Durango and Spyder reliability.

[docdoru]

Most of us returned home after the 2012 Durango BRP event clocking hundreds and thousands of miles. From the 3-400 Spyders, some have technical problems: LIMP mode, DPS, brake, clutches...or parts failure; others just required an oil change. What was your Spyder reliability experience?

[NancysToy]

We did 4,300 miles on the RTS, towing the trailer. One limp mode incident for the DPS in strong cross winds on a long, sweeping curve...reset OK. One more limp mode in 114 degree air temps (120+ on the dash). I shut off the Spyder to get gas and the water temp went into the red. Everything cleared on the restart, as soon as the coolant circulated and the fan brought the temps down. A car could easily have done the same thing. I had two incidents of fuel boiling after I stopped for the night or started to fill the hot Spyder with fuel. After off-gassing a few seconds those cleared. Hours and hours of riding in 100+ degree temps can cause these little things. Used a bit over 1 qt of oil for the entire journey...more than I expected, possibly due in part to my switch to full syn. Beyond that, all we suffered was a 14 pound accumulation of bug guts.

[Spydeb]

I rode 820 mile straight home from Durango, I have 21,000 miles on a 2009 RS SM5
I need an oil change and a new coolant bottle.
I feel that running for hours at above 100 degree heat may have built up too much pressure for the plastic coolant bottle. Other than that no worse for wear. Can't wait for my dealer to get the new bottle in I'm ready to try for the "iron butt" so I can have a button on my bike like Doc!

[flamingobabe]

My Spyder performed perfectly....it loved being in the high altitudes...I'm not sure what the difference is...but I got the best gas mileage ever...all the way to Durango and home...2700 miles...the olny thing I've done is put Spyderpops 'Bump Skid' on the Spyder over Memorial weekend.....did roll over 40,000 miles in 2 years 1 month...getting ready to replace plugs and wires and check valves and coolant ...of course...change oil...love my Spyder

[docdoru]

Beside oil change (I have to baby the new engine) the Spyder was running like a champ in this "around the corner" 5,600 miles trip. However on the way back the left back fender support failed:

[Jeriatric]

1600+ miles here. Trouble free both ways and straight through both ways. Average speed of 50 MPH(without trip time pauses). Fuel mileage really suffered in the high temps.

[Badazzspydee]

2944 miles pulling the rt622 trailer and the "Pearl" ran like a top. The dash showed 118 degrees one day when the actual temp was 111 degrees. No faults or fuel problems. Had plenty of power in the mountains as long as you kept in the 5000 to 6000 rpm range. I decided I need to get a different seat though, the stock one just didn't do it on a long trip for me. The wife was a real trooper with the heat and miles we put on.

[WaltH]

My round trip was 4,900 miles including a side trip to the Denver area. I was away from home for 16 days. My instrument cluster began to fail on the second day out. It was replaced by BRP in Durango. The BRP guys were very responsive. Other than the instrument cluster, the RT was great. It handled the extreme heat better than I did (even pulling new trailer). For the most part, I stopped riding when the ambient temperature went over 100 degrees. On the way home there were record high temperatures everywhere except Florida. In the future I may try riding at night and sleeping during the day. Maybe BRP will schedule the owner's event in the spring or fall?

[SpydherLuv]

I travelled over 2400 miles towing a trailer and averaged anywhere from 20MPG to 36MPG - and everywhere in-between - in hot and windy conditions. Libby ran perfectly, with the exception of running out of gas about 100 miles from home...but that was her owner's fault .

[Yazz]

Beside oil change (I have to baby the new engine) the Spyder was running like a champ in this "around the corner" 5,600 miles trip. However on the way back the left back fender support failed:

Glad you had matching silver duct tape!

Aside from the gas cap not sealing and both spark plug wires arcing, Spydee ran great!

[SpyderAnn01]

This was a short trip for me just 1400 miles total and the Spyder ran great. I also got the best gas mileage ever and I had a passenger and the RT622. Love the altitude! I had the boiling gas issue like Scotty on my way to Spyderfest and I replaced the gas cap and have not had any issues since.

