Are Spyders super sensitive to road crown?

[Slowpoke387]

Got it back today finally. Just a hair better but im really thinking its the nature of the beast. I will try different tires at some point because i know tires are what connect us to the road and can make or break a ride. After that we will just ride it and hopefully forget all about it. Its still a hoot to ride. Just wish it was more of a sit back and relax ride. Its not, you have to be on ur toes non stop or it can grab a road irregularity and just go with it instead of over it. Maybe tires, maybe just because of the three wheels.

[Peter Aawen]

..... Maybe tires, maybe just because of the three wheels.

There's quite a few (many thousands!?!) people out there ryding their Spyders without feeling they are badly upset by crowned roads, & once they get over that first 'get used to the differences' 500-1000 miles or so, most actually find their Spyders to be a more relaxed & easy riding machine than their previous (in many case significant) experience on 2 Wheels. So there's a good chance that you/your Spyder DOES have a correctable issue! But.... if you spend your time asking about & looking at (as I have!) many of the Spyders of those who don't have similar issues, it rapidly becomes apparent that by far the majority of those who find their Spyders comfortable & easy to ryde on any road surface are running after market tires, NOT the crappy Kendas! I won't expound on how crappy the Kendas are (much) more here, I do that enough elsewhere, but I doubt I'd be far wrong to suggest that when you get around to throwing the Kendas away & replacing them with some good quality car tires, you'll probably want to kick yourself for not doing it sooner!!


I reckon there aren't too many who'd argue that after the ROLO Wheel Alignment & maybe the upgraded sway bar (particularly for those who want to ride a little more aggressively) fitting proper tires is the next single most impressive improvement you can make to your Spyders ryde & handling! Sure, for RT Owners, the Magic Mirror Mounts might be a cheap & easy wonderful & extremely welcome upgrade, but they just improve the ease of servicing the machine & reduce mirror vibrations; fitting good tires can make a vast improvement on almost all the ride & handling issues you tell us you are concerned about, especially if you make the time & effort to get your tire pressures right for those tires, the way you ride, & the loads you put on your Spyder instead of running the 'one size fits all' compromise pressures off the tire placard/manual that simply don't take any of the myriad of variables that have an impact on the 'correct pressure for your application' into account!

So, are you sure you don't want to toss the crappy Kendas now & see how much of an improvement quality tires can make??

[Slowpoke387]

There's quite a few (many thousands!?!) people out there ryding their Spyders without feeling they are badly upset by crowned roads, & once they get over that first 'get used to the differences' 500-1000 miles or so, most actually find their Spyders to be a more relaxed & easy riding machine than their previous (in many case significant) experience on 2 Wheels. So there's a good chance that you/your Spyder DOES have a correctable issue! But.... if you spend your time asking about & looking at (as I have!) many of the Spyders of those who don't have similar issues, it rapidly becomes apparent that by far the majority of those who find their Spyders comfortable & easy to ryde on any road surface are running after market tires, NOT the crappy Kendas! I won't expound on how crappy the Kendas are (much) more here, I do that enough elsewhere, but I doubt I'd be far wrong to suggest that when you get around to throwing the Kendas away & replacing them with some good quality car tires, you'll probably want to kick yourself for not doing it sooner!!


I reckon there aren't too many who'd argue that after the ROLO Wheel Alignment & maybe the upgraded sway bar (particularly for those who want to ride a little more aggressively) fitting proper tires is the next single most impressive improvement you can make to your Spyders ryde & handling! Sure, for RT Owners, the Magic Mirror Mounts might be a cheap & easy wonderful & extremely welcome upgrade, but they just improve the ease of servicing the machine & reduce mirror vibrations; fitting good tires can make a vast improvement on almost all the ride & handling issues you tell us you are concerned about, especially if you make the time & effort to get your tire pressures right for those tires, the way you ride, & the loads you put on your Spyder instead of running the 'one size fits all' compromise pressures off the tire placard/manual that simply don't take any of the myriad of variables that have an impact on the 'correct pressure for your application' into account!

