Full circle Spyder owner

[widowmaker2011]

A little long …. So in 2006 my dealer notified me that BRP was going to invite me to go to San Diego to see a prototype vehicle early in 2007. I had seen marked up drawings of the spyder online and even though I didn’t know what it was called yet I assumed that’s what we are going to see. BRP flew us out to San Diego did an amazing launch event where BRP presented J Leno with serial number 001 and a select group of us got to go for a beautiful ride on the oceanfront and I was in love. My wife and I ordered Premier editions immediately and we ran all over the country with them for the first couple of years then graduated to the original RT and we had two of those and proceeded to do the same thing traveling state to state doing spider events homecomings etc. Every couple years I would trade up until sometime in the last few years I started to really not put a lot of miles on and began to lose interest. So to top it off, in November I got Covid and ended up in the ICU and recovery was drastically slower than I had thought ….even though I was back running my companies just a few weeks later it has been a long hard road back to normalcy and in the meantime I sold my 2020 RTL a ways back and I didn’t even think twice about it. I had owned 7 spyders and was done …. So I thought …
I run about 10 car dealerships and happened to be at one of our Ford dealerships and I passed a 2008 spyder that was 100% stock sitting on the showroom floor. We take motorcycles once in a while on trades so it didn’t surprise me but I kept walking by it every day and finally walked over for a closer inspection. Original owner , had around 7000 miles and I would’ve scored about an eight out of a 10 as far as condition. With every day that passed it kept looking at me or I kept looking at it I don’t know which and I finally told the sales manager to write up a deal in my name then I took it home and next day. To say that ride home of only 15 miles was exhilarating is an understatement. We did thousands and thousands of miles on our RT‘s and don’t get me wrong they are the most comfortable touring machine I’ve ever ridden but as soon as I twisted the throttle on this 2008 GS rolling out of the dealership I realized what drew me to the spyder to begin with. The open air the exhilaration the feeling that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck every time you get on the throttle and go into a curve. The evolution of the spyder has been an amazing thing but I found out in the last week that it has actually evolved perhaps too far for me and my personal taste. I immediately took off all the panels removed the seat did a full maintenance on it had our body shop paint it back to the original millennium yellow that my 2008 was (even though that as a one tough paint job to do with its tri-coat and pearl layers ) and it came out absolutely stunning. I just got back from another ride and the grin that I had in 2007 When I first rode the spyder in San Diego is back all over my face. I’m not saying I’ll never own an RTL again but I honestly wouldn’t hesitate to swing a leg over this GS and head on an 1000 mile trip. Have a safe holiday weekend I hope everybody gets some good miles this weekend no matter what you ride.

[ARtraveler]

Thanks for the write up. I bought the first 2008 sold to a customer in AK. It was a SM5. Kept it two years and 26K miles before I purchased a Premier RTS (#474).

[Peter Aawen]

..... but as soon as I twisted the throttle on this 2008 GS rolling out of the dealership I realized what drew me to the spyder to begin with. The open air the exhilaration the feeling that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck every time you get on the throttle and go into a curve. The evolution of the spyder has been an amazing thing but I found out in the last week that it has actually evolved perhaps too far for me and my personal taste. ......

Glad you've been able to re-find the Spyder and the spark that makes it work for you! :yes: I still get that same feeling every time I ryde my (slightly enhanced) 2013 RT Ltd! :ohyea:

And I reckon you're right about the evolution too, at least for me'n the Child Bride! I've been lucky enough to have been able to do some 'extended test rydes' on just about every Spyder/Ryker model that's made it to Oz (well, so far anyway! :rolleyes: ) and I hafta agree with that last bit I've quoted above - since buying my 2013 RT, there hasn't been anything new offered by BRP that gives me anywhere near that same feeling! Even an ECU Upgrade & suspension/handling improvements on any of the 1330's juuust don't done it for me in the way the V-Twin motor & the 'spritely response & handling' (by comparison :p ) of my 2013 currently do! Same goes for the Child Bride - doesn't matter that we've gone on short test rydes or longer test rydes on bigger engined newer models, none of them are as exciting or give us the same feeling; they are juuust a little 'too lazy', or maybe it's 'too refined' or 'too weighted down with pointless gee-gaws'?!? :dontknow: I really don't ever see us going back to two wheeled touring, but I think it'd take something much closer to the original Spyder concept than any of the current offerings to ever get us to part with our 2013 RT Ltd! :thumbup:

[VStarRider]

Glad you've been able to re-find the Spyder and the spark that makes it work for you! :yes: I still get that same feeling every time I ryde my (slightly enhanced) 2013 RT Ltd! :ohyea:

And I reckon you're right about the evolution too, at least for me'n the Child Bride! I've been lucky enough to have been able to do some 'extended test rydes' on just about every Spyder/Ryker model that's made it to Oz (well, so far anyway! :rolleyes: ) and I hafta agree with that last bit I've quoted above - since buying my 2013 RT, there hasn't been anything new offered by BRP that gives me anywhere near that same feeling! Even an ECU Upgrade & suspension/handling improvements on any of the 1330's juuust don't done it for me in the way the V-Twin motor & the 'spritely response & handling' (by comparison :p ) of my 2013 currently do! Same goes for the Child Bride - doesn't matter that we've gone on short test rydes or longer test rydes on bigger engined newer models, none of them are as exciting or give us the same feeling; they are juuust a little 'too lazy', or maybe it's 'too refined' or 'too weighted down with pointless gee-gaws'?!? :dontknow: I really don't ever see us going back to two wheeled touring, but I think it'd take something much closer to the original Spyder concept than any of the current offerings to ever get us to part with our 2013 RT Ltd! :thumbup:

Peter, is your 2013 the first year of the previous generation (2013-2019) RT, or the last year of the first generation of RT?

[Peter Aawen]

VStar, late 2013 RT's like mine came with all the suspension, brake, & frame refinements (some of which the earlier 2013's & even some 2012's got) that were originally intended to be part of the 'major refinements & upgrades included with the 1330 motor release' - only that triple cyl motor wasn't ready in time, so BRP carried over the V-Twin motor, ie, the last & most refined of the 998 motors. For some, that motor carry-over did cause heat issues due to the taller/longer motor being put back into a hole re-jigged for the wider/lower 1330 motor, but the 'Heat Remediation Recall' took care of that, even for those of us with late 2013's who never had any significant heat problems anyway! ;)

So like most late 2013 RT's, mine is one of those that is arguably the best of all things V-Twin bundled into the 'by then finalised' RT bodywork, teamed with all the upgraded suspension, brake, & frame enhancements originally intended for the 1330's which, once installed, resulted in a package that then lasted until 2019 substantially unchanged. Which to me means that I've got the best of all things V-Twin AND the 2014-2019 suspension, brake, & frame enhancements, PLUS a few additional 'minor' mods, real tires, & computer tweaks including an ECU Upgrade to really bring the whole package alive! Not too much in the way of 'isolating and de-sensitising electronics' taking away from the excitement of the motor's performance & the ryde that Widowmaker decries in his original post here, but enough to keep all that good stuff and yet make it a comfortable, spacious, & versatile Sports Touring machine that's still luxurious & smooth enough for even the most discerning (aging??) of ryders (like me'n the Child Bride! :p ) :ohyea: