Rando
New member
First of all, a little background about me. I recently turned 53 and my first motorcycle was a Spyder Premier Edition, so that is my only motorcycle comparison. As some of you know, I sold it on Friday and picked up the RT Limited on Saturday and took it to Joe’s Gizzard City, a place mentioned in the Michigan group thread.
The 2011 RT Limited is an awesome machine and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride yesterday! I put about 155 miles on it with that trip. Today, it was in the 80’s here in Michigan, what should have been a perfect day for riding! However, my Spyder had a problem, which I will share in a bit but first let’s start with yesterday.
It was my first experience with C&C Sport of Brighton, MI. They treated me well and spent about 2 hours going over the paperwork, the Spyder and introducing me to everyone in the different departments. They even showed me the service area and got to see them work on a Spyder. I was impressed with the whole operation and was treated very well! They knew I was a bit in a hurry (wanted to make it to the meeting place on time) and they knew I had 3 years of Spyder experience so some things were glossed over by my request. I had plenty of time to look over the Spyder before handing over the check so that to me was the most important part. I had a check list made up with the help of Scotty (Nancy’s Toy) and Lamonster.
Let me back up a day. When I decide to purchase the Spyder, I also said I wanted the trailer to go with it and of course the hitch. They had recently received them and they were still in the crate. On Friday, when they uncrated the trailer, they noticed some shipping damage and will need to order a new one. That was my first disappointment but since I wasn’t planning on using it right away, it was no big deal.
Now on Saturday, when I left the dealership for Joe’s Gizzard City, I noticed the gas gauge was showing empty. I should have noticed it sooner since they went over all the instrumentation with me. Was it too much to ask to have a full or at least half a tank of gas for a new customer? Especially considering what I just spent on everything? Oh well, my fault for being in a hurry but now I had to waste time to fill it up.
I can’t say enough about how enjoyable the ride was there and then home. Here are a few things I wish it had at the time of purchase or at least optional from the factory:
When the bike was still being prepped, I had asked my salesperson to have them install the batter tender wiring since I already had the Tender Junior and had been using it on both of my other Spyders. Now here is where the story gets interesting.
This morning (Sunday) I went on a short ryde around town. The speed was only between 25 and 45 mph. When I turned back into my driveway, I got a check DPS and a check engine light!!! I sent Lamonster and email and he said his first thoughts were the battery connection. I dug out the owners manual to see how to get to the battery and I also hooked it up to the battery tender. It was solid red. I didn’t have the tools to run a test on voltage so I waited all day and no change by late afternoon, just solid red. A wasted day of no ryding!
I decided to bite the bullet and started pulling the “tupperware” off and boy am I glad I did! First of all I noticed the panel to check the oil was not properly installed. The plastic tab was outside, not inside like it’s supposed to be. I also noticed the grommets were all pushed in and one was really chewed up. I’m lucky I didn’t lose a panel on the ride! The middle panel had the same issue with the grommets. I thought I saw a post that these were supposed to be glued or in the case of the RT Limited, something else was done to keep the grommets in place?
When I finally got to the battery, I discovered the negative cable had only been tightened FINGER TIGHT! Apparently when the tech installed the battery tender cable, he must have gotten distracted and never finished tightening it down! I called Lamonster to thank him and told him what a pain it was to get to the battery. He told me there was a SHORT CUT but I’m glad I followed the owners’ manual and discovered the pushed in grommets!
By the way, the salesperson was going to show me how to check the oil but since I was in a hurry and knew where it was, I let it slide. If we would have taken the panel off, we would have both noticed that it had been installed incorrectly. I checked the panel on the other side and it was the same way, the tab was out instead of in.
So now that the negative battery cable has been tightened down, I will let the battery tender do it’s thing overnight. At any rate, I don’t think the dealership thoroughly charged the battery!
Sorry for the long post but hopefully it will help someone else out.
Many thanks to Lamonster and this wonder forum!
The 2011 RT Limited is an awesome machine and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride yesterday! I put about 155 miles on it with that trip. Today, it was in the 80’s here in Michigan, what should have been a perfect day for riding! However, my Spyder had a problem, which I will share in a bit but first let’s start with yesterday.