[StanProff]

I didn't make it to Durango but have done a few trips without problems. Last September, with the wife, bike loaded and pulling the 622 trailer, we made a 4,500 mile loop from east tennessee to South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorodo, etc. and back on a 17 day vacation. I had one limp mode after gassing up while pulling out. Circled back to the station turned off, didn't know what to do, restarted and continued 1500 miles home. Of course I was wondering if it would happen again and a little worried, but things were fine, got encourgemint from Spyderlovers that night and didn't worry to much. I have gone on a 1400 mile run to the outer banks of North Carolina a month ago with no issues. Two weeks ago the wife and I done the Blue Ridge parkway and had a round trip of about 1100 miles. no problems. Mine is a 2010 RT S. Now have 12000 miles on it, I am happy.

Stan

[Cliff-Co.]

We did 4,300 miles on the RTS, towing the trailer. One limp mode incident for the DPS in strong cross winds on a long, sweeping curve...reset OK. One more limp mode in 114 degree air temps (120+ on the dash). I shut off the Spyder to get gas and the water temp went into the red. Everything cleared on the restart, as soon as the coolant circulated and the fan brought the temps down. A car could easily have done the same thing. I had two incidents of fuel boiling after I stopped for the night or started to fill the hot Spyder with fuel. After off-gassing a few seconds those cleared. Hours and hours of riding in 100+ degree temps can cause these little things. Used a bit over 1 qt of oil for the entire journey...more than I expected, possibly due in part to my switch to full syn. Beyond that, all we suffered was a 14 pound accumulation of bug guts.

sound's like ya are have'n better luck with this r. t., than ya did the other black r.t. ????

[BajaRon]

Our round trip was about 6,000 miles, East Tennessee to Durango, then San Diego, CA and back. Used about 3/4 quart of oil on this trip and I did have some issues.

1- At high altitude I stalled on taking off at a stop light and immediately hit the start button. The engine started right up but I got 'Limp Mode'. I pulled over on the other side of the intersection, shut the engine off, waited about 30 seconds and re-started. Limp mode cleared and that was the end of that.

2- During our ride to 'The 'Million Dollar Highway' between Silverton and Ouray we stopped for gas. I didn't need any so I just pulled to the side and sat waiting for others to fuel up. Then smoke started rolling out from under my seat above the battery compartment (engine off). Looked like my Spyder was on fire! (where is a good fireman when you need one!?). We are not talking a little bit of smoke here. As the worse case senerio ran through my mind and I'm seeing myself riding the back of another Spyder like Peoriafirefighter Dan, I popped the seat to see what was up.

I had installed wiring for heated gear about a year ago. The pigtail connectors are coiled under the seat near the battery and these were melting away and furiously generating smoke. I Pulled the fuses (wondering why they had not blown in the 1st place) but that didn't help. How could my wires continue to glow red hot with no fuses?

I had charged my battery just before the trip and did not get the cover completely back over the positive battery terminal. The negative connection on the heated gear terminals protrude and the pigtail had worked its way down to the exposed positive battery terminal and shorted out. That is why the fuses did not blow.

Amazingly, there was no collateral damage and I simply cut off the melted wiring and I was good to go.

3- My aftermarket Audiovox cruise control quit on me about 300 miles into the trip. Being able to take my right hand off the throttle really increases my ablilty to go long distance without too much discomfort.

4- I ordered a new control head for my cruise control thinking this might resolve the issue. I had it sent to my Brother-in-Law's home in California where we were headed to from Durango. It came on Monday and I installed it Tuesday eveing. I was staying about 25 miles away at my mother's home so after the install was completed I pulled out about 10pm and discovered that I had NO HEADLIGHTS! AAaaahhhhh! My dash board said the headlights were on, but they weren't.