So, are you sure you don't want to toss the crappy Kendas now & see how much of an improvement quality tires can make??

Been thinking about this exactly. In my mind i keep going back n forth. Is EVERYONE just adjusting to this or is it just not there for them... So ya tires. Thats actually next. It seems to be the one thing that makes a lot of sense to me. And pretty much the last thing before i stop looking for excuses. Tires absolutely connect you to the road and have different ride characteristics. So my next search here will be which tires to try. Car tires? In the front? This is all new to me. Ive always put car tires on cars and bike tires on bikes lol.
Any recommendations?

[Highwayman2013]

Been thinking about this exactly. In my mind i keep going back n forth. Is EVERYONE just adjusting to this or is it just not there for them... So ya tires. Thats actually next. It seems to be the one thing that makes a lot of sense to me. And pretty much the last thing before i stop looking for excuses. Tires absolutely connect you to the road and have different ride characteristics. So my next search here will be which tires to try. Car tires? In the front? This is all new to me. Ive always put car tires on cars and bike tires on bikes lol.
Any recommendations?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-NEW-Federa...W/222444863481

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Is the Spyder sensitive to road crown? Yes! Having just ridden about 2500 miles from Idaho to Granby, QC, Canada for the Homecoming on all sorts of Interstate road, I will definitely tell you the Spyder does react to road crown. It also reacts to strong winds. In both cases I had to apply some minor steering force to stay straight. But it isn't a lot of force that is needed. On a level flat surface it tracks straight. I have the Baja Ron shock adjusters and his sway bar and Continental Conti Pro Contact front tires. This is the first extended trip with the tires. The Spyder is quite stable in a strong cross wind, but it will move over if I don't keep my hands on the grips.

The single biggest difference between a two wheeler and the Spyder is that MUCH of the steering control on a two wheeler is supplied by gyroscopic forces of the rotating front wheel. You don't have that with a Spyder. The Spyder does require pretty much full time steering control, although it is very little. You don't have physics helping you like you do with a two wheeler.

[sfcarn]

I went with Federal EVO 595 original size from Newegg.com. I had them mounted and balanced at the local Goodyear Tire dealer for $15.00 ea. My tire pressure is 19psi. It made a big difference, handles really good way better than the kenda tires.

[Slowpoke387]

Is the Spyder sensitive to road crown? Yes! Having just ridden about 2500 miles from Idaho to Granby, QC, Canada for the Homecoming on all sorts of Interstate road, I will definitely tell you the Spyder does react to road crown. It also reacts to strong winds. In both cases I had to apply some minor steering force to stay straight. But it isn't a lot of force that is needed. On a level flat surface it tracks straight. I have the Baja Ron shock adjusters and his sway bar and Continental Conti Pro Contact front tires. This is the first extended trip with the tires. The Spyder is quite stable in a strong cross wind, but it will move over if I don't keep my hands on the grips.

The single biggest difference between a two wheeler and the Spyder is that MUCH of the steering control on a two wheeler is supplied by gyroscopic forces of the rotating front wheel. You don't have that with a Spyder. The Spyder does require pretty much full time steering control, although it is very little. You don't have physics helping you like you do with a two wheeler.

Makes a lot of sense. Ok now just for conversation, if the motorcyles' gyroscopic effect provides stability, how do cars which also have two wheels up front deal with this issue? Is it just the pure weight of the car that helps it track straight on uneven roads or are they just more adjustable, or just completely different altogether because of the fourth wheel involved...its interesting to compare the Spyder and a car because of the two front wheels.

[Slowpoke387]

I went with Federal EVO 595 original size from Newegg.com. I had them mounted and balanced at the local Goodyear Tire dealer for $15.00 ea. My tire pressure is 19psi. It made a big difference, handles really good way better than the kenda tires.

Good to know. I will look into those. So a regular car tire place can mount and balance these wheels? I guess it makes sense, theyre closer to car wheels than motorcycle wheels.

