Home safe
Hi folks..... So you wanted a full report. This is going to be a long story
We left here at 5:30 AM. Expecting to arrive Indio about 7:20 or so. Well first screw up.
I did not ask for directions as I just Google mapped it. Well the driving directions were wrong. It told me to exit in Ave 48 and there was no such exit. We passed the last exit at Indio and I called the seller. We started going up a mountain pass with no exits in site! I had to turn around through a dirt patch where Highway patrol, etc use. Anyway he gave me directions and we arrives at 8:00.
Temperature outside was already 85!
The seller had it in his nice air-conditioned garage and had all the paper work ready.
I checked out the spyder and lemme just say it was pristine. Still had the "new car" or "new spyder" smell
I started it up and checked all the functions to make sure everything worked. I took it for a test drive up and down the block several times. Got up to speed and into a least 3rd gear just to make sure it was shifting OK. All looked good.
I agreed to buy it. However while it was sitting there I got a little smell of oil. Not oil burning smell but a fresh oil smell. Now I have to tell you that one of the things I for sure was going to do was check the oil since I have to ride it 120 miles home. The seller was getting phone calls like crazy as it was a work day for him. He sells window dressings. So he was trying to rush me a little. But I told him I just had to check the oil. Remember he said he changed the oil himself. Well while it was warm and just stopped I popped off the panel and did the oil check.
GUESS WHAT? It was over filled!!! Damn it! Now what?
The seller said... well there is a dealer up the road. And I am like well this is not cool. He said well it's better to be too full than to low. I said no it is not in fact! It is really bad to be over filled due to the frothing of the oil which I could see down in the dip stick hole! He could tell I was not too happy and since he did have a nice garage setup he happened to have a hand pump. I pumped out a full beer bottle full of oil and now it was reading full and correct (not above the full line). Whew... issue resolved.
I handed him over 16.5K in cash! Let me tell you, that was a nervous experience even to carry that much cash! But he wanted cash.
So again he was in a hurry. In the end we were there all of 1 hour. I did feel rushed let me tell you. So we followed him out his gate (gated community).
OK so first things. This is a SM5. It took me a while to get use to the clutch. It has a long pull but only a small area of engagement. So it is touchy. I stalled it twice before I got use to it. It is also hard to get neutral. Just a super light tap to get neutral. Until I got use to that I was constantly bouncing between 1st and 2nd. However as far as shifting in general, SUPER EASY! I think you could almost shift from 2-5 without even using the clutch! I have not tried it but sure feels like you could.
OK so up the road we go about 2 miles to the 10 freeway. It is now about 90 degrees. Temp gauge holding dead center. All looking goo so far. I have to say this RT rides WAY BETTER than the 2012 RT I test drove last weekend. He has the shocks on 5 and tires at the recommended pressure. There was no tracking issues around the crown of the road at all. I could almost take my hands off the handlebars and it would just go straight perfectly. I am super happy so far.
Now the scary part. Not having ever driven one of these on a freeway with everyone doing 70, I was nervous as hell! But onto the freeway I go with my friend following me in my SUV. I get up to 65 easily and no issues. In fact you almost have to watch yourself! It is easy to speed on this thing as it does not even feel like your going that fast!
Then all hell breaks loose for me.... The winds through the pass were at least 35 MPH with cross wind gusts. HOLY CRAP does this thing buffet and wiggle around in heavy winds! After reading here about people getting caught by cross winds and finding themselves instantly in another lane, I was super scared and no way did I want that to happen on a freeway full of cars and a lot of semi trucks! This was not a good feeling the way the RT sways around when hit by a gust. Also the general direction of the wind was mostly head on and this also causes some general wiggling around. Thus I had a death grip and was trying to micro manage handling the gusts. I slowed to 55 and got in the right lane.
Well now I was dealing with faster trucks passing me and me having to pass slower trucks doing 40 up the pass. Well this seemed worse! The winds coming off trucks and the turbulent winds coming off of truck I was behind was just worse feeling.
I knew the Uhaul place was just up the road and I was seriously considering plan B. But I said to myself "Hey Bob, you gotta learn to deal with this anyway as one day you might be in this with no where to run!" Santa Ana winds like this are a common thing here in So Cal.
