Spyder Idiosyncrasies.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Another thing that is taking me longer to get used to is 3 wheels and how they affect the characteristics of the bike. Seems self explanatory, but let me go through this. For me, I noticed that when you have a combination of ruts and road crown together, coupled with the wind off of an 18 wheeler, things can get real interesting fast. As the front tires are clearing the pull out of the 2 tire ruts and approaching the crown, the rear tire falls off into the leftmost rut and causes the bike to react differently than anything I've been used too. All kinds of dynamics there. There is also the visual thing about clearly seeing the front 2 wheels. Junk in the road... I'll just straddle it. BAM. Rear wheel takes the hit. Oops, forgot about that one back there. There is a pretty narrow space you can squeeze an object through under the bike and not hit any wheel, something like a foot and a half or so. I'm still trying to get that right.

Don't give up yet. I had to transition to 3 wheels, looked hard at all the options. Goldwing trike is the gold standard, but now I'm glad I got the Spyder. I can corner it much more sportingly than my last cruiser. That, and the actual gear for reverse made this a great choice. I think these are much more stable than a normal trike. If it ever stops storming I'm going to go put more miles on the one I have.

To you and others here on this steering thing ….. For ME, if I'm going to hit something - like a bump or a pothole I steer around it if at all possible …. I don't care about the rear tire/wheel as much as I do about the front suspension..... IMHO the rear can take waaaaaaay more abuse than the front without suffering any damage. ( I apologize to my rear tire :dontknow ….. Mike hyea:

 

[h0gr1der]

Unfortunately I'm still running the Kenda. My Vredestein rear should be in Tuesday. Confidence boost in 3-2-......

 

[bushrat]

A lot of great input here from experts (Peter, Mike, et al), who can coach you best from the technical perspective. My input would be: relax, have faith in your Spyder; if you use good sense, it is unlikely to cause you harm. Perhaps because I didn't do a whole lot of 2-wheeling in the 40 years right before I bought my F3L in 2017, I didn't need to "unlearn" those riding habits. Yet, for the first few weeks, I called my Spyder "Old Twitchy", because it gave me many concerns similar to yours. For the second month, I nick-named it "Hunter", because it seemed to have a mind of its own, and wanted to search out every pot hole, rut, uneven stretch of pavement. As the weeks and miles went by, I realized that it wasn't trying to kill me; we became friends; I relaxed, and so did the bike. We got ourselves "broken in" together; now we're riding buddies, partners. I let it do the work while I enjoy the ride and gently coax it to where I think we should go. For the past 22 months, I now call my bike "Red Fun". Trust the Spyder more; it will return the compliment by increasing your fun. One thing I learned to do, while learning to relax, was to mimic playing a piano. Try riding along at a modest speed (40 mph). With your hands on the bars, open and extend your fingers so that they point ahead, and only your palms are resting on top of the bars with the grips lightly between the "V" created by your thumb and index finger. Steering can be done by easy pressure without closing your hands since you're not really going fast or in twisties. Now, as you ride along in the sunshine of a nice day, make believe you're playing a piano, with your fingers moving up and down. It's fun, it's relaxing, and it reduces stress. It will show you exactly just how light a touch on the bars you can ride with. And, it will demonstrate to you and your Spyder buddy just how much faith you have in one another. Oh, and if you need a firmer feeling while in the saddle, don't grab the bars, just squeeze against the tank with your inside knee. Works for me. Have faith. Relax. And welcome to the world of Spyder fun. Nothing better!!!!

 

[frj322]

Have to agree with the replies so far. Never had any success on 2 wheels and I wanted to ride so the Spyder was my option. Got a 2018 F3S last year (still on the Kendas with about 3,000 miles on the clock now). It finally clicked for me around the 1,500 to 2,000 mile mark. Now it's just plain FUN. Great advice here, light touch on the bars and just go WITH it, i had a bad tendency to overcorrect and when I finally relaxed and became one with the machine that's when instinct took over. Have fun and be patient, you'll get it.

