Lamonster
12-28-2008, 02:07 PM
12-27-08 was the day I officially broke 25K on my Spyder. I picked up my Spyder 12-14-07 so it's been just over a year now.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=488&albumid=21&dl=1230473078&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=488)
It was the perfect day for a ride and the bikes were out in force like bees on a newly bloomed flower. It's been pretty cold and wet here in East TN and today it was 70+ with blue sky's. You couldn't ask for a better day. An added bonus was gas was $1.39 to $1.46 depending on what town I was in.
I started my ride a little late so I didn't get to leave the house till about 11:30am and I had to be back home to meet a friend of mine by 3:30pm. That limited my time and if I was going to brake 25K today I needed to plan this trip just right.
I decided to take a run out to Shady Valley or what is known as "The Snake". 411 curves in about 12 miles with a store that makes the best hamburgers. Lots of curves on this one and it was just over 80 miles from my place.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=489&albumid=15&dl=1230477067&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=15&pictureid=489)http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=490&albumid=15&dl=1230477067&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=15&pictureid=490)
The ride there was great. The Spyder did well on the twisties and even though the roads were wet in areas I never even slowed down from the pace I had on the dry roads. The Spyder rides as if it was on rails.
Got to the store and ordered up a burger and fries and as soon as I sat down to eat I had to play 21 questions. One of the best things I did was to make up a bunch of SpyderLovers.com cards to hand out. That doesn't stop the questions but it will slow them down a bit.
When I pulled into the store I was 3.7 miles short of my 25K and as I headed back I wanted to get a picture of it turning 25K but there was nowhere to pull off and take the shot so I missed it by a couple of miles.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=491&albumid=21&dl=1230477899&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=491)
The ride back was uneventful but it did give me some time to reflect on the 25K I spent in the saddle on the Spyder this year and I thought I would share that with you all. It's going to be long so you may want to stop now if you don't have the time.
------------------------------------------------------
I first saw the Spyder on one of my boards and it was love at first sight. I loved the pics and I saw a video that really had me drooling over this ride. I had sold my VTX and I was looking for something to replace it with. At the time there was nothing that really grabbed me like the Spyder. I showed my wife the video I saw of the Spyder and she said "I would ride that". That was all it took before the wheels were in motion.
I started searching for dealers in my area and at the time there was no dealers in Tennessee and I had to look elsewhere. The dealers had a first run allocation and pretty much every dealer I called had sold out their first allocation. I did find a dealer in Tampa that had three left in their allocation so I sent them a check and got on the list. I told my buddy Ron that I had just ordered a Spyder and after he looked at all the tech specs on it he decided he wanted one too and two days later he placed his order. I placed my order June 7th I believe and it wasn't till Biketoberfest in October before I saw my first Spyder in the flesh. I ordered it sight unseen.
I got the call from my dealer 12-13-07 that my Spyder was in and flew out to Tampa from East TN on the 15th to pick it up and ride it back home. This trip should have been about 700 miles but somehow I added another 100 or so to it.
First day I did 200 miles on the Spyder and the buyers remorse had started to set in. I was thinking I just made a $17000+ mistake. I'm a motorcycle guy and I was trying to ride this thing like a motorcycle. I was all over the road on it and I figured I was going to kill myself before I ever made it home. That night was a little ruff but then I had a realization that the Spyder was much more like riding my KFX700 than it was a motorcycle. If got the motorcycle thing out on my head and thought fourwheeler maybe that would help. That was the ticket as the next 600 miles home was a real pleasure.
One thing I found was the Spyder was very senstive to your input. The harder you hang on the more you're going to be all over the road. I found that if I just relaxed the Spyder would pretty much steer itself.
I've owned a lot of cool rides in the past. I had a custom Harley FXR, a Supercharged/Nitrous Honda Valkyrie, a full on custom VTX Pro Street Chopper, a bad to the bone small block Boss Hoss and a full custom Suzuki M109R. All of thes bikes have been in the magizines except for the Harley and the Suzuki even had a cover shot in Bikers 2000. I say this to say that none of these bikes have drawn the attention of my bone stock Spyder. It's not stock now but when it was it still drew a crowd more than any of my custom show bikes. If you're not a people person I wouldn't buy a Spyder. The Spyder makes you an instant Rockstar, like it or not.
One of the first comments I got about me getting a Spyder from my Goldwing members was the Spyder wasn't good for more than a 150 mile day. My first priorty was to prove them wrong on that point. My first day on the Spyder was 200 miles and my second day was 600 miles. I've taken many day trips that were over 700 miles and my longest day trip to date was 1170 miles in 19 hours. That was on my trip out to Sturgis and then to San Diego. That was longer than any of my motorcycle day trips.
The Spyder has been pretty much trouble free other than self inflected wounds. I have a bad habit of modding my rides and a few of those have come back to bite me. The mods I have to date all seem to be working well. I've made the Spyder my own and comfort wise it's as good as it gets for me.
I've been all over this country and even to the Spyder factory in Canada and the reaction has been universal, people love the Spyder. From kids to the mature in age, the Spyder has somehow bridged a gap that no other open air vehicle has been able to do. It's cool to the non bike riders and it's cool with the hardcore bike riders. It's opened the doors to those who have had physical limitations and put them back in the wind and given them one more thing to live for, and that's to ride their Spyder.
I'm not sure where the Spyder is headed and I'm not sure if the Spyder Team knew what a great product they produced but I am glad to be in on the ground floor of this revolutionary product and I hope to be on a Spyder for many more years to come.