[sfcarn]

They looked at what I had and said no problem. I drive a lot of different vehicles at my job and they most all seem to have a slight drift to the right and sometimes drive straight depending on road surface crown. I haven't put hardly any miles my Spyder since putting on the new tires maybe 30 or 40 miles but I noticed it handled way better and the road I was on it drove straight no drift. I hope this helps just my opinion and experiences. My Spyder is a 14 RTL.

[Peter Aawen]

.... Car tires? In the front? This is all new to me. Ive always put car tires on cars and bike tires on bikes lol.
Any recommendations?

The Kenda OE Spyder Tires ARE car tires, don't let anyone kid you otherwise!

The rims they run on ARE car rims, the bead profile IS a Passenger Car bead profile, & the only reason I can see for the crappy Kenda oe things having Special Motorcycle Only printed on the sidewall is that they are actually a CAR tire that is SOOO sub-standard that it's not safe to run them on any car or actually anything but a 'special' motorcycle!!

ANY car tire will be better than the Kenda 'special' tires for motorcycles that obviously have been made to a (very poor) standard! Any car tire will be better than the OE Tires, but the 'better' the car tire, the better the improvement. However, because car tires are made for bigger & heavier things than the (relatively) lightweight Spyders we ride on, unless the car tire you fit is an extremely soft compound performance tire then you are likely to need to run somewhat lower pressures in a passenger car tire that is now only vcarrying a few hundred kgs at most instead of over 1000kgs!! For a passenger car tire on the rear, I'd guess at about 22 or so psi being the max pressure you'd want to run; the fronts, maybe 14-18psi depending on the tire & your load/ryding style. The Federals mentioned above are one of the reasonably successful alternatives, but there are many proven others as well, just do some searching & take your pick!

[RudyB]

This post requires you to click the Thanks button to read this content. This post requires you to click the Likes button to read this content.

[Peter Aawen]

Hey Rudy, as it stands, no one can read your post above unless they click Thanks AND Like first, & most of the cynics here will not do that, cos they see it as being a low effort to try & improve your stats, even if it was just a miss-typed entry!!

You could help restore your reputation & credibility by editing the post above & removing the 'Require thanks to see content' & 'Require Like to see content' triggers (they are in tick-boxes in Miscellaneous Options under the text field when you are in the edit post screen, you need to UN-check them both....)

[Slowpoke387]

Whats with the having to click the like button sudenly? Oh wait isee it now. Pete i had to click on Like to see yours lol, love the irony
Edit: ​Just checked my settings and suddenly mine was checked too. Software glitch?

[Peter Aawen]

Once someone clicks on them slowpoke, accidentally or otherwise, they become the default for every post in the rest of the thread until someone else UN-selects them!! That's why both your post and mine showed up with the Like requirement - I just didn't look past the first Thanks bit & probably should have....

But, between us both, we've now removed that need for Thanks & Like for any following posters (hopefully anyway!) Still, I notice that at this stage, it appears not too many have been interested enough to both Thank & Like RudyB's post... & while he can't see that he's 'hidden the content' of his post (cos it's HIS, he doesn't hafta Thank or Like, so it all looks fine to him... ) he obviously hasn't looked back at the thread & read on any further either! I sent him a PM that he should get to read eventually... That Might get some result, or maybe a Mod/Admin type could edit his post so we can all see it?

[Easy Rider]

'Require thanks to see content' & 'Require Like to see content' triggers

This is just stupid......and those "options" should be removed.

And maybe at the same time the "ride" that you put in your profile could be displayed too.

I bring THAT up again because several times this week there have been posts made to a "non-model specific" sub-forum in which the poster did NOT show his ride in his signature. It appears that more users do NOT show it than those that do.