It is a long, dark road from Lakeside to Poway up Hwy 67. I do have the LED Day Runners and Pucks but these are very short distance lights. Not intended to replace headlights. I could have just stayed at my B-I-L's house but I'm too stubborn for that so I kept going. Wouldn't you know, just a few miles up the road I pass a highway patrol going the other way! I watch my mirror for his brake lights (can't see anything in front of me anyway!) but nothing! He just keeps going! One less issue!

I finally come up behind a car going the same way and I rode his headlights the rest of the way to my mother's house.

Next day I get up early and tear my Spyder down. I got very little sleep thinking of how in the world installing the Cruise Control head caused the loss of my headlights and I'm not coming up with any ideas. I've got HID's from KB Car Stuff (great products by the way and I highly recommend their HID headlights). After checking everything I could think of I called Lamont.

He says 'Did you check this?' (yes), 'Did you try that?', (yes) until he runs out of ideas too. It didn't look good because we were leaving the next morning. I can make it back to East Tennessee without cruise control, but not without headlights. So I went back to the house and sat down on the couch to rack my brain again. It's a small rack so I figured it wouldn't take too long.

What kept nagging me was that each headlight runs off its own isolated system. If a bulb burned out or a ballast went bad I'd still have 1 headlight. With both going out at the same time it would seem to be a power issue, not a headlight issue. I knew the relay was working so the power had to be cut between the relay and the headlights.

I kept thinking that when we installed the HID's there were fuses involved. I could not find any fuses under the instrument bezzel and I asked Lamont about them. He couldn't remember for sure if there were fuses or not. After about 30 minutes it struck me. I just assumed that the install of the cruise control head and the headlight issue happened at the same time. But as I thought about when I last rode my Spyder at night it occurred to me that I had only ridden in the dark once since my 'fire' incident at the Silverton gas station. And this was a very short distance right in Durango where I may not have noticed that my headlights were out.

With a light bulb coming on in my brain and joy in my heart (along with a bit of embarrisment that I had not realized this sooner) I grabbed the fuses I'd removed several days earlier and went out to my Spyder. In my frinzy to end the meltdown of my wiring I'd removed 3 fuses. As it turns out, 1 was for my heated gear pigtails and 2 were for the HID headlights. Lamont and I had run power directly off the battery for the headlights (as probably recommended in the instructions) so they were located in the same area as the pigtail fuse. It had been so long ago that I'd forgotten.

Chrisis Averted!

So, though I did have issues, none were BRP/Spyder related. All's well that ends well!

[flamingobabe]

Beside oil change (I have to baby the new engine) the Spyder was running like a champ in this "around the corner" 5,600 miles trip. However on the way back the left back fender support failed:

hg found my rear fender cracking about 6 months ago...he removed the paint used dye-penetrant to find the end of the cracks...drilled the ends of the cracks then welded it back...painted and now it's good

[hotglue]

docdoru
FB coulda hooked ya up with some PINK duct tape!!!!!!!

[GloryRyders]

This was a 3800 mile trip, give or take a few miles. The only issue was Saturday morning at 4:30AM when we were heading out of Durango, I got the dreaded "check DPS" message and went into limp mode. We pulled over, shut down the Spyder and gave it a rest for a couple of minuets. When we restarted, the messages went away and it ran like a champ all the way back to Durango. When the Fun Center opened, they checked out the issue, installed the two new updates that came out while we were gone, and I was back on the road with no issues.

[docdoru]

docdoru
FB coulda hooked ya up with some PINK duct tape!!!!!!!

[spyderrock]

total km for me was 8560km or 5318 miles. This was the longest trip I have ever taken on a bike, 17 days on the road. Bike ran great but it did stall about 5 times on the way down, at the owners event I had the techs look at it and they did the updates and installed a new purge valve. The next day I headed to Fun Center for a oil change and while doing the inspection they found a broken plug wire, they had one over nighted by BRP. New plug wire installed and the rt is running better than ever. No problems coming home, my wife flew into Denver Sunday early AM and we spent 7 days making our way home. Drove through 5 days of very hot weather in Utah and Idaho bike had no problems. Funny thing towing the Aluma trailer by myself on the bike I got 150 miles per tank, with my wife on the bike still got 150 miles per tank or roughly 240km. I to realize that I need some kind of after market seat on the rt the factory seat is ok but my Butt still hurts.

