Upgrades some things or Upgrade to new model

Hey all...I love my 2014 ST-S. They style and the color set it off for me.

However, I'm wanting to ride further than around the state of Missouri. I've talked to some where they have made upgrades and other got a different model for travelling.

I know, I know this is all up to me...but, I like to see what the veterans of Spyders say and can offer advice-wise.

I'd like to be more comfortable, so I'm thinking of upgrading shocks and the seat. Maybe a back rest for myself.

I thought of saddle bags for more storage space, but then again I don't want to cover her up much if at all.

I guess I'm wondering if upgrading her would be ideal or replacing her for like a F3 style. She only has like 5k miles.

Has anyone traveled much on a ST-S or ST comfortably? I'm sure this is a yes, but was it as rough with the stock shocks or did you replace them?

I'm guess about $4-5k for shocks front and rear and a seat and backrest (maybe). Or use that money for an upgrade to a newer model...not sure which would be the smartest...even though I know it's my money and my decision.

Thanks. :)

The ST is a fine machine for riding and long touring.
I replaced the shocks and springs on my 2013 ST.
Added a BaJaRon sway bar and MCDaves Gel seat pad.
My last tour was Pittsburgh to Reno (2000 mi).
Good luck with the farkles.

Mines a limited but oem on shocks ,seat & bar. Currently at 57k+m furthest trip thus far was to key west about +-1300m fun trip, along the way impromptu visit with Jim SMOOTHSPYDER :firstplace:& got my back rest & better ride ever since. That was at only first 15k mark. Squared away has kept me straight, bout time to vist them again to be sure:clap: usually only see them at events of which I have not done this year:dontknow: yet. Very relaxed & calm no rush for anyone riding style & not considering new one till 100k mark 1330 fuel range is temping:thumbup:, just not enough to part with toothless. Many more miles to go & country to see:clap::riding: Adding to what you have isn't "accessorizing" just making it yours, custom it if you like, you are the one ryding :doorag: couple good options for cargo especially if you add trailer hitch. :thumbup:
Like to mention the return half of key west trip was flooding rain {2/2015}looking forward to going back & get some pictures at places I missed first time round :yes:

A few accessories would be less expensive than upgrading to a newer 1330/3...as in RT or F3. Both of them will give a smoother ride in my opinion. The ST is a jazzed up RS and there is a big difference IMO. I turned my 08 and 09 GS/RS into full blown RT's (one and two years before the RT (2010) was available). Looks were there, but the rides were not as plush as RT or F3.

I remain an RT person. Have not updated since 2014...because "newer and better" has not yet come along for me.

Tough one. Depends on the age ,condition, and mileage and how far your plans to travel are. Though I prefer the twin 998 there are some advantages to the triple 1330 for the serious tourer....then there is the budget and going new or used. Your right, your final decision....Good luck...:thumbup:
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I have a 2014 - ST SE Limited. Purchase in 2017 with 600 miles. Last year, I put 10,000 miles on it. This year, after getting some miles on it, I replaced the seat with a Corbin seat with drivers backrest. This year, I have put 6,500 miles on it so far. Love the new seat, especially the gas door. Removed the drivers back rest off for the long distance rides to add a roll bag to ride on the back seat. The longest trip this season was from mid-Minnesota to northern Georgia, 2900 miles round trip in 7 days. Mine came with the hard bags as the Limited packed. Great storage. Have fun on your bike.

This is great thoughts ya'll have posted. I've gotten to do more riding here the past 3 months than I have in the past years I have had the bike.

I bought her new in '14, life interrupted, didn't ride much but maintained very well and this summer has been the release for me to ride again finally.

I am going to Bolivar this weekend to have this :cus: D.E.S.S. key read error looked at...from what I've been reading, it is just a PIA and even if things are replaced it keeps coming back.

But, those are older posts. Maybe BRP has sent out something to ultimately fix it.

So, while there I will take a test ride on the F3's. I will probably like them, but it was the look and style of the ST-S that sold me on the Spyder way back when I saw one in the local mall up on a platform. I thought it was the coolest thing since my kids were born.

After the test ride, I'll make my decision to upgrade the comfort or upgrade the ride. Either way, it will be fun. :2excited:

So, I have decided to keep my byke and upgrade some things to make my ryding more comfortable and manageable.

