Great ride ended with hail, blown tire, and ...
Rode ~200 miles today with another 18 in a Jeep with my Spyder on the trailer behind us. Almost made it home on the bike before disaster struck.
Started out as a beautiful day 75-84 degrees and patchy clouds. 22 miles from home there was a sudden marble sized hail storm. It was small and I could see the sunlight on the road a half mile ahead. I scrunched down behind the wind screen and rode on toward the 'light'. With all the hail and rain my vision was obscured and then it happened. BANG!! I was then riding on the right front wheel alone; The left came down quickly and finally the rear. Never saw what I hit, but I'm assuming it was a rock.
I pulled to the shoulder and two brothers that had been cutting firewood instantly came around the bend. It was so quick that I didn't have much time to check out the Spyder, but it wasn't going anywhere with a shredded rear tire. The tire had just over 6000 miles on it and looked to be less than half worn. Got to a place with cell service and called my son to come with the trailer to haul us home.
So, the RT is out on the trailer and I'll get a look at it tomorrow. It's somewhere between needing a new tire and totaled with frame damage.
Funny part is four days ago I rescued a BMW rider who had a rear wheel bearing failure. Quickest payback I've ever had!
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Coming soon to an auction near you...
The insurance adjuster just left. The Spyder is totaled and all the process that is left is computing the payment amount. It's a full MSRP plus accessories payment and since I have $3300 worth of mods/additions the final amount will be interesting. Supposed to know in three days.
I won't be replacing the RT with another Spyder. There are two primary reasons for that decision; The first is the parts availability issues (Can-Am can't supply and stamp a new frame) and the second is the 'message' delivered by the rock.
I think this means that I will be leaving the SpyderLovers forum. I have to say that this forum was one of the real highlights of owning/riding a Spyder.
The RT has already been replaced by a Mazda Miata, to get as close to the road experience of riding a Spyder as I can. Hope it works!
I have a spare set of wheels + tires if anyone is interested. The fronts have the original Kendas with about 4k miles on them and the rear is a brand new (never on the road) Vredestein Quadrac (https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...erformance=ALL) with balance beads. You can have 'em all for $300 plus shipping. Obviously a local sale is the best deal. Central Oregon.