Lamonster
09-05-2009, 12:23 AM
It's been a long day but I figured I better post this now while It's still fresh in my mind, not much stays fresh in there these days. :D
We started the day with a meeting with BRP and the media folks to go over some of the nuts and bolts of the RT launch and what was expected of us as test riders of the pre production units.
Contrary to a post I just read BRP really wants our honest opinion as riders, good bad and ugly. They did not restrict us from saying publicly if we didn't like something and they encouraged us to report anything we didn't like to then asap and if they can make the change now before they go into production they would.
They also said this is not a TV ad but a personal blog of what we thought of the RT as a end user. We are not getting paid for this, as a matter of fact any expense trip wise is out of our pockets, this is not a compensated review other than we get to be the first in the country to put the RT through it's paces before anyone else. We do have to turn them back in as these are not production units. At that time we can decide if we want to buy one or not. The bummer is we are to turn them in 1-31-2010 and that's my birthday. I guess my birthday present from BRP was being able ride the RT before anyone else and being able to share it with you all. That's not a bad gig if you can get it. :doorag:
After our meeting we headed out to the units. I pretty much knew how everything worked but they still walked us through the controls and features once again. We did a few parking lot test rides and lined up for our run. The plan was to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway for about five hours but we got stuck in some really bad traffic and we kept having to pull over so the group could all stick together seeing none of us knew exactly where we were going.
This was before we took off. I said we were going for a five mile ride in the video, I meant a 5 hour ride. Guess I was a little tired from the night before. :opps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZPTh4UnOc
One of the first things I had to get use to was the "Fly by Wire" throttle. It was a little lite for me and I talked to Mark about that and they have already made a change to add 15% more drag in the production units. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll try and explain the best I can. The RT doesn't use a throttle cable like the RS, instead it has a wire that tells a computer when to open the throttle bodies. It's more like a potentiometer or rheostat and therefor there is no cable drag or spring to overcome when you twist the throttle. I'm not sure how they add 15% more resistance but I'm guessing it's just software. :D That's a inside joke. Whenever something needs changed Mark tells the engineers that "it's just software right?" I guess that drives them nuts. :doorag:
So we head out of the parking lot and right away I start judging it by the Spyder I just put 40,000+ miles on. I worked hard to get my Spyder where I liked it and this was not what I did to mine. The first thing I noticed were my bars were about the same height (4" risers) but these were pulled back more. Turns out that wasn't a big deal but I thought it was at first. I don't know if it was muscle memory or what but you know how it is when you feel like your arms or legs should be somewhere and they're not. That's how I felt at first.
I was a little twitchy on the throttle too because I was use to a certain amount of drag and it just wasn't there. It took right at 30 miles before the bars and the throttle felt fine to me. I think the extra 15% drag will still be good but you can get use to it.
I was wearing a 3/4 helmet with a flip shield. Right away I notice that I wasn't getting any turbulence even with the shield up. As you know the windshield is adjustable and I had it on the lowest setting and that was working just fine for me. I got just enough wind to keep me cool but not so much that it was pushing my head around. I'm not a windshield kind of a guy but I got to say they nailed it on this one. It worked perfect for me and it could be raised another 3.5" if you needed to.
After I got the feel of the RT I started playing with the controls to see how easy they were to operate while driving. I found them very easy to use and kind of fun to play with. The radio worked well but the cruise control didn't. I kept playing with it thinking I was doing something wrong but it turns out there were a couple of units that had a problem and as the luck of the draw goes I got one of those units. This turned out to be a good thing but I'm not to that part of the story yet.
So here we are in the middle of heavy traffic and it's hot, real hot. Stop and go and really the worst case scenario. I was kind of glad because if this thing was going to over heat I wanted it to do it now while I had the support of the Spyder team with me. Guess what, it never did over heat and not only that they really did a great job and getting the heat awy from the rider even when you're sitting still. I had to put my hand by the vent just to make sure the fan was on and it was but none of the heat from the fan gets back to the rider. That was a huge improvement because I know how hot I would have been if I was on my RS.