[cyclelover63]

My wife and I rode 2,584 mile round trip to Durango..Our 2009 GS SE5 got anywhere from 25 to 40 mpg pulling a fiberglass,but fully loaded trailer.I don't know if it was the altitude,or the switch to 88 octane when 87 was unavailable...No troubles,except a sticky parking brake. I took it to the local dealer to get my oil changed,and he left the drain plug loose,causing almost a quart of oil on my garage floor...I only used about 5 teaspoons of oil on the trip...Very satisfied
By local dealer,I meant the local dealer in Illinois after I got back.....NOT Durango dealer!!!

[hrbeta]

Beside oil change (I have to baby the new engine) the Spyder was running like a champ in this "around the corner" 5,600 miles trip. However on the way back the left back fender support failed:

You trend setter, you doc you... LOL


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Paula(Butch2025)]

3600 miles on an "08 GS and a "12 RS...one limp mode (vss code) for the "08 and we both lost a bolt or two - Butch's license plate is being held on with a zip tie right now! Other than heat and altitude causing some weirdness with our gas gauges they both ran great!

[RTGENE]

The event was more fun than the Chicago trip---that one had rain all the way home.
In Albuquerque nine fingers tells me I have no running lights?
Tech's at Durango were unbelievable-----figured out it was the key ignition switch had burned up.
Tore down the RT and put it back together under 2 hours. All the Tupperware and dash from the seat forward.
Got me a temporary fix to get me home-------just to stay on the safe side only drove during the day.
2974 Miles most fill up's around 30MPG----Crossed the Continental divide headed south for Raton Pass and got 41MPG go figure.
So were to next year. Maybe meet up with Pee-wee get an up date on his travels

[ABQ_Spyderman]

My Spyder performed perfectly....it loved being in the high altitudes...I'm not sure what the difference is...but I got the best gas mileage ever...all the way to Durango and home...2700 miles...the olny thing I've done is put Spyderpops 'Bump Skid' on the Spyder over Memorial weekend.....did roll over 40,000 miles in 2 years 1 month...getting ready to replace plugs and wires and check valves and coolant ...of course...change oil...love my Spyder

I can't explain the incredible mileage either. I got 43mpg on my ride from ABQ to Mountainair. I mentioned this to RAYYOU and Captblack on our ride and they were right there with me. The theme was "I don't trust my fuel gauge!".
I also experienced really good mileage to Durango and back, but nothing like my 43/gallon to Mountainair. Lamont mentioned that he and one of his friends got 44 miles per gallon en route back from Durango to Albuquerque. That beats my 43, but man I will take that every day of the week!

[Desert Spyder]

I broke my clutch hub going home on Hwy 160 about 10 miles south/west of Durango. AAA towed the RT & RT622 in to Fun Center where I ran into Doc, who was ryding SethO's bike, the GloryRyders and a few others. Good time of fellowship outside talking about our bikes and MRSA (google it). I had to rent a car as the part was not expected in to Wednesday (turned out to be Thursday as BRP shipped the wrong part) and the bike and I finally arrived home in Calif. Sunday at noon. Lyle and staff at Fun Center went beyond the call of duty that weekend certainly deserve a Spyder Medal for Incredible Service. Didn't happen to have one with me so I left them with the pieces of the broken clutch hub instead. I wish I had Lamonts and others MPG but I averaged about 28 towing the trailer. Something about getting away from California gas agreed with the bike. I wouldn't trade this trip despite the mechanical issues. Thank you BRP!

PS: I kinda like that idea about the Spyder Medal for Incredible Service. We need to design something like that. A tip is nice but its temporary. A medal is forever!