So back up to 65 and in the #2 lane. I decided to turn on the cruse control to help me so I did not have to manage the throttle and deal with the wigglies from the wind. MAN! DID THAT HELP! I found I could roll the throttle fully closed which felt more comfortable and gave a better feeling in general dealing with the gusts.
OK so over some time I got more and more comfortable and realized I was not going to get thrown in another lane. I was basically just buffeting around and the spyder was dealing with it. I started to release my death grip and sure has hell, even though I was wiggling around (kind of like a car does in high winds) it was like the spyder was correcting on it's own. In fact I quit trying to correct for the gusts and just rode through it! So lesson learned again on how different these are. Don't panic thinking you our of control! Let the damn thing do what it's suppose to do. Seriously. I am no expert on riding these but I just learned the hard way!
So 30 miles up the road I pulled over for a break and to do a cool down. Remember this RT only has 450 miles on it and is not broke in! So I stop at a gas station and got myself a bottled water. While talking to my buddy, he said he could see me getting pushed around but nothing looked bad about it. He said my SUV was also getting pushed around pretty good. He even commented that one tanker truck I had just passed got somewhat pushed over into his lane and he had to jump into the #1 lane to avoid it. I texted my wife and told her we had just gone 30 miles and stopped for a break. She did not understand "break in" and I told her I would explain it later. I lied and told her all good so far
So back on the road again this time with more confidence. About 20 more miles up the road we got through the pass and the winds all but dropped off. Only a few little gusts. When I passed trucks I felt no more hard pushes when passing between the cab and the cargo container. Now just cruzing along VERY comfortable and starting to really love riding this thing. But I decided to stop again for another cool down period.
Note: One thing I noticed. While climbing up the pass in the head winds. The temp gauge actually dropped a full mark below 1/2 (this is the analog gage). Is this normal?
At this point I wanted to play around with the radio. For some reason the guy had it set to AUX and I had a hard time figuring out how to get the radio on. I had studied the manual but not heavily on this subject. Anyway I finally figured out how to get it switched to FM radio. I dialed in 99.9 and turned it up a bit. I downed another bottle of water and we hit the road. WOW! The volume came up on it's own... VERY COOL feature! I could totally hear the radio just fine while riding along.
Now really feeling good enjoying the ride and the scenery. Jerbear, I did not even pay attention and blew past the 79 exit for the route you recommended. I realized I did that and just went left onto the 60. So the 60 is 2 lanes each direction through another little pass with lots of curves and everyone is speeding! I kept the cruse control at 65 and went into the first sweeping corner. Leaned a little and all felt really well. Like going straight you also don't want to micro manage the steering in a turn! Each successive turn I felt better and better. No issues what so ever really. Coming down the pass into Moreno Valley, a guy on a Harley comes up next to me and smiles and waves. He checks my ride out pretty good and even backs off and comes around on the other side. I wave to him and he gives a big smile and waves back and then he exits the freeway.
OK so we are heading into Moreno Valley and I am almost into the red on the gas gage. So we pull over into a gas station. I filler up and it costs all of $15! LOVE THAT. FYI I put in mid grade 89 gas. I let her do another cool down period and down another bottle of water. I text my wife and let her know all is going well and she asks why I keep pulling over so often? Am I having problems? No dear.... all is good I will explain why later.
Back on the road and I merge onto the 91. There is a construction area and ooops.... into bumper to bumper traffic. Time to find out if I will hate the SM5 in this kind of stuff. I decide to hold back as to not be stopping and starting a lot. I do find at the slowest speed you can roll in first gear the throttle is a little hard to manage. It is like a "on and off" throttle response. A little learning and I start to get use to just very slightly moving the throttle. I get it OK but still would prefer a less touchy throttle in traffic like this. Anyway after about 15 minutes we pass the reason for the traffic and I am back up to 65. Traffic is a lot heavier now which for me is a little nerving. Just before the 15 we hit yet another 20 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic. I get passed that and into the 91 pass into Orange County. I decide to stop at the top pull off (River View Golf Course) and do another cool down. While chatting with my buddy and good looking girl 1/2 my age walks buy and says "Wow that is neat! I would ride on that! 2 wheelers no, but that looks safe"... I told her I just bought it in Indio and was on my way home. I showed her the sypder and popped open the trunk and side saddle bags. I could tell she really wanted a ride but I told her a helmet is required and sorry I do not have one.
