Any feedback on the Upgraded BajaRon 3 piece Sway Bar for F3 (and RT)?

[CloverHillCrawler]

Looks like Baja Ron has announced a new Upgraded 3 piece Sway Bar on his facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/BajaRons-Cu...0868605211789/

Does anybody have one of these yet and some feedback to offer?

And go figure, I just put the now "old one" on just six months ago. My usual luck with this type of stuff.

But I will probably go get my Baja Ron fix as I am riding 2 up with the wife more as she is getting used to riding as a passenger.

Any body want a slightly used older model when I get this one?

278957912_1106193786679263_590518775587730225_n.jpg

[troop]

My initial thought was this design makes it look like you won't need to get the Spyder raised as high to do the replacement. That said, you still need to get the OEM one off. Hmmm ?

[Wmoater]

Yep I agree Troop! Once off it should go really easy! I also assume there’s a slot or key way on the ends of the bar to allow those outside 2 metal clips to perfectly align. If not one side could be cocked one way or another and a real pain to hook up.

[spyderdave]

Actually a great set-up; the ends are hexagonal to assure proper indexing. This torsion bar (style) is what Chrysler Corp. (and VW) used decades ago for front springs; it worked well.

I would suggest that anyone installing this system make sure the threaded ends of the bolts ride in the link eye, it's probably hardened and the swaybar arm appears to be aluminum; threads might gouge the aluminum and wiggle after a while.

[Isopedella]

I'm happy with my 1 piece bar I have just fitted up.
I would buy the 1 piece again if I had to do the job again.

As mentioned already you have to get the old one out........guess you could cut it you have nightmares about the lift required.

[UtahPete]

Does anyone know where to buy them, and the price?

[Isopedella]

Post #1. 1st line would be a good start.

[pegasus1300]

Pete go to the Forum home page and click on BajaRon's add there. It will take you to his store. Good luck.

[UtahPete]

Pete go to the Forum home page and click on BajaRon's add there. It will take you to his store. Good luck.

Thanks. I did that. He doesn't have the new version listed for sale that I can see.

[Peter Aawen]

C'mon guys, play nice! Some off topic & argumentative posts have been removed from public view, as will Any further posts in the same vein!

If you are after any info, prices, purchase info, etc from him, here's a quote taken from BajaRon's thread in the Supporting Vendor's Forum here on this site - you can get there by clicking on his logo on the Forum Home Page; it's the last logo in the listing under Unique Spyder Products & Services:

Contact and Purchase Information ~
The best way to Ask Questions or Purchase is to contact me by email at fyredad@hotmail.com OR call me at 423-609-7588
And you can always PM me here at Spyderlovers.com, though email or a phone call will usually get a faster response.

Nb: note the important bit in the above quote that I underlined. And just BTW, if you want a link to his faceache page &/or the announcement of his newly released Custom Performance 3-piece Sway Bar for Spyder RT and F3 Models - it's about the 4th line down in the text of the page you get by clicking on his logo on the Home page; and atm, this bar appears as the very first item in the right hand column that's discussed on that faceache page - eeeaaasy as to find it & get there, all it takes is a few clicks of your mouse...

[Peteoz]

Pete, Looks like your only option to get the info you want is to wait for Ron to wake up and call him, coz no one on here knows the answer

Pete

[CloverHillCrawler]

Sorry, just woke up. I was tired after a long ride last night and didn't realize the stir I caused on here.

I'll make sure to include a link next time.

[fredgal]

does anyone know if the Bar itself is a larger diameter ?

[CloverHillCrawler]

does anyone know if the Bar itself is a larger diameter ?

From Baja Ron's facebook page :

Joshua Spyder-Man Richardson
Are you anticipating better handling over your 1 piece or just easier install?
1wEdited

Author
BajaRon's Custom Performance Spyder & Ryker Gear
Joshua Spyder-Man Richardson It will handle better, but you will feel more of a difference if you're a more aggressive rider, riding 2-up, or when you're loaded down.
1w

Author
Scott Terry
Will this setup be lower overall ? Or same height as original?
1w

Author
BajaRon's Custom Performance Spyder & Ryker Gear
Scott Terry Same height as the original.
1w

Author
Glenn Coolie Pugh
What's the difference between this and the old design?
1w


Author
BajaRon's Custom Performance Spyder & Ryker Gear
Glenn Coolie Pugh By eliminating the bends in the spring steel bar, you don't lose the energy that you typically would with the spring steel bends. So, this bar is going to handle better and have less body roll. It pretty much does everything that the original bar does, just better. The old bar is still great if you don't ride 2-up or fully loaded, but with those factors in play, the new bar will make a noticeable difference. We will be listing the new sway bar for sale very soon, we're currently just waiting on some extra material.

