SpyderAnn01
Active member
Thanks again everyone for the well wishes. While I had a bad day I can't help but shed a tear for my neighbor who called me this afternoon to tell me that her husband succumbed to cancer this morning. I am truly thankful that I got off the bike without getting hurt and as Kawakii said in her post she may not have been so lucky.
A little background first. The parking brake cable had melted and was just replaced along with the shocks. I then had a problem with it running rough and not idling or racing up then stalling. The dealer initially told me it was an exhaust leak and that is all they looked at. That didn't fix the problem and I went on a 2,000 mile trip and it ran like crap. I got 20 mpg on more than 1 tank and was glad to have made it home. I took it back to the dealer and suggested that they look at the purge valve as others had reported similar symptoms and the purge valve fixed it. They replaced the purge valve and I asked them when I picked it up if they replaced the evap canister but the service writer didn't think they had.
I left on a short 150 mile trip the next day and before I made it to the expressway it went into limp mode and had 4 codes that I had never seen before. I turned the key on and off while riding and the codes went away and the bike ran fine. I returned from that trip last Thursday and on Saturday I decided to go to SITR. The ride up there was fine and I had no issues. On Monday I rode to Yosemite and there was construction that took forever so I shut the bike off in neutral and set the parking brake. I don't usually use the brake as I have a manual but I did and when I went to start back up it wouldn't go. Felt like an elephant had stuck his foot on the front and wouldn't let me go. I pulled off and turned the brake on and off and got it to release. This happened again yesterday and I had to loosen a nut (1/4 turn) and the brake released.
I left this morning and everything was going great. It was cool and the traffic was light and I got 30 mpg on my first tank of gas. I was about 80 miles into the second tank and was ready to get lunch when I smelled something. I was in an agricultural area and it had many smells but I knew this was a burning smell. Then I thought I saw smoke and looked down and saw smoke pouring out of the right side next to my knee. I was in a construction zone where the traffic was split with trucks and local traffic in the far right lane, the middle lane was blocked off and I was in the left lane. There was another lane to my left but it was not for traffic and every so often they put up cones to keep vehicles out of it.
As soon as I saw the smoke I hit the emergency flashers and started to pull to the left and I saw just ahead of me the cones and knew that I wanted to be in front of them. I was able to veer back to the right around the cones and then off again to the left. I hit the kill switch and as I was getting off the Spyder I turned the key to open the front trunk. I got my bag out of the front then I turned the key to open the seat and I was able to remove the bag I had on the seat behind me (I had the strap run under the seat) Then I thought I really should get my purse and phone out of the back so I ran around back and got that then I opened the right side and got my textile jacket and pants out of there. By this time, probably all of 30 seconds , there were flames shooting out of the right side and I knew I needed to get the heck away from it.
I threw all of my stuff up against the concrete and dialed 911. My phone has GPS but they couldn't figure out where I was! She actually said that if I figured out where I was to call them back. It took the fire department a long time to get to me due to the split traffic lanes and where they were located. But a very nice guy who also happened to be a county arson investigator stopped and waited for the fire truck and the police to arrive.
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A little background first. The parking brake cable had melted and was just replaced along with the shocks. I then had a problem with it running rough and not idling or racing up then stalling. The dealer initially told me it was an exhaust leak and that is all they looked at. That didn't fix the problem and I went on a 2,000 mile trip and it ran like crap. I got 20 mpg on more than 1 tank and was glad to have made it home. I took it back to the dealer and suggested that they look at the purge valve as others had reported similar symptoms and the purge valve fixed it. They replaced the purge valve and I asked them when I picked it up if they replaced the evap canister but the service writer didn't think they had.
I left on a short 150 mile trip the next day and before I made it to the expressway it went into limp mode and had 4 codes that I had never seen before. I turned the key on and off while riding and the codes went away and the bike ran fine. I returned from that trip last Thursday and on Saturday I decided to go to SITR. The ride up there was fine and I had no issues. On Monday I rode to Yosemite and there was construction that took forever so I shut the bike off in neutral and set the parking brake. I don't usually use the brake as I have a manual but I did and when I went to start back up it wouldn't go. Felt like an elephant had stuck his foot on the front and wouldn't let me go. I pulled off and turned the brake on and off and got it to release. This happened again yesterday and I had to loosen a nut (1/4 turn) and the brake released.
I left this morning and everything was going great. It was cool and the traffic was light and I got 30 mpg on my first tank of gas. I was about 80 miles into the second tank and was ready to get lunch when I smelled something. I was in an agricultural area and it had many smells but I knew this was a burning smell. Then I thought I saw smoke and looked down and saw smoke pouring out of the right side next to my knee. I was in a construction zone where the traffic was split with trucks and local traffic in the far right lane, the middle lane was blocked off and I was in the left lane. There was another lane to my left but it was not for traffic and every so often they put up cones to keep vehicles out of it.
As soon as I saw the smoke I hit the emergency flashers and started to pull to the left and I saw just ahead of me the cones and knew that I wanted to be in front of them. I was able to veer back to the right around the cones and then off again to the left. I hit the kill switch and as I was getting off the Spyder I turned the key to open the front trunk. I got my bag out of the front then I turned the key to open the seat and I was able to remove the bag I had on the seat behind me (I had the strap run under the seat) Then I thought I really should get my purse and phone out of the back so I ran around back and got that then I opened the right side and got my textile jacket and pants out of there. By this time, probably all of 30 seconds , there were flames shooting out of the right side and I knew I needed to get the heck away from it.
I threw all of my stuff up against the concrete and dialed 911. My phone has GPS but they couldn't figure out where I was! She actually said that if I figured out where I was to call them back. It took the fire department a long time to get to me due to the split traffic lanes and where they were located. But a very nice guy who also happened to be a county arson investigator stopped and waited for the fire truck and the police to arrive.
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