Is it just the RT?!

[zamfield]

You'll hear more complaints about the RT simply because it has more going on. There is more gadgetry to fail or be problematic.

This is my point though... more gadgets shouldn't (and judging by the majority of replies, doesn't) mean more problems!
Companies in my opinion, all over the world are putting out substandard products these days... again, I'm generalizing .

[DrewNJ]

This is my point though... more gadgets shouldn't (and judging by the majority of replies, doesn't) mean more problems!
Companies in my opinion, all over the world are putting out substandard products these days... again, I'm generalizing .

It's just life bro'. If it's mechanical or electronic it will be more prone to breaking. But only more prone simply because it exists.

If your worried about gadgets breaking than the solution is to buy simple. Buy an RS or a base RT.

[Can-Am Poogs]

Will be selling my RTS and going back to a HD. I'm not used to a bike going in for a repair and not coming out three weeks later. No slam on Spyders but I rather go to a bike shop that fixes bikes and bikes only, not atvs and utvs and personal water crafts and snowmobiles. It's not a recipe for good service. At least with HD you can get it back in a couple of days or by the end of a week. Even my kawasaki has better dealership service, and if I need parts overnight freight that is actually overnight. Bikes break down. The RTS no more than anything else. BRP falls short on customer support and service technician knowledge. I have enjoyed the product. I had a great purchase experience, but with a short motorcycle season, I have higher expectations of BRP. Most of the complaints I read here are about frustrations getting repairs done properly and timely, not that the bike break down.


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[zamfield]

It's just life bro'. If it's mechanical or electronic it will be more prone to breaking. But only more prone simply because it exists.

If your worried about gadgets breaking than the solution is to buy simple. Buy an RS or a base RT.

I didn't say I was worried... I've an STS that's been wonderful, its first few thousand miles in a couple of months.
My other gadgets are wonderful too.

Just seems that we buy things nowadays and give it no thought when (BMW) brakes fail, or things melt due to over heating, or keys get jammed in ignitions... are companies rushing to get things out these days or am I rushing to judgment?? - I don't think so.

[Oldmanzues]

17k on a 2008 GS/RS with no real problem, 26K on 2010 RT with no real problems except me old and not able to ride long distances, like to the LaMonster BBQ.
I have aways wondered about the heat thing. I did get Spyderpops stuff, but did not feel the heat was a major issue for me. Apparently some 2013's had huge problems, so will leave them out of my rant/discussion.
98 degrees heat on Harley in Pigeon forge, did not realize Car show along road.
96 degrees at a rallly in MS
How many of the heat issue guy/gals had previous experience on other motorcycles?
Oldmanzues

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Just seems that we buy things nowadays and give it no thought when (BMW) brakes fail, or things melt due to over heating, or keys get jammed in ignitions... are companies rushing to get things out these days or am I rushing to judgment?? - I don't think so.

You really are not rushing to judgment, but I think you are mistaken. Out of curiosity, how many years have you been shuffling around on this mortal coil? The reason I ask is I'm wondering if you are familiar with cars from the 60's and 70's. If so you will notice there are a lot of quality improvements in cars today. For example, I can remember as a kid my older brother bragging how he was able to get 16,000 miles out of a set of Goodyear Double Eagle tires on his '56 Chevy. Remember changing spark plugs every few thousand miles. Now they go for 100,000 miles. My '70 Dodge station wagon had a shot transmission at 90,000 miles. Now they regularly last up to 200,000. Remember distributor points? Used to go bad about every 10,000 miles. Now, no points at all. It's computer controlled. And speaking of computers just think how well the ECM functions, like the one in the Spyder. It controls hundreds of parameters and reads them hundreds of times per second. At 4800 RPM it fires each spark plug 40 times per second. And seldom, if ever, hangs like your PC does.

What you are probably seeing is a greater and greater push to not over design or over build a product like manufacturers used to do. If the Spyder is designed for a life of, say, 60,000 miles, 90+ per cent of the them will last from something like 50,000 to 70,000 miles, 5% less than 50k, and 5% more than 70k. These numbers are examples only. I don't feel like digging out the values and discussion of +/- 3 sigmas that characterize normal distributions seen in real life manufacturing.

So even though it often seems like product quality is going to hell in a hand basket, overall the opposite is the real case. That's one of the reasons why failures are so noticeable and garner so much attention, they are the exception, not the rule like it was 50 years ago.

[Woodsrider]

2012 RT, no heat issues...or anything else other than a water deflector that decided to go walkabout. My Electra Glide Ultra Classic had heat issues, sucker would cook your eggs on a warm day, especially at a stop light.

[Questions]

I have a 2014 RT with 1700 mi since Aug 1. Only issue was a bad parking brake motor which has been fixed.
many of the issues with heat are on a small number of 2013 RT and ST models. Tire wear on the new RT appears to be due to a change in the tire composition which BRP has recently rectified.
Beyond that, as others have mentioned, this forum is a great place for help from other owners and the few problems seem to be accentuated. Those without issues are too busy ryding to post!

noticed your comment regarding tire wear. Haven't heard about BRP changing the tire composition. Rear tire on my 2014 RT Limited was worn out at 11600 km or 7200 miles. Apparently BRP agreed to cover it under warranty but have not got my money back from the dealer yet. Also not to happy with the replacement tire. Have only about 5500 km or 3400 miles and it already shows significant wear.
Did the dealer tell you about BRP changing the tire composition
Other than tire wear no problemes with the 2014 rt. Good improvement in the gas mileage however do find the 1330 motor a little noisy. Do like the sound of the twin better