2018 RT Ltd - Asphalt Metallic - East Valley of Phoenix
2018 RT Ltd Chrome - Champagne Metallic - Lake Stevens, Wa
(Champagne/Hooker) Magic Mirrors, 360 LED head lights, BajaRon sway bar, H&R springs and shock adjusters, dash cam, foam grips, third brake light 4 LED strobe for 7 seconds and then on steady, rear LED turn signals/8 ohm 50W resistors, sequential turn signals on front fenders, Vredestein and PPA Orb wheels on front and General out back, and driver backrest.
Things that move between machines: Ikea sheep skins, Zumo XT GPS, and extra tools. Hooker is going to be my summer trike up North; and Hookie my winter trike down South.
(Asphalt/Hookie) Elka shocks on front - BajaRon sway bar, OEM driver's backrest, LED headlights, dual USB with voltmeter, dash cam, foam grips - Magic Mirrors - front tires Vredestein Quatrac SL on PPA ORB Chrome wheels.
Yeah, I found out last spring that a Spyder is pretty useless in the snow. It was dry and sunny at home, but when I got up about 5,000 feet in the local mountains I found the road had about 4 inches of snow. Tried, but had to give up and turn around. The rear wheel does not have enough traction to push the fronts through snow.
Not convinced chains would have helped... - there's not likely to be enough clearance for them in any case!
“There comes a time in the affairs of men... when we must seize the bull by the tail and face the situation.” - W.C. Fields
We don't get a heap of the white stuff here in Oz, and what we do get is generally a little 'different' to the sorta stuff you lot usually get over there (well, in most places anyway! ) but cos I lived & worked in it for so long, I have been known to go searching for 'a bit of snow' to ryde my Spyder in (coupla/few inches max sorta stuff, altho often with an icy underlay too ) - and in some instances, it can be quite fun!!
I wouldn't say it's ever quite 'a blast' per se, but it really can be quite enjoyable! Sure, you hafta ryde slowly and gently, with a LOT of anticipation for everything; and you might need to juggle tire pressures to get any traction (only tried chains a few times, & studs are definitely 'out' on public roads here in Oz ) but once you get all that sorted & squared away, snow Spydering can have an attraction all of its own! And I reckon that ryding a Ryker in the snow juust might raise that 'enjoyment' to a whole 'nuther level too, especially since given all that tire pressure/traction/anticipation stuff AND the right conditions, ryding a Spyder in the snow can be far more 'fun' than riding a 2 wheeler in the snow, and sometimes it can even better/more enjoyable than driving a 4 wheeled cage in the snow!! There's even a few vids floating around that other people have taken of me &/or some other Ozzie Spyder Ryders enjoying our version of a 'snow day' running around the place - some of them have been posted here on the Forum, altho that was a while back!
I've seen a number of videos of guys playing in the snow on syders. BTW, you can't go slow and have any fun. You have to be going WFO for anything to happen. One video showed that it took 2 acres to make one U-turn.
What did nanny think about that? In one of the videos, I saw that they had to disconnect her.
While others may have, I personally haven't disconnected the Nanny - ever!! (Been tempted tho, but I figure that even if I feel she's a little restrictive occasionally, she's really there to protect me from myself, and any excesses I may be prone to - in controlling my ryding that is - any 'other' excesses are purely my responsibility!! ) However, more recently I have had an 'ECU Upgrade' done that juust might have relaxed a few of the Nanny's restrains a tiny bit.... ( )
That said, even on good traction surfaces & in absolutely stock condition, your Spyder's/Ryker's Nanny will let you spin up the rear tire and hang the tail juuust a little, but you hafta keep the 'wheel spin speed' within reason, below the max that she'll allow; & keep the steering angles you input to something less than those that'll upset her.... it's just a matter of keeping everything smooth & gentle enough in your application to remain within her permissible parameters! So when you add snow &/or ice, ie, reduce the traction available, all that really does is make the 'spin & drift' thing a whoooole lot easier to do - just so long as you STILL keep the 'wheel spin speed' & the steering angles below the limits that'll upset her! Cos not only is it easier to initiate wheel spin & tail hanging, it also becomes waaay easier to be just a touch too ham fisted and exceed those parameters; and the very second you do that.....
It might take a little bit of practice to work out exactly how gentle you need to be on throttle & steering inputs (& on brake applications too!! ) and you probably need a little bit of time & an unimpeded space to do that (an empty car park; or a 'not currently in use' airstrip maybe?!? ) but once you get the feel for what you CAN get away with vs how much/little more it takes to prompt the Nanny to shut you down, the 'fun factor' of ryding in light snow increases a LOT! : thumbup:
But as others have said, as soon as the snow gets deep enough to force the front wheels to start acting like snow plows, you ain't goin' anywhere!! Only while we don't have too many parts of this country that get a lot of snow, I guess we're lucky in that when & where we DO get snow, it's usually fairly light & close to ideal for Spyder ryding in the snow - at least to start out with!
I did 3 donuts in 1/2 mi r/t. Constant fish tail. To be fair the snow was hard-packed--top 1/2 inch. below was ice--the front wheels were on flat hard-pack snow. But any rear tire spin wore thru the snow down to the ice. It was fun riding--just don't stop--that's when the traction problem takes over....
2015 F3's , two 12 volt power outlets Orange & Black