1. Elka front and rear shocks
2. Seat...not sure what brand at this time. Feel free to post any suggestions on what you felt was better comfort. I'm 300lbs, 6'3"...if that helps.
3. The heat is not horrible until after the 7th hour of ryding with breaks every hour to 1 1/2 hours. Then I go spread eagle to cool off my inner legs to my thighs.
3a. I am looking for a way to cool that down. I read that there's not much I can do, but I'm a bit of a determined guy to find things.
4. BajaRon anti-Swaybar with billet links
4a. I see BajaRon and LaMonster has aluminum links. They do look different, but I do not know if one is better than the other. Or are they the same and LaMonster just has their name on the ones they sell? I'll have to call and ask unless someone posts here before I can.

Other than what I have planned to upgrade above, am I missing anything I can upgrade for more comfort? There things about the Spyder I'm still learning, so I could be overlooking something.

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Exciting indeed!
Did you test ride the F3s? If so what made you decide to stick with the ST-S?
Thanks

Foam grip covers are good quick & simple comfortable addition:2thumbs: if you do decide to go with the Smooth Spyder back rest, contact Jim first, when I got mine think there were some aftermarket seats had complications. Worth checking out & or May help determine least narrow down seat choices :dontknow: other thing I’m personally considering now would be highway pegs:doorag:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bayoumanPIBE

So, I have decided to keep my byke and upgrade some things to make my ryding more comfortable and manageable.

.....
3. The heat is not horrible until after the 7th hour of ryding with breaks every hour to 1 1/2 hours. Then I go spread eagle to cool off my inner legs to my thighs.
3a. I am looking for a way to cool that down. I read that there's not much I can do, but I'm a bit of a determined guy to find things........

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Bear with me for a bit, this isn't just a 2 sentence answer! There's actually a fair few things you can do that will have some impact on how you get exposed to that heat, with varying degrees of success; but overall, most of the 'add on' things you can do will only be band-aid style fixes, each with fairly minimal results.... You can wrap or ceramic coat the exhaust pipes; you can delete or cut holes in the under-body panels to allow better hot air flow & escape; you can fit better insulation to the inside of the tupperware to minimise radiant heat getting out to make you hot; and there's a whole bunch of other stuff along those lines, each with the afore-mentioned rather small individually but collectively incremental results. :sour:

Or you can get rid of the dirty great lump of metal that's effectively a very effective 'heat generator' stuck in the exhaust right underneath you - the 'catalytic converter'!! At their core & simplified to their most basic, those things are designed to trap & extract significant amounts of heat from the passing exhaust gases so that the heat will transfer into the honey-comb of special metals held inside the hot box so those metals can do their 'catalytic' best to react with some of the nasty things pushed out with the exhaust.... but the nasty bits are only there in microscopically small amounts in what is really rather a large amount of exhaust, so there's a helluva lot of what is effectively 'waste trapped heat' that gets trapped & then radiated underneath you while a little bit gets to do the intended job... and as we all know, heat rises; and 'heat soak' means that once the metals in the engine start getting hot they take a helluva lot of 'work' to cool down, so the Spyder engine & everything around & above it gets hotter over time!! Sorry, that means you too! :mad: BTW, you don't really hafta to do anything much else to the OE exhaust & muffler (altho you can if you want) so the noise doesn't hafta be much more than stock!!

If you're brave enough to get rid of the catalytic converter, you might also consider getting rid of all the convoluted & bulky air ducting & trunking on the inlet side of the engine as well, cos at least part of its function is to collect & retain a volume of intake air so that it can be readily available for any sudden throttle openings & the subsequent increased air requirements - which is good stuff actually, since it helps minimise things like throttle lag & hesitations or flat-spots in the power & torque curves... but the emission control mob got involved there too, and instead of making manufacturers work harder to do better on their initial engine tuning & mapping in order to minimise those nasty emissions we ran across earlier, instead they let the manufacturers get away with the cheap & easy option of simply pre-heating those trapped volumes of air in the intake - all of which adds to the 'under-tupperware' heat that creates more heat soak & eventually transfers a bunch of the heat problems over to you, the ryder!! But all is not lost here either.... just like losing the cat converter helps reduce the trapped heat from the exhaust, eliminating all that intake trunking means there's less overall heat trapped in the intake ducting so that less gets radiated on to you!! And a neat by-product is that the engine will actually run better on a cold charge of inlet air as well!! JT makes a luverly little air filter that does away with all that extra ducting & other stuff, which frees up a lot of space for air flow and lets your engine suck in cooler air that hasn't already been held for a while in all that trapped heat under the tupperware, so you get less heat AND a better running engine! :yes:

But what about all those nasty emissions, you cry!! Well, there's a solution there too - I mentioned earlier that the heated intake air thing was the easy way out of that particular little problem, and that with better tuning and engine mapping, while initially being more difficult & expensive, you can actually help minimise the nasty emissions too! I don't know if Monster or any of the other readily accessible ECM Tuners over there have the skills & knowledge to do this well, I haven't asked, but there are people around who can & will do exactly this type of tuning upgrade, altho it's generally not quite as cheap or readily available as the 'less complex & therefore easier to do' plain old power & torque upgrade type mods to your ECM!! Oh, and a nice little by-product is that if they do the ECM tuning properly, not only will those nasty emissions be minimised, but they can 'tune-out' all the flat-spots & hesitations that started people thinking about ECM tuning in the first place AND you can get at least some of those power & torque improvements too! Wins all round!! :ohyea:

Overall, the heat minimisation achieved thru tossing the cat converter & all the intake dams & ducting, then fitting a free-er flowing inlet filter along with better ECM tuning will do far more for reducing heat than all the other little bits added together!! :lecturef_smilie:

Wow, cannot resist reading those Peter Awen comments. Cannot wait until he does his analysis of the 2020 RT/RTL.

We've gotta wait longer'n you lot to get them!! :sour: I was talking to our local bloke about their arrival in Country just last Saturday, and he doesn't think we'll get to see a real live one either free range or in captivity until the end of the year at the earliest!! :gaah:

I've booked the first test ryde tho, hopefully on an RT Limited! They look Verrry Innnterrresting, don't they? :thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peter Aawen

Bear with me for a bit, this isn't just a 2 sentence answer!

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You are right...but, I would rather have a good explanation such as this. I can understand the possibilities you are referring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peter Aawen

And a neat by-product is that the engine will actually run better on a cold charge of inlet air as well!!

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And this just makes sense. Better air, better run...and I appreciate your response. I am all about good maintenance and high performance when at all possible.

I am getting a quote on things from PitBull (hopefully today) and will ask them about ECM tuning upgrade and engine mapping. It sounds like it could help with some of the random hesitations. I didn't know LaMonster did any actual work on bykes. I thought it was a small brick and mortar store with a internet presence.

Wonder if the tuning will fix that dang DESS key error I have been getting this past month.

As I'm re-reading over it, I have a couple of questions.

1. Not sure about removing the cat...not sure how the law would find out other than getting under it...but...
2. I have the cat bypass and setup muffler/exhaust PitBull put together when I bought her in 2014. Is that not the same or can it still be better?
3. I have a 2 Bros / PitBull version muffler, and from what I read it's good with free flow. But, I'm not a muffler guy, so I'm not sure what would be better than what I have now. Do you or any else have any thoughts on this?

Overall, the heat minimisation achieved thru tossing the cat converter & all the intake dams & ducting, then fitting a free-er flowing inlet filter along with better ECM tuning will do far more for reducing heat than all the other little bits added together!!

1. Remove catalytic converter
2. Remove air ducting & trunking on the inlet side of the engine as well
3. What/who is JT and their air filter (would like to see it and how it will be placed where the old items are now)
4. ECM tuning upgrade with better engine mapping ('tune-out' all the flat-spots & hesitations)
How would i know if they did things properly? I'm not familiar with newer electrical saturated engines.

Thanks again!


UPDATE : I found out the only difference between the links on the BajaRon sway bar LaMonster has and what others sell is the color and name on the links. Otherwise the same all around.

For the air cleaner conversion.

http://spyderstore.com/index.php?rou...&product_id=50

Re your uncomfortable seat; My solution for decades has been to go to a saddle customizer and have it tailored to your butt. While there, you can select a new cover material and have heat put in, if you like.

Awesome responses and suggestions.

I am going to purchase a BajaRon sway bar, 2 - stage 2 Elka front shocks and 1 - stage 4 Elka (or the stage 4 HYD). Not sure which stage 4, so I'll have to weigh the options depending on fluctuation of weight.

UPDATE: I spoke with Elka...great customer service btw. They HYD is for easier adjusting especially if I have a passenger some of the time. I'm sure there will be a future lady in my life, but for now I just have to decide when I do have a passenger do I want to manually adjust the shock or just use the simple knob they have on the HYD.

I'm a fairly competent person and I heard the installation of these are not difficult. Just a bit time consuming if you have never done it before.

I can do it or spend $280 to have them installed for me.

Have anyone done these installs before or is it worth spending the funds?