 

[Revalden]

On curves/corners squeeze with your thighs and put pressure on outside footboard/peg so that you're not using the handlebars to steady yourself and are more free to actually steer and I lean into the curve a lot. I also downshift going into a curve so that I can use the engine to slow somewhat and power out. Under 45mph I can steer with one hand on my RT.

 

[FalconAF]

One thing I learned to do, while learning to relax, was to mimic playing a piano. Try riding along at a modest speed (40 mph). With your hands on the bars, open and extend your fingers so that they point ahead, and only your palms are resting on top of the bars with the grips lightly between the "V" created by your thumb and index finger. Steering can be done by easy pressure without closing your hands since you're not really going fast or in twisties. Now, as you ride along in the sunshine of a nice day, make believe you're playing a piano, with your fingers moving up and down. It's fun, it's relaxing, and it reduces stress. It will show you exactly just how light a touch on the bars you can ride with.

An addition to bushrat's suggestion: Get a "Crampbuster" to use on the right hand throttle control handgrip. It does not interfere with your ability to grip the handgrip when you need to, and when you don't need to "grip the grip" you control the amount of throttle input using the palm off your hand instead of having to grip the throttle grip. Do a Google search for pics and videos if you aren't familiar with them. One of the best less than $10 you will spend on your motorcycle. Yes, the Spyder's have cruise controls. But you can't always use it. In those instances, the Crampbuster is golden. If you get one, go to a safe riding place (open parking lot, no traffic neighborhood, etc) for about 5 - 10 minutes to get used to using it. After that, you'll never regret buying it. You can spin it out of the way when you WANT to (IF you want to, but you normally won't want to unless you want to spin it around to readjust the paddle position, which is easy to do while riding). And you can still "grip the grip" when you need to even with the palm of your hand on the paddle controller. Watch the YouTube videos to see how it works. It WILL stop you from over-gripping the hand grips if that is what you are doing. Many riders put one on the LEFT handgrip also just because they are so "hand comfortable" when riding.

EDIT: They come in 2 different handlebar diameter sizes. The larger one (the 1 and 3/8" one) is for the Spyder handgrip. Plus I didn't have to put the included rubber "O-Ring" thing on my grip before putting the Crampbuster over it. The Crampbuster was tight enough without the rubber O-ring (was TOO tight with the O-ring). And...there are 2 different "paddle" widths of it too. A narrow one (1" wide by 3" long) and a wide one (2 and 1/4" wide by 3" long). I prefer the wider one, but other people may prefer the narrow one. *** Oh...one other thing. They come in black plastic or SILVER ("chrome") colors. Do NOT get the Silver colored one. It is the black plastic one with "coat of silver painty stuff" on it. Within a couple months at most, all the silver painty stuff will start flaking off and make your gloves really, really ugly. *** PS - There's a PINK one too if you don't like black or silver.

 

[Airborne]

I Can only keep thanking you all and i will try all you suggest ASAP,

 

[d.o.spyder-rts]

:congrats: on your spyder purchase and :welcome: to the spyder web. Great advise has been all ready been given. Give it some time, the more miles you ride the more you'll get used to your spyder. Dale

 

[LifeLongRider]

Handling . . . . its flighty, sensitive

Doesn't every first Spyder owner feel that way when coming off two wheels hyea:

 

[Airborne]

That's right, as i have found out from this site its normal to feel that way, good news for me, i'll just keep working on it!

Got a long ride this Saturday, i am going to try out all that i have heard/learnt, if i survive it, i'll let you know how i went, if you don't hear from me well!

 

[mcalva]

Hi.
This is my second Spyder and both, the previous 2011 RT and the new F3, have the same problem
after after having done about 5,000 km.

I notice that when you take a curve it leans too much towards the opposite side, loading the weight
on the outside of the curve and leaving the interior very loose.
Besides that happens also when leaving the curve with what the sensation is unpleasant and I feel
not secure.

