Lamonster
SpyderLovers Founder
I've been going to Biketoberfest and BikeWeek in Daytona for the last 10 years and this was one of the worst turnouts to date. It's funny when I think back to the early 2000's and how you couldn't get a hotel or a booth to show your stuff unless you planned a year in advance. I hope those days will come again but when they split the events in two with the opening of Bruce Rossmeyer's in Ormond things started to change. I would say half the action if not more moved north and it just didn't have the same feel.
Then the motorcycle buzz kinda slowed down and there wasn't the crazy feeding frenzy of old and folks weren't spending money like they use to on bikes and such. Not long after that the economy took a dump and that was the real killer of BikeWeek and Biketoberfest. There will always be the hardcore group that will go to these events no matter what but when the big vendors start dropping out of the game it kind of takes some of the attraction out of going to events like this.
Back in June of 2007 I was still riding a Boss Hoss and a M109R and I had just sold my custom VTX. I was looking for something new and exciting and that's when I saw a youtube video on the Can Am Spyder. I liked it from the start and when I saw the price I liked it even more. I got the go ahead from my wife to order one and the rest is history. The reason I mentioned this is because I placed my order in June of 2007 but had never even seen a Spyder till I went to Biketoberfest in October. I was showing my 109 at the Suzuki booth and BRP was just down the road from them. I took my first test drive on the Spyder and knew it was going to be so much different than anything else I had ever owned and that was a good thing.
Little did any of us know that the economy was on it's way down right when the Spyder first hit the streets, I think the timing was bad but who knew. If the Spyder would have came out a few years earlier it would have took off like gangbusters but all things considered it still did very well and I think the Spyder is what has kept some dealers alive through these hard times.
So here we are in 2010 and BRP and one other large manufacture have rode out this storm and showed up to BikeWeek and Biketoberfest without fail. You got to give them props for that forsure. It was sad to see so many had left but it was good to see my friends at BRP were still there.
I had left East TN on Wednesday about 1pm and rode about 400 miles till I got to Savannah Georgia. I don't like driving at night so I had a nice easy 200 mile ride in the morning to Daytona.
When I got to Daytona I stopped by to see the gang at ESI and they were a little slow at the time. I took off from there and saw my buddy Des at Ultimate Seats and looked at some of his new Spyder seats he's working on. From there I went and visited with Mike Corbin and then headed down to the Sunshine Mall where all the metric action use to be. That's when it hit me that the good ole days were gone, the place was a ghost town. It was really kind of sad but I did run into some old friends there. From there I went to the BRP tent and hungout for a while before checking into my room.
When I got to my hotel I met a group of folks that had shipped their bikes and one Spyder down from the Virgin Islands. The first guy I talked with was all over the RT and told me his Bro had a RS. He had never seen a RT and loved all the gizmo's it had. They had some really nice bikes and the Spyder was pimped out to the max too. Real nice guys and gals. The one guy had been on SpyderLovers before and that's where he found out about a lot of the mods he had on his Spyder.
Friday I pretty much spent the whole day at the BRP tent answering questions about the RT and the RS. There seemed to be a new group that was coming around to the RT and there were quite a few RS owners that were looking into trading up. I think next year the RT sales will catch up with the RS.
The demo rides were full the the whole time I was there. I got there early and there was already a line forming.
This was looking at my RT from a 2011 RT.
I really liked the color of the 2011 but I still like the black the best.
I had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I think I spent more time talking with folks about the RT than any other event I've been to. One of the nice things about not working for BRP when I'm doing this is I can answer the hard questions honestly and folks tend to trust a guy that's put the miles on these things and can give real world feedback. I will say it was a lot of fun to see the excitement in their faces when I started going through all that the Spyder has to offer, both RT and RS. I have a combined mileage of over 70,000 miles on the Spyder now and for sure I've been there, done that on the Spyder.
Just another future SpyderLover
One of the things I love about going to events like this is to see what folks have done to make their Spyder personal. This was owned by some NFL player. Very nice with lot's of detail.
The ride out there and back was uneventful and that's the way I like it. The RT did great and the weather couldn't have been better. It was good to go but as they say it's good to be home too. Right now the leaves are in peak color and I can't wait for the weekend to go for a ride.
