Left Turns/Curves Still a Problem For Me....

[HankD]

After a little over 2,000 miles on my RTS, I still find long sweeping left hand turns "interesting", especially the ones that are entrance ramps to Interstate highways.

I agree with everything said previously about practice, body lean, foot pressure, push/pull on handlebars, etc. The one thing that I find that helps me the most is proper speed control. I downshift into the curve, and accelerate thru and out of it. The acceleration tends to give me more stability as I move thru the curve. A little counter-intuitive, but it works for me.

[Slowpoke387]

Can I jump in here as a newbie rather than start the 1000th newbie thread?
I never rode a Spyder nor a quad before. I've been riding street bikes for 30+ years over the past 50 years. Nothing crazy fast, mostly Honda CBs, BMWs, and I did ride a Harley in my last two years before retirement as a LEO. I also now own Triumph Bonneville and a Vespa GTS.

IDK if it was a good idea or bad to jump right in. Yesterday I bought a '13 ST from a great person 125 miles away from me. I took a Greyhound bus there and rode the ST home. Tell me if I'm normal (insert joke here). Riding away from his house I felt the front end wiggling on every road imperfection and was worried about my line in the lane and I took the 90* turns very slowly. I was convinced I made a mistake in purchasing it and felt like parking it right there. After the next 3 or so miles I was feeling a lot better. After those first few miles, the ride home was mostly interstate slab. I kept my speed to 66-72 indicated and noticed the curves in Pennsy were banked and I felt good. When I got into Joisey in general, the road surface was worse, and none of the curves have any banking. I noticed if I was cruising at 62-65, in the curves I was slowing to 57-59.

I have to say I don't feel like the centrifugal forces were going to throw me off the Spyder, but the fact that the Spyder doesn't lean made me worry the bike itself was going to roll over. I know this is unreasonable thinking on highway curves at the moderate speeds they are designed for, and with the Nanny system and all, but it still didn't feel good to me and was impossible for me to ignore.

I did at one point, take a break from the interstate and found myself on some twisty country roads. Sometimes I felt confident and was able to keep my speed 'normal' in twisties, sometimes I found myself slowing down IMO, way too much. I was practicing leaning and pressing on the outside peg.
One thing I can't understand of what you guys are saying. In a turn, with me leaning my body into it, how does pressing with my outside foot give enough force to compress the outside suspension? Seems a daunting task what with my body weight going the other way.

Are these feelings and performances normal, after all, it was my first ride? I'm still wondering if I made the right choice. Thanks for listening.

Completely normal. You sound a lot like me a few months ago. I came on here and complained and whined more than most. Just hated how squirelly the F3 felt. Hated it. Couldnt relax my grip and just enjoy the ride. The thing would just want to go wherever it felt. Really unstable too. Was convinced we had made a big mistake. I Came from a lifetime of two wheels including road racing experience. That def influenced my experience, in a negative way. I have owned every type of toy from quads to jet skiis to cruiser bikes to full on race bikes. So it took me longer than most to get used to the quad-like handling of the Spyder.
What has helped is just getting out there and riding. For about 1000 miles lol. After that i felt tons more confident but still felt there was a design element to these things that just wasnt right. Turns out the sway bar and shocks on these are total crap. Had those changed out and it made a big difference. But the biggest thing you need is seat time. I went from going 10mph under the speed limit everywhere to 10 over, safely lol. Spend time in the saddle just learning the characteristics of it. It wont flip over if you rail through turns. Learn the leaning through the turns, where to be in the power through turns to not upset the suspension, etc. Do all that before looking for the mechanical mods so that you will have a good perspective of before and after.
Pm me if you want.

[UtahPete]

Just hated how squirelly the F3 felt. Hated it. Couldnt relax my grip and just enjoy the ride. The thing would just want to go wherever it felt. Really unstable too. Was convinced we had made a big mistake. What has helped is just getting out there and riding. For about 1000 miles lol. After that i felt tons more confident but still felt there was a design element to these things that just wasnt right. Turns out the sway bar and shocks on these are total crap. Had those changed out and it made a big difference. But the biggest thing you need is seat time. I went from going 10mph under the speed limit everywhere to 10 over, safely lol. Spend time in the saddle just learning the characteristics of it. It wont flip over if you rail through turns. Learn the leaning through the turns, where to be in the power through turns to not upset the suspension, etc. Do all that before looking for the mechanical mods so that you will have a good perspective of before and after.
Pm me if you want.

This sounds like good advice for newbies. My wife has about 500 miles Spydering at this point (with no prior 2-wheel experience) and is frustrated with herself for not coming up to speed quicker than she is. Saddle time; no substitute for it really.

[classicvw]

Completely normal. You sound a lot like me a few months ago. I came on here and complained and whined more than most. Just hated how squirelly the F3 felt. Hated it. Couldnt relax my grip and just enjoy the ride. The thing would just want to go wherever it felt. Really unstable too. Was convinced we had made a big mistake. I Came from a lifetime of two wheels including road racing experience. That def influenced my experience, in a negative way. I have owned every type of toy from quads to jet skiis to cruiser bikes to full on race bikes. So it took me longer than most to get used to the quad-like handling of the Spyder.
What has helped is just getting out there and riding. For about 1000 miles lol. After that i felt tons more confident but still felt there was a design element to these things that just wasnt right. Turns out the sway bar and shocks on these are total crap. Had those changed out and it made a big difference. But the biggest thing you need is seat time. I went from going 10mph under the speed limit everywhere to 10 over, safely lol. Spend time in the saddle just learning the characteristics of it. It wont flip over if you rail through turns. Learn the leaning through the turns, where to be in the power through turns to not upset the suspension, etc. Do all that before looking for the mechanical mods so that you will have a good perspective of before and after.
Pm me if you want.

Thanks for the reply slowpoke. (and the others too) No matter how many times you hear "Ride it 1000 miles, you'll get better and better", you still have that bit of doubt in the back of your mind.

BTW- I see your profile picture is at Mark's Motorsports. I've bought two bikes from them, each time traveling 275 miles round trip because as dealers and people they're THAT GOOD. I just missed out on a Spyder from them that was sold while I was figuring things out and selling another bike to make room. Not that I have room for it now, LOL.

[foxtail1]

After a nice weekend ryde, I'm finally over 400 miles on my F3-S, and it's starting to feel better. The left hand curves are still my weakest performance, but the advice I've read here and on the FB page really has helped. The bit that made the biggest difference to me this weekend was to fall back on my 2 wheel training and power out of the curves. Yep, the bike really will keep going where you want it to. I also think I got some poor guidance initially, being told that I'm not on 2 wheels any more so leaning into the curves was pointless. That is (at least for me) manifestly untrue. Putting it all together now (leaning, pushing down on the outside floorboard, and powering through) actually made those curves start to feel fun again. I'm getting there!

[Terrance]

Thank you for sharing the video, I have never seen anything quite like it.