[south GA Farm Boy]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-NEW-Federa...W/222444863481

I ordered the Federal tires, and they do seem better than the Kenda's. Both of the new Federal tires have some flat places on them and still shake my handbars, and vibrate at certain speeds. They both balanced out with very little weights1 I would like to get two new tires that were round. This makes 7 tires on my 2016 RT Limited with only 1800 miles on it! Where can I buy some smooth round tires? Not on E-bay, the last 2 sets came off E-bay!

[Easy Rider]

Where can I buy some smooth round tires? Not on E-bay, the last 2 sets came off E-bay!

Sometimes cheaper turns out to be more expensive in the long run.

Have you considered visiting a REAL tire shop......where hopefully they will inspect new ones not only for balance but for roundness and true ???

[Slowpoke387]

Sometimes cheaper turns out to be more expensive in the long run.

Have you considered visiting a REAL tire shop......where hopefully they will inspect new ones not only for balance but for roundness and true ???

This is getting ridiculous tbh. The balancing issue with Spyders, i mean cmon these are basic wheels and basic tires, why the hell are so many having balancing issues? What gives? Ive never read about so many tire balancing problems with any vehicle as i have here.

[UtahPete]

For what it's worth, I've experienced no wandering or pulling on any kind of road. 2014 RTL; nothing at all done to the wheels, tires or suspension. Keep air pressure within specs. When I first got it, after riding 2-wheelers for decades, the Spyder experience took a little getting used to, but having learned to ride it with confidence I don't feel it is twitchy, light, heavy or any of the things reported here.

Stock Kenda's (which are great tires in my experience with them on my travel trailer). Smooth as silk.

[Easy Rider]

Ive never read about so many tire balancing problems with any vehicle as i have here.

Because some people don't understand that all tire defects can NOT be fixed by balancing.
And given your post, maybe you don't understand that either.

[south GA Farm Boy]

This is getting ridiculous tbh. The balancing issue with Spyders, i mean cmon these are basic wheels and basic tires, why the hell are so many having balancing issues? What gives? Ive never read about so many tire balancing problems with any vehicle as i have here.

If you have a Spyder that doesn't pull to the right, and the handbars doesn't shake, count your blessings! I had a 2013 RT Limited ahead of this new 2016 RT Limited, and it was as smooth as glass on the road with no pulling, no shaking, just great smooth riding with kenda tires from the factory on the front! Other than the heat issues, and the hot foot on the right side it was great, but I wanted the 3 cylinder engine, 6 speed transmission that everyone on this thread believes in! Well, 3 sets of front tires (Kenda, V-rubber, and Federal), 2 rolo laser alignments, one new wheel bearing, two dealers checking it out, one for a full week, rear tire off and balanced, rear belt tension set with laser, Buds set 3 times by dealers, front tires balanced 3 times, new brake rotor ordered and tested on right front, and it is still shaking and pulling and I have personally paid for 90% of those things! So I am sorry, if you don't understand what these Spyder riders are writing about! Count your blessing, believe me I know!

[TRLBLZR1]

Newbie here..... (on 3 wheels/this forum anyways)

With quite a bit of experience in powersports, prior to purchase I too was concerned with regards to how 3 wheels would "hold the road."
(We have crowned roads here, albeit subtle for the most part. Yet the road contour seems to have no noticeable effects.)

I must be one of the lucky ones... Just seems to drive like it's on rails!
(I honestly never even think about steering input etc., just does exactly as I think.)

Haven't had a single situation yet where I notice any kind of drift whatsoever.
Maybe it's the model and/or the drag bars? Maybe the laser alignment, maybe the new tires....
And it could be that I spent 35 years tearing around on snowmobile trails and riding sport bikes.

Handlebar design may have a lot to do with riding experience/road feedback. Narrower swept-back bars (unlike mine) may tend to make rider pull on them instead of pushing? And I'd wager that could leave the driver fighting the road & crown, instead of not noticing it. ~ Can't tell you why, but I just knew the drag bars were going to be the right choice for me. And that's why I ended up with the model I chose. They came stock on the unit.