The only heat I was getting was in the crouch area and they are aware of this problem on our units and have addressed it on the production units. If they got that fixed then they nailed the heat issue as far and getting stuck in traffic or riding down town where you're not moving much air.
This was where we pulled off to wait for the rest of the group to catch up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6uoAm4uWY
From there we proceeded to get lost. As you know that's not always a bad thing but it was kind of funny making all those u-turns. I'm usually the one that leads and does that.
By this time we were way off schedule and needed to get something to eat. That took about a hour to get to where ever we were and get some food. Right away as we pulled into town the people started checking us out. We found a parking spot and didn't even get off the RT's before a couple of gals came out of the building to start asking questions. It was great to see Mark doing the Q&A instead on me. I went ahead and videoed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEJdOPdCafw
From there we talked about what we liked and what we didn't like about the RT. I think we all felt like the bars were a little too close at first but got use to it pretty quick and it wasn't a big deal. Now that you have more of a upright riding stance it could really use a drivers backrest but that may be left up to the aftermarket guys. All in all I think we were hard pressed to find something we really hated about the RT. It has plenty of power even with the extra 230 lbs and the braking was great too. I would like to see the seat dished out a little more so you sat in it but I seemed to be the only one that felt it needed work.
After lunch we fueled up and headed back to the hotel. We made one more stop along the way and that's when Martin asked if I wanted to swap bikes so I could try the cruise control. I said sure and didn't think much about it because we had another toy to try. I had my iphone 3Gs and I asked if it would work in the built in ipod connection. They were pretty sure it would but hadn't tested it. It didn't work as a phone but it would have worked just fine as a ipod but I didn't have any music loaded. So then I asked if it would work with Pandora. They never heard of it but we tried it and it worked great. Pandora is a free app for the iphone that is pretty much just like XM raido but it streams music from the internet. I was able to listen to Pandora all the way back to the hotel with no problem.
That brings me to my next thing I love about the RT. The sound system on this thing is wild. I got to tell you that when I take these long rides cross country with my XM and earbuds it is a pretty painful deal by day two of the ride. My ears will swell and sometimes I get sores from having them in 16 hours a day. With the speaker system on the RT this will never be a problem again. I don't know how they did it but some how they have the speakers angled so the music is going in my head, I mean I don't hear it in front of me or in back of me, I just hear it as if I had earbuds in. It blew me away how well that worked. You just got to try it to hear what I'm talking about. There was plenty of push through the speakers too and having the volume go up and down as you increased speed was real handy, I loved it.
So now for the Nirvana part of my ride. You remember when I told you my cruise control didn't work on my RT and that turned out to be a good thing? Martin offered to let me ride his Spyder to check it out? What I didn't know is his RT was a SE (semi auto) and to be honest with you I've only drove a SE up and down my driveway one time. I loved the auto tranny in my Boss Hoss and if I could have ordered a SE when I got mine I would have but instead I wound up with a SM and it's been just fine for 40,000+ miles. So today I get a chance to put some real miles on a SE and I fell head over heals in love with that thing, no joke. This really completed the package for me and the more I rode it the more I liked it and hoped we would get lost a few more times before we made it back to the hotel.
This thing shifted great and to me felt faster than the SM. It was nice to be rolling along at 50 mph and when the whole world stops in front of you all you have to do is hit the brake. Riding through town was no longer a drag either because I didn't have to work the clutch on and off in stop and go traffic. I honestly can't see a downside to going with the SE and that may just put me over the top to buying one. It changed the whole ride for me even though the SM worked great too, this just worked better.
I almost forgot all about the cruise control but that thing works great. When you pick a speed and hit set it's set. There's no drop in speed no nothing it works so good that it's unexpected when you let go of the throttle. I never varying more than 2 mph and when you hit the brakes or shift a gear it kicks out. Once again it's the best cruise control I've ever used.
So now I'm blowing down the road listening to my favorite tunes on my iphone 3Gs on Pandora with one of the most killer sounds systems I've ever used with the best wind protection I've ever had and I wasn't having to think about clutching or burning up in stop and go traffic and I'm thinking it just don't get much better than this.