[troop]

15 posts later and we still haven't heard from Baja Ron himself. He'd have all the answers

[Isopedella]

Sorry, just woke up. I was tired after a long ride last night and didn't realize the stir I caused on here.

I'll make sure to include a link next time.

Dont beat your self up with this.

Started with a bloke asking for links to a site he alluded to that he had no idea how to get in contact with and degenerated from there.... since cleaned up by the Mods.

So sleep easy.

[Peteoz]

Sorry, just woke up. I was tired after a long ride last night and didn't realize the stir I caused on here.

I'll make sure to include a link next time.

Look at all this kerfuffle you have created CloverHill. Please refrain from sleeping after posting in future until all replies have been received

p.s. thanks for the post above. I wonder if, at 310lbs, Ron’s considers me riding “two up”? I might have to buy a new bar.

Pete

[CloverHillCrawler]

Look at all this kerfuffle you have created CloverHill. Please refrain from sleeping after posting in future until all replies have been received

p.s. thanks for the post above. I wonder if, at 310lbs, Ron’s considers me riding “two up”? I might have to buy a new bar.

Pete

Well it does also say for more aggressive riding , so weight is not the only consideration. and I never sleep I just pass out from exhaustion.

[BajaRon]

15 posts later and we still haven't heard from Baja Ron himself. He'd have all the answers

Guilty!

I try not to jump in on these threads. Always feels like a cheap sales pitch. I'd rather have those who are using my products tell their story. But this is a bit different since so few have had occasion to ride the new bar.

Since the very beginning. I've had customers tell me that they like what the bar does for them. Increased control, handling, confidence and outright enjoyment are good things. But quite a few say they don't think the bar is doing all it could. And they are right. Because a sway bar is what I call a 'Goldilocks' product. A sway bar can be too weak and it can also be too strong. Too strong is worse than too weak. So, to make this item as a one size fits all, from very light weight people riding 1-Up with no luggage, to the other extreme, two-up, heavily loaded pulling a trailer, means leaving meaningful potential on the table for the heavier and more aggressive riders.

I've had this idea for addressing this 'Lack' in the back of my head for quite some time.

We already produce a 3-piece bar for the Ryker. That was pretty much a necessity after every one of my vendors told me not to bother making a bar for the Ryker because it was so miserable to install. "Miserable" being an understatement. Harvey. of Spyderpops. told me he didn't care how much he could charge for that install, it just wasn't worth the aggravation. So, it was either go to the drawing board and figure out a better way to install a bar kit for the Ryker, or go home. I'm not very good at going home. In fact, telling me something can't be done usually assures that I will try. There is a saying that; "No one who ever succeeds was not willing to risk failure". I've found that to be very true. And believe me, I do not always succeed!

I finally pulled the trigger some months back and made prototypes of a 3 piece bar for the Spyder. Not necessarily to ease the install, though we are also looking into that aspect. But maybe to retrieve some of the performance potential for the riders mentioned above, which had eluded me with the original design. And doing so without making the bar too strong for the light rider. I knew that a 3-piece bar would be more impressive visually. I didn't say anything about the project because I frankly didn't expect much improvement in performance. I am so glad that I was wrong.

You might want to quit reading now because things get a bit more technical. But I know there are some of you out there, like me, that eat up this nit-pickity, detail stuff.

The sway bar is nothing more than a spring. It is a highly specific, single purpose system that performs functions which no other suspension component can. But in the end, it's just a spring. The horizontal portion works to move 'weight' or loading from the overloaded outside wheel, to the 'lighter' or unloaded (sometimes lifted off the ground if you get too energetic) inside wheel. This is why you get less lean, etc., with the upgraded bar.

With a 1-piece bar, everything from where the bar starts to bend, to the attachment point at the A-Arm has potential to absorb, or bleed off the torsion energy generated by the center portion of the bar. If anything from the bend to this attachment point can flex, stretch or compress, you are losing energy. This is why simply replacing the OEM plastic composite end links with rigid end links will give you improvement. But with the 1-piece bar, we are still left with flex from the bend to the ridged end link. Which I had always assumed was negligible. And that is where I was wrong.