Anyway back on the road and I notice I am getting a orange indicator at the bottom of the digital display. It is a top view of a spyder and is slowly blinking on and off. I am like WTF? I hope this is not a serious problem! What the heck does that mean? So I pull over under an overpass thinking it's some engine problem or something. When I finally get stopped, THEN it says once "compartment open or something like that". I do not remember exactly. I get off the syder and notice the left saddle bag is open. Oooops! I thought I closed it but I guess not fully. I did not notice this indicator when we first took off. I asked my buddy if he noticed it was open and he said no but was not sure due to the rear profile of the spyder and the front wheels. I closed it and the indicator turned off. Back on the road.
The rest is pretty uneventful but I am just LOVING this thing. Seriously! The more miles I made the more I found myslef loving it. When I got off the 22 onto Beach Blvd. The exit has a set of nice sharp sweeping S corners. I WENT FOR IT, did a good lean and just LOVED the turn! My buddy said he could not believe how fast I took that corner and that he could not keep up in my SUV
I finally pull into my driveway.
Final comments and notes:
1) I cant thank you all here for all the tips and info.
How to ride the spyder.
What to expect.
Things to watch for.
CLOTHING suggestions!
And this list just goes on and on. I have to say had I not studied, learned, understood this information ahead of time, I could totally see a new rider just wanting OFF of one of these things. So again, just like I said on my first test drive, I think it truly is necessary for someone to get an really good overview of the things I learned here. I think dealers really need to go over as much as possible before letting someone hop on one for a test drive. I bet without this MANY may have opted to not buy one especially if they have ridden a regular cycle before.
2) Gusty winds can be scary at first! You WILL need to learn how the spyder handles this but my only tip is take your time and learn how to deal with it. RELEASE the death grip and let it ride through the gusts. You will quickly learn it is not as bad as it feels. My 2 cents there.
3) I love the cruse control! I used it more than not! It is great for not getting a speeding ticket as for me, you do not feel like your going as fast as you really are! Only thing I will say is while I was going through the 91 canyons with a slight 10 MPH head wind, the cruse does give you a slight lurching like your slowing down or speeding up a little all the time. I think it is just dealing with the head on wind gusts trying to manage the throttle to hold the exact speed you set. At first I thought something was going on with the engine but when I took it out of cruse that lurching stopped so I realized it was just the cruse control doing that.
4) Setting the shocks to 4 or 5 is a must do on stock. My test drive proved to me that the stock shock settings just makes the spyder feel really bad in turns. I had none of that feeling on this RT with the shocks set at 5. In fact I do not think I really need the sway bar! I am totally comfortable with how it rides.
5) I was concerned I would not like the manual shift... In fact I think I like it better than I did the SE when I did my test drive! The SM shifts real easy. The clutch range could be better but once you get use to it, there really is no issue. Finding neutral is also touchy but once you learn how to, no issue there either. But I think I will add a heal shift to save the top of my shoes
6) I went form 95 degrees to about 75 at home. Last week I picked up a riding jacket based on recommendations from people here. It is a mesh jacket with zip in rain liner and another zip in warmth liner. Cost me $240 and was well worth it. I think had I been riding with just a tee-shirt on in the hot dry gusty winds, I would have gotten much more dehydrated! So thanks for the tips on clothing even in HOT conditions. I was very comfortable.
So there is my story! I am SUPER HAPPY with my purchase and the spyder had NO issues. Not a single code or mechanical problem! I was so concerned buying used that I was getting a lemon someone else did not want. All the things you read on here of people having problems.... Let me just say that so far, I am not in that group. I guess we will see how it goes now. I have to get it into a dealer for the 600 mile service. I hope they do not screw it up
Finally, here is me at home in my driveway after the ride home.
Bob
