Before I even read this, I started it up and in neutral slowly increased RPM's to the 3600 to 4000 rpm level and I had the exact same vibrations I did when riding. So my issue is not the belt.
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This is not just directed at you but everyone with this issue: you all KNEW it was a first gen product. Same engine, tried and proven, but on a completely different platform. Every first gen release will have bugs. You're experiencing the bugs. Yes a company "should" fix problems with their products. But what's easier: buying a first gen product and expecting and waiting for a company to fix the bugs on a release or waiting for a second gen release when a lot, if not all, of the bugs have been worked out? At some point the consumer has to take some responsibility in all of this. Hindsight being what it is, maybe waiting a model year or so was the way to go.
First gen products, whether they are $25 toasters or $25,000 motorcycles, are really just beta releases. You can only test a product so much before it needs to be released and see how it holds up in day to day use. Besides, this is business. Models that have a lot of money and resources pumped into them need to be sold to recoup part of their investment. Then they fix all the bugs and more and more are sold bringing the company into the black for a particular model. I hate to break it to everyone but companies couldn't care less about your individual customer experience. There will be enough people jumping on their product and loving it that the first gen, beta owners' complaints and issues will not even make a dent in their popularity, especially given how strong the F3's second gen release and variants seem to be. It is a huge winner for BRP so that makes righting the first gen bugs really low on their 'to-do' list. To them you could always trade it in and pick up a new, greatly improved machine. This is where being a smart consumer comes into play. 'Caveat emptor'... It's naive to think that a company owes anyone anything. Companies owe it to their shareholders to turn viable and sustained profits. Good companies can do both: please shareholders and customers alike. BRP is a good company because look how at how many products they produce and how many happy customers they have. We all have choices as to the products we want to buy. Sometimes, and this is really hard to admit, we make the wrong one.
i just read about this a lot here and it seems a lot of fist pounding and yelling at the sky because it's raining, when a simpler solution would be to get an umbrella or stay inside until it stops. However it happens, I hope you all find a way to make peace with these issues and ride safe.
Wow, never thought much about buying a first generation bike or car or boat for that matter.
I bought it after a test ride because it didn't hurt my back as much as riding my Harley or my v-star 1300 did.
That was my only thought, ride the F3 or stop riding all together. With that in mind, it was still the right thing for me, I put 12,000 miles on in the first year.
Now,I am putting some money into it to make it better for me personally.
I put on Shad saddlebags for conveinance and have ordered shocks from
Race Tech to make the ride feel better. The vibration is annoying but I still
love riding my F3S. To each their own....
I put the SmoothSpyder belt stabilizer on, problem solved.
Another Day To Be My Kid's Dad [emoji379]
Rode up to the Baker Built Folks place. A nice country ride in western Ohio. They installed their belt stabilizer and luggage rack While I took a ride on their F3 with their air wings attached, and the office gal watched my dog (he rides with me often). Stabilizer solved the problem. Nice folks-no charge for the installation work, by the way.
So being that there is roughly 80$ price difference which belt tensioner.. Baker or smooth spyder
Just bought a new 2016 F3T with audio last Saturday. Got about 400 KM on it and havent felt it yet. Ill try reproducing the Vibration you guys are talking about at the RPM mentioned. Ill post again after testing..
Daniel...
Ya' Think?!?! "It vibrates, its to hot, I get to much wind on me, it smells like gas/exhaust, my tires wear out to fast, the clutch is to hard to pull, my fuel mileage is poor" etc etc etc...[emoji23] [emoji23] [emoji23] [emoji85] [emoji85]
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So I took my new 2016 F3T out tonight with the wife and Yes I can confirm that there is vibration at a certain RPM and Speed. Even the Wife noticed it. So ill go talk to my dealer tomorrow and see how many people have reported this to them and to see how much for a Drive Belt Tensioner if needed.. It is annoying for sure...
[QUOTE=Dmartin;1128701]So I took my new 2016 F3T out tonight with the wife and Yes I can confirm that there is vibration at a certain RPM and Speed. Even the Wife noticed it. So ill go talk to my dealer tomorrow and see how many people have reported this to them and to see how much for a Drive Belt Tensioner if needed.. It is annoying for sure...[/QUOTE
Good luck with that. lol
Dealer will be very excited to help solve that problem!!!!
It is a well know characteristic of the Spyder
So I'm picking up my F3t today and have been following some threads on the vibration. It seems that the vibration resolves itself after several thousand miles? Am I understanding that correctly?
Our 2015 S has 4,000 miles now and a recent Elka shock. Because the shock rides higher (or the bike does) the vibration is less noticeable now, because it is related to belt tension. The higher the bike rides the less tension is on the belt.
For T and Limited riders I would think that adjusting the preload correctly using the airbag and the method I suggested in another thread will also reduce the vibration.
The problem with the two belt harmonisers mentioned is that they use very small idler wheels which spin at many thousands of RPMs and will whine and use up bearings reasonably rapidly. I don't think they are a real fix.
So went to the dealer and explained the vibration. They consulted BRP web site and they found a very interesting charts showing and explaining the coroletion between RPM and vibration. It was interesting. My spyder is going in Next Tuesday for its 1000 km check. They have a Fuse recall 0n the 2016 so they will check that and see what has to be done about the vibration. The spec and charts explains what has to be done to fix or reduce the vibration. I also contacted Jim about a belt tensioner and He informed me that it would NOT mount on the 2016 model because the T and Limiteds use the Rt swingarm and there isn't a place to attach it to like the F-3 trellis type swingarm.
Just another BRP feature, part of the design. Join the BRP doesn't care club. I have a 2014 RTL that also has the belt shake. No reason to expect for the $$$ that we spent for it to operate as advertised. BRP sucks, just my 2 cents.