It was my first experience with C&C Sport of Brighton, MI. They treated me well and spent about 2 hours going over the paperwork, the Spyder and introducing me to everyone in the different departments. They even showed me the service area and got to see them work on a Spyder. I was impressed with the whole operation and was treated very well! They knew I was a bit in a hurry (wanted to make it to the meeting place on time) and they knew I had 3 years of Spyder experience so some things were glossed over by my request. I had plenty of time to look over the Spyder before handing over the check so that to me was the most important part. I had a check list made up with the help of Scotty (Nancy’s Toy) and Lamonster.
Let me back up a day. When I decide to purchase the Spyder, I also said I wanted the trailer to go with it and of course the hitch. They had recently received them and they were still in the crate. On Friday, when they uncrated the trailer, they noticed some shipping damage and will need to order a new one. That was my first disappointment but since I wasn’t planning on using it right away, it was no big deal.
Now on Saturday, when I left the dealership for Joe’s Gizzard City, I noticed the gas gauge was showing empty. I should have noticed it sooner since they went over all the instrumentation with me. Was it too much to ask to have a full or at least half a tank of gas for a new customer? Especially considering what I just spent on everything? Oh well, my fault for being in a hurry but now I had to waste time to fill it up.
I can’t say enough about how enjoyable the ride was there and then home. Here are a few things I wish it had at the time of purchase or at least optional from the factory:
- Heated seat (the heated handgrips are awesome!)
- Floorboards
- Highway Pegs (is the plastic in the front of the pegs supported enough to rest my feet on?)
- A way for the music to easily be playable in my helmet. Is that possible?
- Fuel door for the seat. I realize Corbin makes one but why should I have to buy a whole new seat?
- The high brake light that ESI sells should be OEM on all RT’s.
- Locking glove box. I found out from Scotty that if you lock the handle bars, it locks the glove box. I never have locked my handle bars so I would prefer a separate lock.
- An adapter for the hitch wiring so I could hook it up to another trailer with a standard flat plug. Magic Man, can you work your magic?
When the bike was still being prepped, I had asked my salesperson to have them install the batter tender wiring since I already had the Tender Junior and had been using it on both of my other Spyders. Now here is where the story gets interesting.
This morning (Sunday) I went on a short ryde around town. The speed was only between 25 and 45 mph. When I turned back into my driveway, I got a check DPS and a check engine light!!! I sent Lamonster and email and he said his first thoughts were the battery connection. I dug out the owners manual to see how to get to the battery and I also hooked it up to the battery tender. It was solid red. I didn’t have the tools to run a test on voltage so I waited all day and no change by late afternoon, just solid red. A wasted day of no ryding!
I decided to bite the bullet and started pulling the “tupperware” off and boy am I glad I did! First of all I noticed the panel to check the oil was not properly installed. The plastic tab was outside, not inside like it’s supposed to be. I also noticed the grommets were all pushed in and one was really chewed up. I’m lucky I didn’t lose a panel on the ride! The middle panel had the same issue with the grommets. I thought I saw a post that these were supposed to be glued or in the case of the RT Limited, something else was done to keep the grommets in place?
When I finally got to the battery, I discovered the negative cable had only been tightened FINGER TIGHT! Apparently when the tech installed the battery tender cable, he must have gotten distracted and never finished tightening it down! I called Lamonster to thank him and told him what a pain it was to get to the battery. He told me there was a SHORT CUT but I’m glad I followed the owners’ manual and discovered the pushed in grommets!
By the way, the salesperson was going to show me how to check the oil but since I was in a hurry and knew where it was, I let it slide. If we would have taken the panel off, we would have both noticed that it had been installed incorrectly. I checked the panel on the other side and it was the same way, the tab was out instead of in.
So now that the negative battery cable has been tightened down, I will let the battery tender do it’s thing overnight. At any rate, I don’t think the dealership thoroughly charged the battery!
Sorry for the long post but hopefully it will help someone else out.
Many thanks to Lamonster and this wonder forum!