The spring steel arm flex is not liner. A little pressure creates virtually no flex. More pressure gives more flex, but the flex increases much faster as the pressure increases. This is the beauty of the 3-piece bar. Because just going to a stiffer spring steel would risk a too stiff bar for lightly loaded Spyders. Replacing this portion of the spring steel with rigid billet aluminum arms increases efficiency where it is needed most without increasing stiffness at lighter loads. Sounds like circular reasoning, I admit. But it's the best way I know how to explain the advantage. With the 3-piece bar, virtually all of the energy transfer is applied to the suspension without any increase in strength to the torsion portion of the bar.

As far as availability. I was only able to get 20 of the F3 and 20 of the RT bars produced with this 1st run. The F3 only in Silver and the RT only in Red (Arms & End Links). I have more coming. But things are taking ever longer these days. I did not want to open things up completely until I had enough to supply demand. But I wanted to let people know what is coming. I am selling what I currently have in stock to customers who have an immediate use, like an upcoming trip, etc.

I will still be selling the original bar kit as it is still a viable product. The 3-Piece bar will be $315.00 ($27.00 over the original 1-piece bar kit) delivered to the 48 US States. There will be some shipping cost to other locations. As soon as possible, these new bar kits will be available to all of my vendors.

On a side note. I had a customer call me last week about installing a bar kit. He purchased a 2022 RT, which is sitting at our local Can-Am Dealership awaiting parts. He wanted to know if we could install a bar kit for him while he waits. We arranged it with the dealer but I wanted them to transport it both ways. I could ride it, of course, or use our trailer. But I just didn't feel good about us moving a factory fresh 2022 that the customer hasn't even taken delivery of yet. The salesman (who I purchased our 2019 Ryker from) not only rides, but knows the product better than any salesman I've dealt with before. He texted me after riding the Spyder back to the dealership the next day and said it was the 1st time he'd had a chance to ride the same Spyder from stock to having a sway bar installed back to back. He said he was very impressed.

We put the new 3-piece bar on this one.

See My Update Below... (Post #21)

[Knizar]

Baja Ron-3 Piece Sway Bar
Glad I waited, Just put on new front tires this spring and wanted to test them out before adding the sway bar. Definitely will be ordering your 3 piece S/B this summer, glad to hear you have it perfected.......Bill

[BajaRon]

I have been getting some questions which indicate that there may be some misunderstanding about the statements I made in the previous post concerning this new 3-Piece bar kit.

#1- 'Are you saying that the original BajaRon Bar is No Good for aggressive, 2-up, or heavily loaded riders?'
No, I am not saying that at all. What I meant to convey is that the new 3-Piece bar is BETTER than the original bar for these riders. The 1-Piece bar makes a big difference for these riders. Always has, always will.

#2- 'Do I have to replace my original BajaRon bar with the new 3-Piece?'
No. If you are happy with the performance of the original bar, there may be no reason for you to change it out.

#3- 'Why did you present the new bar before having sufficient stock to provide for sales to everyone?' Which would include a similar question. 'Why didn't you announce the new bar sooner? I just bought one of the original bar kits.'
Well, you've got me there. It's a Catch-22 moment. Of course I needed to do quite a bit of testing to be sure this new bar was worth putting into production before saying anything. We released information when we did to let those thinking about a bar kit know that it was coming. We'd hoped to have it all ready to go by this time (riding season). But that didn't happen as quickly as we'd have liked.

As always, if you have questions, let me know.

[chunkmonk]

So (a) I don't do farcebook - haven't in a few years. got tired of being jailed and scolded for my opinion when liberal progressive positions were allowed at all ends of the spectrum. (b) those ends on the new kit appear to be solid rather than heim joints, which is exactly like the kit that spyderaccessories sells... I'm now wondering if those heim joints are as purpose built as they are advertised to be...
The height issue is still an issue. You can cut the old bar if you're not going to sell it (the rubbery end joints are junk unless they are pretty new, as they were in my case), but you will need 24" of ground clearance to install the new bar. The only 2 lifts I know that do that are the K&L (max lift height 31") and another one that is something like J&K which has a max of 36". The K&L one sells for around $900 USD, and the other one is around $1,600USD. My bike lift will pick up 1,600 lbs at a height of 18" and that was all I needed on any of my big touring rides. For this, I'm going to wind up having a shop install it - if I can ever find a trustworthy shop in this area...

[chunkmonk]

Ron - Any plans to work on an active anti-swaybar kit for spyders?

[coolie]

How will we know if we are getting the new Sway bar kit? Are these available from all of the usual vendors?

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

My initial thought was this design makes it look like you won't need to get the Spyder raised as high to do the replacement. That said, you still need to get the OEM one off. Hmmm ?

Well if you are tossing the OLD one .... just cut in half or three pieces .... good luck .... Mike