If this sounds like a paid endorsement it wasn't, this is how I really feel after spending the day on the Spyder RT. You just got to try it for yourself.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=478&pictureid=5778
We started the day with a meeting with BRP and the media folks to go over some of the nuts and bolts of the RT launch and what was expected of us as test riders of the pre production units.
Contrary to a post I just read BRP really wants our honest opinion as riders, good bad and ugly. They did not restrict us from saying publicly if we didn't like something and they encouraged us to report anything we didn't like to then asap and if they can make the change now before they go into production they would.
They also said this is not a TV ad but a personal blog of what we thought of the RT as a end user. We are not getting paid for this, as a matter of fact any expense trip wise is out of our pockets, this is not a compensated review other than we get to be the first in the country to put the RT through it's paces before anyone else. We do have to turn them back in as these are not production units. At that time we can decide if we want to buy one or not. The bummer is we are to turn them in 1-31-2010 and that's my birthday. I guess my birthday present from BRP was being able ride the RT before anyone else and being able to share it with you all. That's not a bad gig if you can get it. :doorag:
After our meeting we headed out to the units. I pretty much knew how everything worked but they still walked us through the controls and features once again. We did a few parking lot test rides and lined up for our run. The plan was to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway for about five hours but we got stuck in some really bad traffic and we kept having to pull over so the group could all stick together seeing none of us knew exactly where we were going.
This was before we took off. I said we were going for a five mile ride in the video, I meant a 5 hour ride. Guess I was a little tired from the night before. :opps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZPTh4UnOc
One of the first things I had to get use to was the "Fly by Wire" throttle. It was a little lite for me and I talked to Mark about that and they have already made a change to add 15% more drag in the production units. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll try and explain the best I can. The RT doesn't use a throttle cable like the RS, instead it has a wire that tells a computer when to open the throttle bodies. It's more like a potentiometer or rheostat and therefor there is no cable drag or spring to overcome when you twist the throttle. I'm not sure how they add 15% more resistance but I'm guessing it's just software. :D That's a inside joke. Whenever something needs changed Mark tells the engineers that "it's just software right?" I guess that drives them nuts. :doorag:
So we head out of the parking lot and right away I start judging it by the Spyder I just put 40,000+ miles on. I worked hard to get my Spyder where I liked it and this was not what I did to mine. The first thing I noticed were my bars were about the same height (4" risers) but these were pulled back more. Turns out that wasn't a big deal but I thought it was at first. I don't know if it was muscle memory or what but you know how it is when you feel like your arms or legs should be somewhere and they're not. That's how I felt at first.
I was a little twitchy on the throttle too because I was use to a certain amount of drag and it just wasn't there. It took right at 30 miles before the bars and the throttle felt fine to me. I think the extra 15% drag will still be good but you can get use to it.
I was wearing a 3/4 helmet with a flip shield. Right away I notice that I wasn't getting any turbulence even with the shield up. As you know the windshield is adjustable and I had it on the lowest setting and that was working just fine for me. I got just enough wind to keep me cool but not so much that it was pushing my head around. I'm not a windshield kind of a guy but I got to say they nailed it on this one. It worked perfect for me and it could be raised another 3.5" if you needed to.
After I got the feel of the RT I started playing with the controls to see how easy they were to operate while driving. I found them very easy to use and kind of fun to play with. The radio worked well but the cruise control didn't. I kept playing with it thinking I was doing something wrong but it turns out there were a couple of units that had a problem and as the luck of the draw goes I got one of those units. This turned out to be a good thing but I'm not to that part of the story yet.
So here we are in the middle of heavy traffic and it's hot, real hot. Stop and go and really the worst case scenario. I was kind of glad because if this thing was going to over heat I wanted it to do it now while I had the support of the Spyder team with me. Guess what, it never did over heat and not only that they really did a great job and getting the heat awy from the rider even when you're sitting still. I had to put my hand by the vent just to make sure the fan was on and it was but none of the heat from the fan gets back to the rider. That was a huge improvement because I know how hot I would have been if I was on my RS.
The only heat I was getting was in the crouch area and they are aware of this problem on our units and have addressed it on the production units. If they got that fixed then they nailed the heat issue as far and getting stuck in traffic or riding down town where you're not moving much air.
