Touring on the Canyon? Just got back from 1600 mile trip - my observations...

[Tslepebull]

There has been some question about the touring and/or interstate riding ability of the Canyon. I just got back from a 1600 mile trip to the BMW MOA Rally and here are my observations on my base model with added luggage and tank bag.

1. When it rained (really hard) I got wet; light rain not so much (I don't like lightning).
2. When the sun was out and the dash thermometer registered above 90, I got hot.
3. At 75 MPH+ every 175-200 miles I had to pull off and get fuel; that was was 32 mpg. Sure higher would have been nice but a half ton with the aerodynamics of a refrigerator takes its toll; besides, I had to pee anyway.
4. When I needed something I had brought, I had to remember which of the three bags I put it in.
5. Potholes, broken asphalt, grooved pavement etc. did not slow me down or upset the chassis, at all.
6. Side winds, tractor trailer tail wash was no issue.

I have never ridden a Spyder, so I cannot make a direct comparison with them, but for me, the Canyon toured just fine; at least as well as my old BMW GS, and I kept up just fine with my riding partner and his BMW GS. Could I have carried around more "stuff" if I had a frunk? Yes. Did I miss having a frunk? No. I am a solo rider, so with the pillion seat removed the large flat area behind the driver seat and in front of the trunk would have offered a perfect location for a dry bag or one of the BRP Linq accessory cases and any camp gear I might have wanted to carry. THIS IS IN NO WAY A CHALLENGE TO SPYDER RIDERS if you have one and it meets your needs so don't get your knickers all in a twist this is just my experience; ride on and enjoy.

As a side note, at a BMW rally there were many questions about the Canyon. Most started with "I have heard about it but this is the first one I have seen in person". There were also quite a few Spyder RT's at the rally; mostly with happy pillion riders.

 

[Gwolf]

You can tour on anything that you can put a legal tag on. I have done 500 miles a day on a Honda 400 with only a few barrel bags and an old rolled duffle bag tied on the rear seat and rack. I toured several thousand miles every summer on a Yamaha 750 with no hard luggage. I rode 7,000 to 15,000 miles in the summers when I was getting 30 days vacation on a bare Harley 1200 Sporty with a springer front end.

Nobody likes lightning, everybody gets wet if they don't wear a rain suit when it rains; if it is hot, everybody gets wet if they do wear a rain suit. Many times it is not the wind blast from the 18 wheelers, but having to stay behind them on steep grades when they are pulling uphill in lower gears at 30 MPH and there is zero visibility to pass until they come to the passing lanes father up the mountain. You don't try to pass them because one side is a 200 foot cliff going straight up and the other side is a quarter mile of cliff going straight down, with no guard rails.

Do it now on whatever you have to ride, or keep wishing you had the perfect touring machine until you get too old to be able to stand more than a couple hundred miles a day. I rode whatever kind of bikes I had in whatever Country or States I happened to be in at the time, and saw things you can't see from a train or an air plane. If I had waited until I had a full dressed heavy touring bike with all kinds of hard storage bags on it, I would have missed half the fun of getting soaked for 10 or 12 hours in a day, or having to ride back through a tropical storm, or meeting people who thought I was completely crazy wherever I stopped to eat and get fuel, only they wished they could to the same thing, but they never would.

Now I am older than dirt, but I have thousands of pictures and memories of the places I been, people I met, and scenic views where you can see several States from a rest stop hanging on the side of a mountain. I don't normally even talk about it unless somebody asks. It is my private stories and most people would not even believe half of them. You don't get memories from watching TV, you get them from taking off across a National Park that covers half of a State on an open bike with no windshield or saddlebags. If it doesn't rain on you, you can always stop at a coin laundry for lunch and wash everything you're not wearing while you rest. If it does rain on you, then stop at a motel with washers and dryers, put on dry clothes, and hang your boots upside down on flipped over chair legs to drip until morning.

 

[JB62]

Did you enjoy it? That's all that matters.

 

[Tslepebull]

Did you enjoy it? That's all that matters.

1600 miles from Tuesday to Friday with a rally thrown in? Of course I enjoyed it! It also confirmed that my decision to trade my Ryker Rally in on the Canyon was the right one for me.

 

[greer]

Thanks for the report. If I were to stumble upon a pile of money I'd go straight for a Canyon.

Sarah

 

[bikerbillone]

Very good content.

 

[Calimusjohn]

You've added another machine to the endless list of fun vehicles. My S2S and Ryker Rally are great, but the little TW-200 still tops my favorite bike list. My T-dub carried me 4,000 miles through Mexico. A Goldwing toured 49 states. A Honda 55cc bike covered 10,000 mile on Luzon Is.

Every machine is unique and pushes different buttons for each rider. The most important thing is as Gwolf writes: Get off the couch. Go while you can. Enjoy Mother Nature. She knows when you need a bath. A free shower is a bonus.

Which is more important: the woulda, coulda, shouda excuses - or - I just completed a ride to . . . . and met . . . ?

 

[Gwolf]

You've added another machine to the endless list of fun vehicles. My S2S and Ryker Rally are great, but the little TW-200 still tops my favorite bike list. My T-dub carried me 4,000 miles through Mexico. A Goldwing toured 49 states. A Honda 55cc bike covered 10,000 mile on Luzon Is.

Every machine is unique and pushes different buttons for each rider. The most important thing is as Gwolf writes: Get off the couch. Go while you can. Enjoy Mother Nature. She knows when you need a bath. A free shower is a bonus.

Which is more important: the woulda, coulda, shouda excuses - or - I just completed a ride to . . . . and met . . . ?

Gotta do what you gotta do, or you will regret it years later. Been on Luzon myself back when we had Clark there. That was before Mt Panatubo decided the Air Force didn't need a base there. Also with the 776 TAS on Taiwan @ CCK. Had a 350 Honda there and a Chinese license. It wasn't a very large island, but it had everything, shoreline, where the mountains met the ocean. Taroko Gorge... highways with a tunnel every 1/2 mile, high mountain lakes with nice resort villages around them. Rode some in a few other South-East Asian tropical resorts. Seen the biological gardens of Japan and Taipei. Spent most of the time at Tan Son Nhut delivering beans and bullets with a C-130, but took all my leave time without coming back to the CONUS. I could always see that place when I got back. I was air crew and could get a hop to almost anywhere I wanted to go in the Pacific, for free, soon as I signed out on leave. It was an education combined with plenty of travel to places most people in the USA never heard of.

Do it while you are young and make it count. Take the opportunities when they come up, or be laying around wondering why you didn't 50 or 60 years later.

 

[RayBJ]

Do it while you are young and make it count. Take the opportunities when they come up, or be laying around wondering why you didn't 50 or 60 years later.

Age is a number, not a limiter. I didn't have many opportunities to 'tour' when I was gainfully employed. Since I retired I have logged many long distance tours on several different rides. I'm no he-man but at nearly 79, I still take multi-day/week trips a couple times a year.

Bottom line: If you're fit enough, JUST DO IT!