My wife must do too much force to compensate these swings and it she is not comfortable at all.

The bike moves excessively with wind and when leaving the slipstream of the trucks.

In the RT I got a spectacular improvement by changing the suspensions and changing the anti sway bar
by one from Bajaron so I'm going to change the anti sway bar to the f3 and I'll see if I get positive results.

Of course, it is a pity to buy a new vehicle that you already have to change parts to work fine but the
current feeling is absollutelly unpleasant.

 

[Trbayth]

I notice that when you take a curve it leans too much towards the opposite side, loading the weight
on the outside of the curve and leaving the interior very loose.

That's why you shift your weight and lean into the curve.

 

[Lew L]

On 2 wheels

When I'm hot footin' it in the twisties ( very common here )--- I'm off the seat, pushing down with the outside foot and leaning low to the inside------ much like hanging off on two wheels. You still must have a lightish grip on the handle bars. It just takes a few hundred miles to " let the good times roll" ( Ya used to have a Kawasiki ZX-11)

 

[mcalva]

That's why you shift your weight and lean into the curve.

Yes, I know you want to say but after 30K kilometers with my old RT I can appreciate the differece.
And the difference is in negative for F3 in that sense.

When I'm hot footin' it in the twisties ( very common here )--- I'm off the seat, pushing down with the outside foot and leaning low to the inside------ much like hanging off on two wheels. You still must have a lightish grip on the handle bars. It just takes a few hundred miles to " let the good times roll" ( Ya used to have a Kawasiki ZX-11)

I have also done many kilometers on a motorcycle. My last a VTX1300 and in Spain there are many curves and secondary roads. More than motorways. I know it's different but the feeling of insecurity of the F3 did not give me the RT "tuned"

I'd like it was different in positive cause I changed to F3 to achieve it, but .....

 

[fjray]

They are a different animal and the spyder koolaid just isn't the silver bullet for everybody. The twitchy part never goes away, you just get used to it. With three wheels in three different tracks you are always going to have some of it. Suspension mods can help but by design you are always going to have the extra input of the third wheel doing it's thing. If I only rode in town I would love the spyder but out on the road for me it falls short of expectations. Ymmv

 

[Airborne]

Maybe if i ride very slowly! All my problems would be over.

 

[mcalva]

Maybe if i ride very slowly! All my problems would be over.

:roflblack:

I thing, for language problems, I am not able to comunicate the situation.

I've drived two RT's and one F3 for a reasonable quantity of kilometers and being the same driver
I've got different feelings between the RT's and F3.

Of couse, if I stay at home with the f3 on the car park, the rare movements will dissapear.
I would only have a huge and beautiful paperweight but I would prefer to use it for what it was built
for.

Tell me nitpicker. :roflblack:

 

[spyder01]

I feel out of place leaning like a kid on a crotch rocket but that's the only way to compensate for the centrifugal force that tries to throw you off the bike.Lean and squeeze your knees on the tank area.These bikes require a lot more concentration to ride smoothly.Its like your actually driving the bike not riding it.

 

[LifeLongRider]

When I'm hot footin' it in the twisties I'm off the seat, pushing down with the outside foot and leaning low to the inside------ much like hanging off on two wheels.

Geeezzz . . . and I thought I was the only one who did that . . . :cheers:

 

[SpyderChris]

One thing I try to do when on a road with tire ruts and a center hump is to ride a bit off-center so that the rear tire isn't constantly falling off the center hump to one side or the other. I try to keep one of my feet over the hump. That puts one front tire and the rear tire on opposite sides of one rut and the rear tire and the other front tire on opposite sides of the hump. I hope that makes sense.

Also, think of the Spyder as dancing underneath you, let your lower body dance with it while keeping your chest and head more stationary. I think you feel more stable if you head isn't moving as much. I guess this is part of "relax", but a bit different than the usual grip and shoulder relaxation.