New 2019 Spyder F3 Limited
Today I brought home my new 2019 F3 limited today!!!!
I retired from the US Army on 23 November 2019 after 31 years of service.
I started a new job with a great DoD Defense contractor in December which I will work for a few more years before I permanently retire.
To celebrate the closing of a significant chapter in my life and the beginning of new one, I brought home my new F3L!
I have some background with Can Am Spyders.
I owned a 2013 Spyder RT-S for about four years. I bought it used with 406 miles on it so it was effectively brand new.
Over that time I put on about 7500 miles on it and I discovered a few design issues that bugged me a lot.
1. Soft front suspension. It was really obvious when riding two up with the wife.
I just got used to always driving conservative with her on board to compensate.
Sure I could have spent a $1000 bucks and upgraded to Baja Ron sway bar and expensive aftermarket Fox shocks to fix it; but, you shouldn't have to do that on a $20K+ bike.
2. Foot Peg locations. My RT-S was an SM-5 manual shift transmission. I found I really hated the location of the driver foot pegs.
At 5'11" I am not overly tall, but, I felt like Can Am used a midget model to determine where to place them.
The driver's foot peg locations made my knees hurt. For every hour of riding I have to take a 15-minute break before getting back on the road.
Many years of playing sports (mostly basketball) was catching up to me.
3. Forward Gears. I found myself really wanting a sixth gear on the interstate.
To the point I found myself trying to shift up on occasion to realize I am in 5th gear and don't have another gear.
This took a lot of the fun out of riding the RT-S.
So...in March I traded my 2013 RT-S and the wife's 2006 Nissan Pathfinder in on a Kia Sorento for her.
This made the wife very happy!
I started looking at bikes again in October.
I sat on a 2019 F3 Limited and all I could say was...this is incredible.
Can Am fixed all of the issues I had.
I loved it and made my mind up.
I was buying a new F3 Limited!
After a lot of shopping around I bought my new ride from Fremont Motorsports in Florence Colorado.
Florence Colorado is about an hour south of Colorado Springs where the my wife and I live.
Freemont Motorsports gave me great service AND I saved around $4500 compared to what the local Colorado Springs BMW/Can AM dealer was asking for their F3Ls.
The money I saved allow me to buy a F4 Customs windshield, upgraded factory Cannon Ball seats, and a LaMonster roller bearing belt tensioner through the dealer and have them installed prior to pick up.. The dealer had their X-Mas sale on 09 December and gave me a fantastic discount on all of the parts.
On my way home today I managed to put about 85 miles on it driving through some nice easy canyons on Highway 115 between Florence and Colorado Springs.
This was a great ride as it allowed me naturally accelerate and decelerate to really help with the initial engine break-in.
I shifted often and made sure I did not lug it or over rev it.
After the canyon ride all I can say is WOW!!!
The updated suspension on the F3 is incredible and is immensely better than the factory suspension that was on my 2013 RT-S.
It was setup perfectly for my height and weight.
The F3 seat are lower and coupled with the U-Fit controls it provides a far more natural cruising position for me.
The new 1330 three cylinder motor purrs like a sewing machine too and has a really nice smooth power band.
Thanks Can Am! I now have a ride that feels nearly perfect.
Overall I am extremely happy with my new spyder!
The only issues I had was with setting up the BRP connect with my Samsung Note 9 Android phone.
That experience was a little painful, but, I finally figured it out.
All I can say is RTFM!
I will leave the details on the BRP Connect experience for another post.
Mike
2019 Can Am Spyder F3 Limited smaller.jpg
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