a ROLO laser setup. I now have the ROLO equipment and BUDS, plus more tooling I designed.
You might consider using this link to help you align your Spyder. The folks offering a spec to align to have not been clear as to how that spec is measured, and therefore could make for a very dangerous or poor handling machine with tire and chassis wear concerns.
All the best with it.
https://robrobinette.com/ConvertToeDegreesToInches.htm
There is a lot happening with the Spyder front suspension and simplistic kart type steering. The Spyders are prone to large amounts of bump steer, and this further complicates good handling manners, minimal tire scrub, reduced tire wear and best fuel mileage.
Your post mentions following the manual at 0 to +- 0.2 degrees. Choose wisely. Myself, you need all toe in, not 0 and certainly no toe out.
I have aligned our Spyder and friends Spyders myself without a ROLO laser setup. I now have the ROLO equipment and BUDS, plus more tooling I designed.
You might consider using this link to help you align your Spyder. The folks offering a spec to align to have not been clear as to how that spec is measured, and therefore could make for a very dangerous or poor handling machine with tire and chassis wear concerns.
All the best with it.
https://robrobinette.com/ConvertToeDegreesToInches.htm
ButterSmooth
New member
Cobwebs
New member
When using lasers the targets are set at about 5 times the wheel diameter away from the hub centre therefore 3mm toe in shows as 15mm.Makes it more accurate that way. All useless information if RedRover is engaging a professional as he should/would know this if familiar with the Rolo lasers.
In the D.I.Y world (if that is his aim, he never said) the expensive Rolo system or Buds program is overkill and not necessary. Best part is you can tweak away at it with multiple settings till you get the perfect setup for you, not some averaged out measurement dictated by the need for a number and all for an outlay of less than fifty bucks. :firstplace:
Thanks to all who answered my posting. I was just looking for toe expressed in degrees so I could apply the math. Zero degrees seems reasonable and relatively easy to verify, no math required.
I bought my 2015 RT at an estate sale a month ago so there was no conversation with the previous owner about who serviced the machine or modifications or history. Like a lot of bikers, moving up to a Spyder, I find the ride a little unnerving on crowned roads and heavy cross winds and am looking for any mechanical fixes. Verifying wheel settings is just one of those things to check. Judging from several other postings in this forum, I expect a Baja Ron equalizer bar will be a big improvement and give me an excuse to fiddle around in the shop while the snow flies this winter.
You folks are the greatest at answering my novice questions and I really appreciate your responses. Thank you!
P.S. I just found the "tool kit" velcro strapped to the bottom of the seat a couple of days ago. This machine has a lot of secrets.
I bought my 2015 RT at an estate sale a month ago so there was no conversation with the previous owner about who serviced the machine or modifications or history. Like a lot of bikers, moving up to a Spyder, I find the ride a little unnerving on crowned roads and heavy cross winds and am looking for any mechanical fixes. Verifying wheel settings is just one of those things to check. Judging from several other postings in this forum, I expect a Baja Ron equalizer bar will be a big improvement and give me an excuse to fiddle around in the shop while the snow flies this winter.
You folks are the greatest at answering my novice questions and I really appreciate your responses. Thank you!
P.S. I just found the "tool kit" velcro strapped to the bottom of the seat a couple of days ago. This machine has a lot of secrets.
Like those others, we have moved "up" to a Spyer rather recently. We also experienced the wandering. Had the local dealer check the alignment, he called it "good", without giving any numbers. We changed the tires, virtually all of the wandering stopped. Had another alignment check at a rally (laser check this time), it was also pronounced "good", so the change was all tires.
Recently had a Baja Ron swaybar installed. My wife says the bike is easier to handle, she is not as tired at the end of the day, but it hasn't changed any problems with wandering.
Bottom line: if you still have the stock tires (sorry, I can't even type the name), get something else. ANYTHING else. A quick search of the forums for "tires" will give you several weeks worth of reading. In a nutshell, I don't know of anyone that has said that any one brand (other than stock) is junk. Some have tried more than one brand and found one to be better than another, but everybody agrees that ANY 'car tire' is better than the stock tires.
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No, not everybody agrees. Some suggest that poor ryding technique is too often blamed on tyres or something other than self. It is way too easy to blame and appear to be a skilled and well informed ryder. It's good to remember that much of what we read here is personal opinion and not necessarily factual when put to the tests.
IdahoMtnSpyder
Active member
RedRover, what hasn't been stated flat out but what PMK alluded to, with laser alignment you need to correlate the toe in/out number in inches with how far away from the tire center you're measuring it. A 1/2" toe-in at the tire surface is way different from 1/2" measured 5 feet from the tire. You're on track to think in terms of degrees angle, but that does have to be converted to distance to be able to measure it. To back up PMK's comment about toe-in, comments on here over the past several years have consistently stated that the best tracking is achieved with some amount of toe-in, not zero and not toe-out.
Steve's comment about OEM tires is relevant. I had my 2014 RTS aligned by Squared Away while at Spyderfest in 2016. I had about 3300 miles on it. Immediately I felt it wanting to pull to the right. I went back and Joe double checked the alignment. It was dead on but I still had the pull to the right. At about 13,000 miles I took the Kendas off and replaced them with Continentals. Immediately, no more pulling to the right!
Steve's comment about OEM tires is relevant. I had my 2014 RTS aligned by Squared Away while at Spyderfest in 2016. I had about 3300 miles on it. Immediately I felt it wanting to pull to the right. I went back and Joe double checked the alignment. It was dead on but I still had the pull to the right. At about 13,000 miles I took the Kendas off and replaced them with Continentals. Immediately, no more pulling to the right!
redrazor
Member
:agree:Ive always been fine setting toe-in at 1/8 to 3/16 inch on all types of cars, trucks, go-carts etc. Too bad they're not all as easy to do as I-beam front axels allow. My 2014 RTL was a real bugger. Very hard to get to every thing.:gaah:
jcthorne
Well-known member
I can tell you without a doubt that if you set the toe to zero, you will have a very poorly handling Spyder as the toe will go from pos to neg and back during every turn or lane change. Zero is the WRONG answer.
ButterSmooth
New member
Do you by chance know the range of toe change over the full suspension travel? And, is the Ackermann compensation correct or does it muck with the toe as well?
IdahoMtnSpyder
Active member
Several years and thousands of miles of owner experience has determined that that toe-in spec is not good, if not flat out wrong. Toe-in only, i.e. no toe-out nor zero toe, is what yields the best handling characteristic.
jcthorne
Well-known member
Lots of things effect that. Load weight, spring rates to name two. We adjust to 3/4 to 1 1/4 toe in measured at 120" between targets. Which end of that range we shoot for depends on load and spring rate.
jcthorne
Well-known member
Not the first instance where the shop manual has turned out to be flat out wrong. Since that was published, BRP began recommending the Rolo Laser alignment system and specs instead. IE those dimensions and the alignment procedure that went with them has been superseded.
