I have been a Spyder owner for about two months. I bought a 2014 Spyder RT with less than 3,000 miles. I loved it!. I have been riding two wheels for about 50 years starting with a Honda 305 to many other Honda's, lots of Goldwings and toured my entire adult life. Got into Harleys at "middle age" and had a bunch. I had a number of Harley's over the years and left two wheels (except for a Vespa, so much fun) for about ten years. Now, why am I telling you all this? Well, I guess to say I am not new to motorcycling, but I may have made a mistake paying well into five figures for a Can Am Spyder.

Within 300 miles of purchase, I began having the "DESS Key Error" Then I learn this is frequent for 2014 to 2016 Spyder RT's and it really wasn't until 2017 or 2018 did BRP correct this problem. So,right now, the Frunk is off and I am awaiting a DESS module and hope this resolves this issue. Never mind that my wife of 40 plus years now views the Spyder as "unreliable", and for those of you married a long time know the life span on that is, well, a long time.

But, more importantly, some extensive reading around this and another CAN-AM Spyder forums find some frequent threads regarding some significant and serious reliability issues. Looking further shows what seems to be an inordinate feeling the majority of Can-AM dealers are sub par, uncaring, and some even lie to customers. This cannot be true for no manufacturer could remain in business with such a reputation. Yet, the thread seems to be true.

I live in California and I have three Can-Am dealer/ service centers within 150 miles. None closer. The first is where the Spyder was sold new in 2014. I called them to see what service my Spyder had and when. After about ten days and six messages, no one from the dealer ever even called me back. Hmmmm... my first experience with a Can-Am dealer not good. The other two dealers had a waiting list of three to five weeks just for an (3,000 miles service) oil change. I could go on. I am doing the DESS module change myself mostly because now I don't really trust the dealers. But as alarming as this is was the Spyder owners making statements that "It isn't like a Goldwing" (ie reliability), or "I don't ever take it more than 75 miles from home". And many others I have read, irrespective of the irony of a Touring Bike not being reliable enough to travel more than 75 miles from a trailer to take it home!.

Anyway, I guess I am looking for the real owners picture of the Can-Am Spyder, specifically from 2014 on. I know people who find their product great don't often write in forums (or at least I hope this theory is true), but please tell me if your experience with a Spyder (or and a dealer) was positive, and most importantly, are they really a "Touring" motorcycle, or are they just too unreliable to trust them on a trip.