Broken Spyder and a cold day in Paradise

[shunkmanitu]

It is in the mid thirties and actually had snow flurries within 75 miles north of us. Went around the house gathering up the little trash bags from the various room and stashed them in the tall kitchen container with all good intentions of taking all of it out. About that time, even with a storm door, the howl came from the front entrance. The now full can still sits there in the kitchen!

There is a very slight chance that we may yet get a little snow. The northern half of Alabama, along with part of Mississippi, looks as if it will get a nice cold, wet blanket. Otherwise it will only get into the lower fifties today and maybe not even that high tomorrow. Noticed the map showed the twenties around Lincoln so guess we have it pretty good.

*This time the first indication of trouble was what appeared to be total clutch failure. As a light changed and I tried to accelerate only a slight surge and then nothing. Was able to roll it directly off the road and then noticed shifting problems and an intermittent "Transmission Error" code on the dash. Within an hour a local towing service loaded it onto a flatbed and hauled it to Pensacola MotorSports. This was Thursday, as of Friday the shop was at a standstill awaiting answers from the BRP Spyder Tech Group. I can hope that this time Customer Service can offer more information than just a "Sorry you can't ride your Spyder"! Last time I never got the letters off to the Motor Cycle Press but if there is ANY sign of unreasonable delay in parts or repair all the major publications I read will hear about it.

[pitmon]

Sorry to hear about your spyder... I live east of you just north of Gainesville and we are getting some of that bad weather too, cold and rain, lots of wind too. Looks like thats the way its going to be for the better part of the week. :sour:

[Roaddog2]

:wrong::bdh:This is what I would be doing if I owned a SE5 and had this happening numerous times :cus:

[northramp]

Sorry to hear that .. Do u at least have the BEST warrenty so at least the towing is on them ?

[kalavera]

.....*This time the first indication of trouble was what appeared to be total clutch failure. As a light changed and I tried to accelerate only a slight surge and then nothing. Was able to roll it directly off the road and then noticed shifting problems and an intermittent "Transmission Error" code on the dash. Within an hour a local towing service loaded it onto a flatbed and hauled it to Pensacola MotorSports. This was Thursday, as of Friday the shop was at a standstill awaiting answers from the BRP Spyder Tech Group. I can hope that this time Customer Service can offer more information than just a "Sorry you can't ride your Spyder"! Last time I never got the letters off to the Motor Cycle Press but if there is ANY sign of unreasonable delay in parts or repair all the major publications I read will hear about it.



Sorry to hear your SPYDER isnt right. Hope you get it fixed. Glad I never got a SE5



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is this guy a spammer? Who ever is a moderator(besides Lamont) should check him and kick him out....

[aubierules]

i have been taking my se5 to pensacola, but havent had any luck..still screwing up....piece of :yikes:

[kalavera]

Sorry to hear you guys are having problems with you SE5's. Hope ya get it squared away soon. If I dont see you guys this weekend, I'll know why. The weather is looking to be really nice this weekend

[Sara]

My Spyder SE5 is so great---Lam at Performance Motorsports in San Juan Capistrano is the only Can Am Mechanic that should be allowed to work on the SE5 Spyders. I believe that the Spyders, SM and SE, are basically fine---it's the dealers and mechanics who think they are working on a motorcycle, and they are not---this is a unique piece of equipment. Lam took mine apart with the hands of a cake decorator, showed me how and why it works---what has to be done. After reading so many reports of problems, I had some worries, but now, my SE5 must be the best in North America. They told me that most people don't know how to coordinate the throttle, the electric shifting, and the brake---once this has been learned, along with expert mechanic work, you are up and away. My Spyder shifts up and down with quiet efficiency, with the slight press of a thumb and forefinger. I'm a believer in giving praise where it is earned.

[shunkmanitu]

My Spyder SE5 is so great---Lam at Performance Motorsports in San Juan Capistrano is the only Can Am Mechanic that should be allowed to work on the SE5 Spyders. I believe that the Spyders, SM and SE, are basically fine---it's the dealers and mechanics who think they are working on a motorcycle, and they are not---this is a unique piece of equipment. Lam took mine apart with the hands of a cake decorator, showed me how and why it works---what has to be done. After reading so many reports of problems, I had some worries, but now, my SE5 must be the best in North America. They told me that most people don't know how to coordinate the throttle, the electric shifting, and the brake---once this has been learned, along with expert mechanic work, you are up and away. My Spyder shifts up and down with quiet efficiency, with the slight press of a thumb and forefinger. I'm a believer in giving praise where it is earned.