Then the motorcycle buzz kinda slowed down and there wasn't the crazy feeding frenzy of old and folks weren't spending money like they use to on bikes and such. Not long after that the economy took a dump and that was the real killer of BikeWeek and Biketoberfest. There will always be the hardcore group that will go to these events no matter what but when the big vendors start dropping out of the game it kind of takes some of the attraction out of going to events like this.
Back in June of 2007 I was still riding a Boss Hoss and a M109R and I had just sold my custom VTX. I was looking for something new and exciting and that's when I saw a youtube video on the Can Am Spyder. I liked it from the start and when I saw the price I liked it even more. I got the go ahead from my wife to order one and the rest is history. The reason I mentioned this is because I placed my order in June of 2007 but had never even seen a Spyder till I went to Biketoberfest in October. I was showing my 109 at the Suzuki booth and BRP was just down the road from them. I took my first test drive on the Spyder and knew it was going to be so much different than anything else I had ever owned and that was a good thing.
Little did any of us know that the economy was on it's way down right when the Spyder first hit the streets, I think the timing was bad but who knew. If the Spyder would have came out a few years earlier it would have took off like gangbusters but all things considered it still did very well and I think the Spyder is what has kept some dealers alive through these hard times.
So here we are in 2010 and BRP and one other large manufacture have rode out this storm and showed up to BikeWeek and Biketoberfest without fail. You got to give them props for that forsure. It was sad to see so many had left but it was good to see my friends at BRP were still there.
I had left East TN on Wednesday about 1pm and rode about 400 miles till I got to Savannah Georgia. I don't like driving at night so I had a nice easy 200 mile ride in the morning to Daytona.
When I got to Daytona I stopped by to see the gang at ESI and they were a little slow at the time. I took off from there and saw my buddy Des at Ultimate Seats and looked at some of his new Spyder seats he's working on. From there I went and visited with Mike Corbin and then headed down to the Sunshine Mall where all the metric action use to be. That's when it hit me that the good ole days were gone, the place was a ghost town. It was really kind of sad but I did run into some old friends there. From there I went to the BRP tent and hungout for a while before checking into my room.
When I got to my hotel I met a group of folks that had shipped their bikes and one Spyder down from the Virgin Islands. The first guy I talked with was all over the RT and told me his Bro had a RS. He had never seen a RT and loved all the gizmo's it had. They had some really nice bikes and the Spyder was pimped out to the max too. Real nice guys and gals. The one guy had been on SpyderLovers before and that's where he found out about a lot of the mods he had on his Spyder.
Friday I pretty much spent the whole day at the BRP tent answering questions about the RT and the RS. There seemed to be a new group that was coming around to the RT and there were quite a few RS owners that were looking into trading up. I think next year the RT sales will catch up with the RS.
The demo rides were full the the whole time I was there. I got there early and there was already a line forming.
This was looking at my RT from a 2011 RT.
I really liked the color of the 2011 but I still like the black the best.
I had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I think I spent more time talking with folks about the RT than any other event I've been to. One of the nice things about not working for BRP when I'm doing this is I can answer the hard questions honestly and folks tend to trust a guy that's put the miles on these things and can give real world feedback. I will say it was a lot of fun to see the excitement in their faces when I started going through all that the Spyder has to offer, both RT and RS. I have a combined mileage of over 70,000 miles on the Spyder now and for sure I've been there, done that on the Spyder.
Just another future SpyderLover
One of the things I love about going to events like this is to see what folks have done to make their Spyder personal. This was owned by some NFL player. Very nice with lot's of detail.
The ride out there and back was uneventful and that's the way I like it. The RT did great and the weather couldn't have been better. It was good to go but as they say it's good to be home too. Right now the leaves are in peak color and I can't wait for the weekend to go for a ride.
. I was leaning toward a Tri-glide, but just love riding the 08 GS Spyder, so I am thinking ridiing the RT will be awesome. I don't think I can do the 2300 mile trip on the 08 GS Spyder, but then again, at that time I did not think I could do it on the Harley...:doorag:
hyea::2thumbs::gaah::clap:
