Do you leave the Parking brake on during storage?

[ThreeWheels]

This is my third Spyder RT since 2010.
Always turn the parking brake on.
Never put on a battery tender.
Never had a problem.
Though to be honest, the bike never stays parked for more than 90 days.
I usually get some excuse to ride, even in the winter.

[Revalden]

Not sure you're not telling us a story 'bout that RICZ cos your last reason is more'n just a little sus....

Everyone with any spanner-spinning experience KNOWS through hard learned lessons that 10mm sockets & spanners NEVER get to hit the floor!! That's cos anything 10mm that gets taken out of its new packaging will just disappear into the ether, never to be seen again - even if you only take your eyes of it for a moment!! .

For this reason I have 2 different sets of 10mm ONLY sockets of different configurations.

[obiwanbill]

It's off at all times it's in the garage. Reasons being; Able to roll it outside to start and warm up w/o stinking up the house. Able to roll it when doing maintenance. Able to roll when a 10mm socket hit the floor.

Searching for dropped sockets, Tupperware bolts and trunk plastic fasteners that roll under the bike...occupational hazard with CanAms. Infuriating is when socket, bolt, etc, falls inside the bowels of the bike - not retrievable with magnet; didn't fall thru to the floor & lost forever! LOL

[pegasus1300]

Those dark recesses lead directly to the unmanifest dimension and are never seen again. If you hear it hit the floor some bounce directions also lead there. 7/8 and 1/2 fall into the same catagory.

[doncanfix2]

I have always set the parking brake as recommended, but now I know the warning chirp does eventually go away if you don't. But now I am reconsidering because of another problem, I have (had) a parking brake that would not release - and as I read elsewhere, this is a known problem for some. Consider this. You are on the road somewhere and set the brake for some reason, and then try to release it but it won't... and the bike is not in the best of places!

I am still in the investigation process of what (exactly!) caused this. I do agree with the two good points above for not setting the brake during prolonged storage, cable stretch and rotor-frozen pads. But now I have one more reason, the PB motor issue. So far I have found that BRP replaces the original motor (p/n 278003071) with a redesigned(?) unit p/n 710007256. My understanding is one of the two internal gears (looks like a worm-drive to me) was made of plastic and that (BRP says) was problematic. Like I said, a definitive answer from BRP is pending.

Here is what the original PB motor looks like. From my measurements the motor, when running under no load, draws 1.7-1.8A @ nominally 12V; current inrush (inductive motor) can be as high as 8A! Also when running I noticed my motor's sound (pitch) changed slightly as it rotated, indicative of slightly binding gears? Hmmm...? Additionally, why they used such jenky connectors (but packed with dielectric grease!), I replaced mine with the AMP Superseal 1.5 connector used elsewhere on the bike.

Original Parking Brake Motor 220218.jpg

[Bluewater]

Nope.

I turn it off while in neutral. Then the bike beeps like 20 times. After that, I chock the wheels.

IMHO, doing this will 1) prevent the pads from sticking to the rotors, and 2) prevent the parking brake cable from stretching and causing problems later.

Same here, plus full tank w/stabilizer, and trickle charge the battery once a month. Also in my rock cold garage in Ontario, I add 5+ psi to the tires, all of which are sitting on plywood squares to keep them off the cement. A little OCD I guess.

As an aside, when buying our 2020 RT-L, I mentioned to the dealer that I used to fog my outboard motors, lawn mowers, and past motorcycles before storage, and they advised not to do that with a Spyder, as there are several emission/engine control sensors in the system that might not like getting coated with oil and then shut off. And as to putting some oil down each spark plug hole as with our last bike, I don't have any idea of WHERE to even look for the spark plugs on this machine, so I guess it just sits as is. Ride safe.