As for tracking etc:
The only time I think mine exhibits "sub-par" handling is if you do a quick subtle left/right "jitter" on the bars which creates a slight wobble, that disappears almost instantly. (caused by low tire pressure specs.)
(And from reading these forums, I now know the reason for the weird vibration that I've only encountered several times in my first few hundred miles. Belt vibration. ~ Thought it was the road lol.)

The other day (without even thinking about it), after showing a friend my new ride as I drove off I gave a 2 <thumbs up> with both hands out like an eagle, high in the air, maybe @ 50 mph coming out of a very subtle LH turn? Wasn't even thinking about it, wasn't planned. Just a reaction. (Only sharing this because that's how confident this particular machine tracks. And no, I don't make it a practice of doing this. But I do frequently find myself at slower speeds "one-handing" the bar/throttle side around town on banked roads with almost 0 effort.) ~ Yep, I'm "old school" & use my left hands as secondary directional/stop indicators.

FWIW: I didn't buy a spyder with the idea of replacing a motorcycle. More along the lines of it being a "snowmowheel." (That's what I actually call it/use to describe it to friends.)
To me, it handles like an almost perfectly setup performance trail sled on good groomed snow. ~ And there are major similarities as to how it is driven: Body position,, steering and leaning in particular.

All I can add is: @ 52 yrs. old, I find my F3-S (paddle shift model) more fun to drive than any dirt bike, sport-bike, snowmobile, ATV or watercraft I've ever owned/demo'd. Maybe I'm showing my age?

[007james]

If you have a Spyder that doesn't pull to the right, and the handbars doesn't shake, count your blessings! I had a 2013 RT Limited ahead of this new 2016 RT Limited, and it was as smooth as glass on the road with no pulling, no shaking, just great smooth riding with kenda tires from the factory on the front! Other than the heat issues, and the hot foot on the right side it was great, but I wanted the 3 cylinder engine, 6 speed transmission that everyone on this thread believes in! Well, 3 sets of front tires (Kenda, V-rubber, and Federal), 2 rolo laser alignments, one new wheel bearing, two dealers checking it out, one for a full week, rear tire off and balanced, rear belt tension set with laser, Buds set 3 times by dealers, front tires balanced 3 times, new brake rotor ordered and tested on right front, and it is still shaking and pulling and I have personally paid for 90% of those things! So I am sorry, if you don't understand what these Spyder riders are writing about! Count your blessing, believe me I know!

In case you don't have a Belt Tensioner installed on your 2016, you might want to visit the Belt Tensioner threads here. My 2016 RT Limited has 1600 miles on it, and a Belt Tensioner along with Lazer Alignment and wheels balanced have reuced my shake, along with using the SOFT setting on the Air Ride Suspension. Belt vibration on these Triples are complicated. My 2012 didn't have belt vibration that I noticed.

[Slowpoke387]

Because some people don't understand that all tire defects can NOT be fixed by balancing.
And given your post, maybe you don't understand that either.

I dont recall ever posting that balancing tires should be the cure. I understand it perfectly. Im not one of the ones complaining about out of balance tires. Its the one thing our machine doesnt do. Ours does not shake. My post was in reference to all the complaints ive read here, meaning me questioning why there so many "defective" tires/shaking tires. Ive never seen so many complaints about shaking front tires that cant be figured out after alignments/balancing/replacement tires. Now that ive spelled it out clearly...gotta love how people assume.

[TRLBLZR1]

In case you don't have a Belt Tensioner installed on your 2016, you might want to visit the Belt Tensioner threads here. My 2016 RT Limited has 1600 miles on it, and a Belt Tensioner along with Lazer Alignment and wheels balanced have reuced my shake, along with using the SOFT setting on the Air Ride Suspension. Belt vibration on these Triples are complicated. My 2012 didn't have belt vibration that I noticed.

Counting my blessings that this one tracks like it's on rails!
On thing I did notice was a TON of balancing weights on the rear rim.... Like about 9 big squares, maybe more. (all in a strip) Going to make a count and mark them just in case....