It's been a great 25K BRP, thanks for everything.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=488&albumid=21&dl=1230473078&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=488)
It was the perfect day for a ride and the bikes were out in force like bees on a newly bloomed flower. It's been pretty cold and wet here in East TN and today it was 70+ with blue sky's. You couldn't ask for a better day. An added bonus was gas was $1.39 to $1.46 depending on what town I was in.
I started my ride a little late so I didn't get to leave the house till about 11:30am and I had to be back home to meet a friend of mine by 3:30pm. That limited my time and if I was going to brake 25K today I needed to plan this trip just right.
I decided to take a run out to Shady Valley or what is known as "The Snake". 411 curves in about 12 miles with a store that makes the best hamburgers. Lots of curves on this one and it was just over 80 miles from my place.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=489&albumid=15&dl=1230477067&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=15&pictureid=489)http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=490&albumid=15&dl=1230477067&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=15&pictureid=490)
The ride there was great. The Spyder did well on the twisties and even though the roads were wet in areas I never even slowed down from the pace I had on the dry roads. The Spyder rides as if it was on rails.
Got to the store and ordered up a burger and fries and as soon as I sat down to eat I had to play 21 questions. One of the best things I did was to make up a bunch of SpyderLovers.com cards to hand out. That doesn't stop the questions but it will slow them down a bit.
When I pulled into the store I was 3.7 miles short of my 25K and as I headed back I wanted to get a picture of it turning 25K but there was nowhere to pull off and take the shot so I missed it by a couple of miles.
:clickpic:
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?pictureid=491&albumid=21&dl=1230477899&thumb=1 (http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=491)
The ride back was uneventful but it did give me some time to reflect on the 25K I spent in the saddle on the Spyder this year and I thought I would share that with you all. It's going to be long so you may want to stop now if you don't have the time.
------------------------------------------------------
I first saw the Spyder on one of my boards and it was love at first sight. I loved the pics and I saw a video that really had me drooling over this ride. I had sold my VTX and I was looking for something to replace it with. At the time there was nothing that really grabbed me like the Spyder. I showed my wife the video I saw of the Spyder and she said "I would ride that". That was all it took before the wheels were in motion.
I started searching for dealers in my area and at the time there was no dealers in Tennessee and I had to look elsewhere. The dealers had a first run allocation and pretty much every dealer I called had sold out their first allocation. I did find a dealer in Tampa that had three left in their allocation so I sent them a check and got on the list. I told my buddy Ron that I had just ordered a Spyder and after he looked at all the tech specs on it he decided he wanted one too and two days later he placed his order. I placed my order June 7th I believe and it wasn't till Biketoberfest in October before I saw my first Spyder in the flesh. I ordered it sight unseen.
I got the call from my dealer 12-13-07 that my Spyder was in and flew out to Tampa from East TN on the 15th to pick it up and ride it back home. This trip should have been about 700 miles but somehow I added another 100 or so to it.
First day I did 200 miles on the Spyder and the buyers remorse had started to set in. I was thinking I just made a $17000+ mistake. I'm a motorcycle guy and I was trying to ride this thing like a motorcycle. I was all over the road on it and I figured I was going to kill myself before I ever made it home. That night was a little ruff but then I had a realization that the Spyder was much more like riding my KFX700 than it was a motorcycle. If got the motorcycle thing out on my head and thought fourwheeler maybe that would help. That was the ticket as the next 600 miles home was a real pleasure.
One thing I found was the Spyder was very senstive to your input. The harder you hang on the more you're going to be all over the road. I found that if I just relaxed the Spyder would pretty much steer itself.
I've owned a lot of cool rides in the past. I had a custom Harley FXR, a Supercharged/Nitrous Honda Valkyrie, a full on custom VTX Pro Street Chopper, a bad to the bone small block Boss Hoss and a full custom Suzuki M109R. All of thes bikes have been in the magizines except for the Harley and the Suzuki even had a cover shot in Bikers 2000. I say this to say that none of these bikes have drawn the attention of my bone stock Spyder. It's not stock now but when it was it still drew a crowd more than any of my custom show bikes. If you're not a people person I wouldn't buy a Spyder. The Spyder makes you an instant Rockstar, like it or not.
One of the first comments I got about me getting a Spyder from my Goldwing members was the Spyder wasn't good for more than a 150 mile day. My first priorty was to prove them wrong on that point. My first day on the Spyder was 200 miles and my second day was 600 miles. I've taken many day trips that were over 700 miles and my longest day trip to date was 1170 miles in 19 hours. That was on my trip out to Sturgis and then to San Diego. That was longer than any of my motorcycle day trips.
The Spyder has been pretty much trouble free other than self inflected wounds. I have a bad habit of modding my rides and a few of those have come back to bite me. The mods I have to date all seem to be working well. I've made the Spyder my own and comfort wise it's as good as it gets for me.
I've been all over this country and even to the Spyder factory in Canada and the reaction has been universal, people love the Spyder. From kids to the mature in age, the Spyder has somehow bridged a gap that no other open air vehicle has been able to do. It's cool to the non bike riders and it's cool with the hardcore bike riders. It's opened the doors to those who have had physical limitations and put them back in the wind and given them one more thing to live for, and that's to ride their Spyder.
I'm not sure where the Spyder is headed and I'm not sure if the Spyder Team knew what a great product they produced but I am glad to be in on the ground floor of this revolutionary product and I hope to be on a Spyder for many more years to come.
It's been a great 25K BRP, thanks for everything.