>>>>There are problems with many of the SE-5s that cannot be explained away as operator error. For one thing they all should be totally reliable if operated per the instruction manual, many are not. Sure one can quickly learn the "art" of perfect shifts but not doing so is NOT and should not be a reason for failure.

Of course it is a different machine from a regular MC, also different from an auto, but there are factory trained people working on onu machines with the equipment supplied. Other vehicles use similar various systems and do NOT have all the problems of the SE-5.

If your special mechanic is the only qualified one in the world then BRP has REALLY FAILED in their dealer network. I am sure some are better than others but any factory trained person should be able to handle any problems within their scope. No one can be expected to have every machine running totally correct all the time.

The failure rate should be a LOT lower and much of it can be place on defective parts such as the gear position sensor and others. Of course with the computer bus system old ways will not work and many problems can be created by attaching aftermarket electrical items incorrectly. This should NOT be a problem in a factory stock Spyder with only BRP accessories installed by factory trained mechanics as is the situation with mine.

You should consider your self along with the other LUCKY SE-5 owners but don't come here with some superior rider attitude telling the rest of us off. You are wrong.

[aubierules]

They told me that most people don't know how to coordinate the throttle, the electric shifting, and the brake---once this has been learned, along with expert mechanic work, you are up and away. My Spyder shifts up and down with quiet efficiency, with the slight press of a thumb and forefinger. I'm a believer in giving praise where it is earned.


:rolleyes:
of course they are gonna tell u that..its great that u havent had a problem YET, but i have been riding bikes for 20
+yrs....i think i might have an idea how to ride....again, im glad for u, but to say that the reason why it screws up is because people arent coordinated is total bs....all my bikes have been manual, ie clutch shift, with the exception of my ninja which had an electric shift and a manual clutch.

[NancysToy]

Settle down fellas! Nobody insulted either you or your mechanics, although I do believe your techs have failed you so far. There have been several incidents of riders of the SE5 having problems that they blamed on the machine, that were instead operator familiarity problems. Some have been mentioned on this forum. The most common ones are trying to upshift at too low an RPM, downshifting manually at too high an RPM, and letting off the throttle when shifting. All are documented.

I agree with Shunkmanitu that the Spyder should be immune to minor operator errors. If it is so sensitive and so complicated, it should not have been released. The idea was to make the process easier. I also agree that there are a number of Spyders out there that have problems. I remain to be convinced that this is a majority of the SE5s, but it seems to be a higher failure rate than it should be. Due to venues like this forum, it is also more highly publicized and criticized than it should be. Other vehicles have had problems this bad and this often, and have taken less of a beating publicly, although I'm sure those owners were frustrated, too. I also believe BRP and the dealer network in general have failed in diagnosing the problems and getting them repaired in a timely fashion. We can only hope this gets better.

I don't think Sara, or anyone else, came in here with a superior attitude, or said anything wrong. She never once mentioned anybody by name, or by reference. She merely tried to show that there is another side to the coin. She was not the one to use harsh words. I believe you owe her an apology.
-Scotty

[aubierules]

I believe you owe her an apology.
-Scotty
Not sure if u are aiming this in my direction but i didnt flame anyone, and i stand by what i said if anyone says my problem is due to operator error, they dont know what they are talking about. whether sara, the dealer or brp says this, it is total bs....and i never said that she(sara) was the one who made this claim, i realize she was relaying what she was told.
also u said" Due to venues like this forum, it is also more highly publicized and criticized than it should be. " when do u suggest it is ok to criticize....after 1, 2, 3 times putting you down on the side of the road for the same problem? just curious

[zzneonzz]

Well said Scotty. As one of the apparent few that has only had my SE5 in the shop for Service/mod installs. I'm very happy with mine and have 6k miles on it now and many more to come very soon. I'm sorry your having so many problems with yours but it might be time to seek out and try a new dealer to see if it is a problem with lack of training to the Mechanic.

[Curtisrides]

We are waiting for the new GPS to arrive.

"Transmission" scrolled across the screen and the transmission refused to shift on Precious Darling's SE5 after stopping at stop sign.

After turning off and turning back on everything started working again and we went to the local dealer. Gear Position Sensor was found in amongst serveral error messages. New one ordered. Waiting....waiting....waiting.

Glad it happend now during the shake down rides for a very long trip this summer.

I'll be riding my trusty old 02 BMW R1150GS Adventure with my usual compliment of spares, that I have developed over several years and many miles and many countries. Should an additional GPS be included in the spares for the Spyder?