This was where we pulled off to wait for the rest of the group to catch up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6uoAm4uWY
From there we proceeded to get lost. As you know that's not always a bad thing but it was kind of funny making all those u-turns. I'm usually the one that leads and does that.
By this time we were way off schedule and needed to get something to eat. That took about a hour to get to where ever we were and get some food. Right away as we pulled into town the people started checking us out. We found a parking spot and didn't even get off the RT's before a couple of gals came out of the building to start asking questions. It was great to see Mark doing the Q&A instead on me. I went ahead and videoed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEJdOPdCafw
From there we talked about what we liked and what we didn't like about the RT. I think we all felt like the bars were a little too close at first but got use to it pretty quick and it wasn't a big deal. Now that you have more of a upright riding stance it could really use a drivers backrest but that may be left up to the aftermarket guys. All in all I think we were hard pressed to find something we really hated about the RT. It has plenty of power even with the extra 230 lbs and the braking was great too. I would like to see the seat dished out a little more so you sat in it but I seemed to be the only one that felt it needed work.
After lunch we fueled up and headed back to the hotel. We made one more stop along the way and that's when Martin asked if I wanted to swap bikes so I could try the cruise control. I said sure and didn't think much about it because we had another toy to try. I had my iphone 3Gs and I asked if it would work in the built in ipod connection. They were pretty sure it would but hadn't tested it. It didn't work as a phone but it would have worked just fine as a ipod but I didn't have any music loaded. So then I asked if it would work with Pandora. They never heard of it but we tried it and it worked great. Pandora is a free app for the iphone that is pretty much just like XM raido but it streams music from the internet. I was able to listen to Pandora all the way back to the hotel with no problem.
That brings me to my next thing I love about the RT. The sound system on this thing is wild. I got to tell you that when I take these long rides cross country with my XM and earbuds it is a pretty painful deal by day two of the ride. My ears will swell and sometimes I get sores from having them in 16 hours a day. With the speaker system on the RT this will never be a problem again. I don't know how they did it but some how they have the speakers angled so the music is going in my head, I mean I don't hear it in front of me or in back of me, I just hear it as if I had earbuds in. It blew me away how well that worked. You just got to try it to hear what I'm talking about. There was plenty of push through the speakers too and having the volume go up and down as you increased speed was real handy, I loved it.
So now for the Nirvana part of my ride. You remember when I told you my cruise control didn't work on my RT and that turned out to be a good thing? Martin offered to let me ride his Spyder to check it out? What I didn't know is his RT was a SE (semi auto) and to be honest with you I've only drove a SE up and down my driveway one time. I loved the auto tranny in my Boss Hoss and if I could have ordered a SE when I got mine I would have but instead I wound up with a SM and it's been just fine for 40,000+ miles. So today I get a chance to put some real miles on a SE and I fell head over heals in love with that thing, no joke. This really completed the package for me and the more I rode it the more I liked it and hoped we would get lost a few more times before we made it back to the hotel.
This thing shifted great and to me felt faster than the SM. It was nice to be rolling along at 50 mph and when the whole world stops in front of you all you have to do is hit the brake. Riding through town was no longer a drag either because I didn't have to work the clutch on and off in stop and go traffic. I honestly can't see a downside to going with the SE and that may just put me over the top to buying one. It changed the whole ride for me even though the SM worked great too, this just worked better.
I almost forgot all about the cruise control but that thing works great. When you pick a speed and hit set it's set. There's no drop in speed no nothing it works so good that it's unexpected when you let go of the throttle. I never varying more than 2 mph and when you hit the brakes or shift a gear it kicks out. Once again it's the best cruise control I've ever used.
So now I'm blowing down the road listening to my favorite tunes on my iphone 3Gs on Pandora with one of the most killer sounds systems I've ever used with the best wind protection I've ever had and I wasn't having to think about clutching or burning up in stop and go traffic and I'm thinking it just don't get much better than this.
If this sounds like a paid endorsement it wasn't, this is how I really feel after spending the day on the Spyder RT. You just got to try it for yourself.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=478&pictureid=5778