2013 Yellow ST-S SE5

[Trbayth]

"You will be amazed at the difference." Made me think that you'd experienced the heat on the 2013. In any event, I'm hoping that Ride Now in Chandler will go to bat with BRP and order them for me gratis.

Sorry about that. My "amazed at the difference" reply was regarding the BajaRon sway bar and links, not the body panels.

 

[pegasus1300]

How does everyone here know you need the alignment?

Because the BRP production alignment procedures are notoriously sloppy and inaccurate. Have a laser alignment check, at least from Squared Away and if you don't need one there usually is no charge.
Look for front tires wearing unevenly,pulling badly to one side or the other, steering problems,same things you feel in your car.

 

[nwrider]

I've spent the last several days adding farkles. Spyderpops belt guard and bump/skid plate (already contacted pavement with it twice), Bajaron swaybar and heim links, and a touring windshield. I got the brand new windshield as NOS for $56 delivered about $220 under retail even at that, I'm not too sure it's any better than the stock shield. With both I've ended up running them in the lowest position to get smoother airflow.

The Bajaron swaybar/heim links do seem to make quite an improvement. Has anyone added the Fox Podium shocks after having installed the swaybar to note the difference?

 

[Haze]

Elka Shocks

I have a 2013 ST that has a BaJaRon sway bar. I added spring preload adjusters and felt handling improvement.
The ST is notoriously undersprung. Finally at Spyderfest I had stage 2 Elka shocks and spring added to replace my stock shocks and springs. The Elka's made an amazing improvement in stability and highway high speed tracking. No more dive in cornering or issues with cross winds or truck passing. New shocks and springs are my best farkle so far.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks for the confirmation, trbayth. I didn't really understand why it wouldn't since it was designed to tow a trailer.

It's the 998 V-twin powered Spyder RT's & ST's with the SE5 transmission that have towing mode, cos that mode is designed to protect the centrifugal clutch used by these models (to protect the clutch from overloading & slippage before the engine is delivering sufficient revs & torque to lock the clutch up properly!)... and that feature is simply not needed once BRP went to the 1330's as the power plant for the post-2013 SE6 RT's, cos they have an electro-hydraulic clutch that doesn't have any potential slipping issues at low revs.... and the SE5 ST's post 2013 that still have the V-twin motors still have the centrifugal clutch so they get to keep Towing Mode!!

So it's easy really - if your SE5 Spyder has the V-twin & therefore the centrifugal clutch and it's deemed suitable for towing according to BRP, then it will have Towing Mode; but if your Spyder has the 1330 motor & the SE6 transmission then it has an oil pressure regulated clutch that is quite simply fully engaged once you get engine oil pressure up no matter the engine revs, so it just doesn't need the low rev protection that Towing Mode provides for the centrifugal clutches!! :thumbup:

V-twin SE5's have Towing Mode, 1330 SE6's don't!

 

[nwrider]

Thanks for noting the differences between the clutch system on the 998 and the 1330.

 

[nwrider]

Haze,

I've seen a BajaRon shock pre load adjuster for the RT but not the ST. Can you tell me who supplied yours? Also, did you just replace the front shocks with the Elka's or did you also replace the rear?

TIA John

 

[Haze]

Sspring adjusters

BajaRon sells the spring adjusters for the RT and ST.
You have to measure the shock tube diameter and Ron will provide the correct adjuster. The ST shock is a smaller diameter than the RT.
I only replaced the front shocks and springs with the ELKA's.
Cheers, David C.

 

[nwrider]

Just for the record, BajaRon no longer has the ST shock collar. However, we've found out that the F3 shock will fit on the ST models.