Rear Suspension

[Dwight]

I took our RT-S in Saturday for an oil change and to have the service tech check out my rear shock. He road it into the service bay and said he would order me a new shock because it was very obvious that it wasn't working. I was happy! No arguments about it.
About an hour later he said it was done and they would ride it up to the front for us. After waiting about 10 minutes for them to show up I decided to walk back and check out where it was. Service guy said the tech thought maybe the shock was ok but there was a problem with the air suspension system. As politely as I could I explained that the shop manual clearly illustrated that the air system was completely independent of the shock absorber, therefore, while it's true that the air system may not be working (it isn't, tech took it for a test ride with the pressure set at 60psi and when he got back it only had 30psi left in it) it has no effect on the shocks dampening. Pushing down on the passenger hand rests and then letting go resulted in the suspension topping out with a loud bang. He said he would call BRP Tuesday and see what they have to say about it. I'm hoping BRP will address both the air system and the shock absorber, otherwise it will result in two more trips (180 miles round trip). One to have the air system fixed, and the second one to have the shock replaced because the air system fix didn't do anything for the bad shock. We still have our HD/CSC trike, believe it or not by the wife suggested maybe we should take it on our 3 - 4 week trip instead of the Spyder, because it's taking so much time to make it work like it's supposed to! I'm beggining to feel a lot like Scotty does. When people question me in the future about how much I like our Spyder, I'm going to tell them my advice would be to wait at least a year before you buy one. Maybe then it will be ready for "prime time".

Dwight

[fastfraser]

I would love a RTS ! But will wait at least 1 year and hope the bugs get worked out and the price comes down some .

[bodymanpainter]

I took our RT-S in Saturday for an oil change and to have the service tech check out my rear shock. He road it into the service bay and said he would order me a new shock because it was very obvious that it wasn't working. I was happy! No arguments about it.
About an hour later he said it was done and they would ride it up to the front for us. After waiting about 10 minutes for them to show up I decided to walk back and check out where it was. Service guy said the tech thought maybe the shock was ok but there was a problem with the air suspension system. As politely as I could I explained that the shop manual clearly illustrated that the air system was completely independent of the shock absorber, therefore, while it's true that the air system may not be working (it isn't, tech took it for a test ride with the pressure set at 60psi and when he got back it only had 30psi left in it) it has no effect on the shocks dampening. Pushing down on the passenger hand rests and then letting go resulted in the suspension topping out with a loud bang. He said he would call BRP Tuesday and see what they have to say about it. I'm hoping BRP will address both the air system and the shock absorber, otherwise it will result in two more trips (180 miles round trip). One to have the air system fixed, and the second one to have the shock replaced because the air system fix didn't do anything for the bad shock. We still have our HD/CSC trike, believe it or not by the wife suggested maybe we should take it on our 3 - 4 week trip instead of the Spyder, because it's taking so much time to make it work like it's supposed to! I'm beggining to feel a lot like Scotty does. When people question me in the future about how much I like our Spyder, I'm going to tell them my advice would be to wait at least a year before you buy one. Maybe then it will be ready for "prime time".

Dwight

I took my RTS in for the rear shock to be replaced (like riding a pogo stick) and got it back on thursday 4/29/10 and by 5/1/10 the replacement shock has gone bad. I called my dealer and he is going to get in touch with BRP to resolve this issue we hope.

[Dwight]

BodymanPainter,

I'm afraid that's going to happen to me also. I'm still waiting for them to repair the air system, supposed to be done by this Wednesday. Service guy tells me the reason the shock went out was because my air system wasn't working. According to him the air bag is used as a spring to help the rear shock. If the air bag has no air in it that puts all of the load on the rear shock spring which results in a blown shock absorber. The only mention made about the air bag in either the shop manual or the owners manual that I could find to support his theory is a chart in the owners manual that says the air bag should have a minimum of 10psi in it. Time is getting close for our summer trip and I'm a bit concerned about having this happen again either before or during the trip. BRP should send all of it's dealers a good supply of shocks, looks like this is going to be a general problem. Thanks for your comments, hopefully BRP can find a permanent solution.

Dwight

[SC92]

BodymanPainter,

BRP should send all of it's dealers a good supply of shocks, looks like this is going to be a general problem. Thanks for your comments, hopefully BRP can find a permanent solution.

Dwight

The problem is definetly the poor quality of the rear shock. I am on my third one in 6000 Kilometers, and whilst it is OK now, I am not confident that it will last.
The shocks seem to be sourced by price, not quality