I installed the BajaRon front spring preload adjusters before I bought my front Elka shocks. Same install issues as the shocks have to come off to install the adjusters.
The installation was fairly easy. IMHO not worth paying the $280 which can be spent on needed items such as a bump skid plate.
Tip: On the reassembly install the top shock bolt in the opposite direction to which it was removed. Makes installation of the top shock bolt much easier. You may also need a piece of tape to hold the top nut to your wrench during installation.
BTW, if you purchase the Elka shocks at one of the shows they normally do the installation on site for free.

Yeah, I just found out this morning LaMonster is having the Spyders of the Ozarks get together. I wish I'd known ahead of time. Someone will be install the Elka's for free as you said. I could possibly leave early Saturday morning, but wouldn't be there no earlier than 9 or 10am. Of course, there is no telling if I could even get in line before they stop for the day.

I'll check to if any other events will work for my situations as far as date and distance due to my job.

Now that I think a bit more, and since I have never done such work on my byke, it might be best for someone to do it.

I am usually impatient, but I might learn to be a bit more patient for this just to save the money.

And, I would love to use that money on something else.

You can do it.
Installation instructions listed below.

https://store.valueaccessories.net/S...ons%20v1.0.pdf

Cheers, David C.

BUMP SKID....BUT WHICH ONE?
I'm thinking a bump skid is a good thing to put on my F3L before I wish I did. I already nerfed a wheel stop in a parking lot - gently fortunately.
I'm aware of the one Spyderpops and others sell, but I came across another one that fascinates me. It's put out by Custom Spyder Works and is 1/2" thick, whereas the Spyderpops one 3/8" thick. Also, Pop's is made of HDPE plastic and Custom's is cell cast acrylic.
I would appreciate comments re which is the better bump skid. Which plastic is stronger? Any problems with either?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bayoumanPIBE

So, I have decided to keep my byke and upgrade some things to make my ryding more comfortable and manageable.

1. Elka front and rear shocks
2. Seat...not sure what brand at this time. Feel free to post any suggestions on what you felt was better comfort. I'm 300lbs, 6'3"...if that helps.
3. The heat is not horrible until after the 7th hour of ryding with breaks every hour to 1 1/2 hours. Then I go spread eagle to cool off my inner legs to my thighs.
3a. I am looking for a way to cool that down. I read that there's not much I can do, but I'm a bit of a determined guy to find things.
4. BajaRon anti-Swaybar with billet links
4a. I see BajaRon and LaMonster has aluminum links. They do look different, but I do not know if one is better than the other. Or are they the same and LaMonster just has their name on the ones they sell? I'll have to call and ask unless someone posts here before I can.

Other than what I have planned to upgrade above, am I missing anything I can upgrade for more comfort? There things about the Spyder I'm still learning, so I could be overlooking something.

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Whatever you do, do NOT test drive an F3 Limited.........that could change your plans.

So, I'm keeping her...I like the F-3's and that might be a future bike, but this one is what got me liking Spyders.

I got my upgrades back in October 2019 from and installed by LaMonster.

• Elka Stage 1 front shocks
• Elka Stage 4 HYD rear shock
• Sway Bar
• Highway Pegs
• Laser Alignmnt
• Maintenance

Now, I am looking at getting my new seat and work on reducing the amount of heat hitting my right leg while using the highway pegs.

I know I can take the bottom pan off, and I need to do that and test things. But, I'd also like to have another plan in mind. I saw SpyerPops has the deflector for the RS's up to 2012 models...but I cannot find anything for the ST-S 2014.

So, if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to read them. :thumbup:

BTW, my 2014 ST-S has the updated panels to help reduce heat...the only heat I'm having issues with is while using the highway pegs...just in case anyone was wondering.

Own a 2013 ST LTD. Bought it used in 2014 and got all the warranty work done then. So far, no heat problems. Have 31,000 happy miles on it. Most of those miles were 2000 or better trips. It's a comfy bike and with a roll bag on the pillion seat and the Shad top case plus saddle bags that came with the LTD, I can go for weeks. The only accessorizing I've done has been the Bajaron sway bar, Bump skid, Fox adj. shocks up front, touring windscreen, fog lamps, and the Shad top case from BRP. I use an Air Hawk seat pad on the stock seat and that's it. I consistently get about 32 mpg if I don't get on the Montana freeways and do 80mph. My sense is that engine broke in finally at about 10,000 miles and is basically bullet proof if you follow the recommended maintenance schedule. Both times in for valve clearance checks...they're still in spec at 31,000 miles.

Happy riding.