1330cc 2016 Spyder RTS SE6 with a periodic gear change Issue?!

[Germainiac64]

I have a 2016 RTS SE6 (previously owned a 2011 Spyder RTS SE5) now with 5700 miles on it and for the second time, it exhibited a problem with shifting. Once occurrence was this past weekend and the previous occurrence about a month ago. In both instances, I had travelled at least 100 miles before the problem occurred. In both instances, after about 5 minutes, it returned to a properly running trike.

I use my cruise control a good deal (prevents me from having a lead foot) and in this last occurrence much like the first I was doing 40 MPH with cruise on when all of a sudden, the cruise control seemed to turn off by itself and the bike downshifted to 3rd from 5th gear then down to 1st and when using the throttle to try to regain speed and also upshifting, the bike did not at first respond. There were no warning lights lit or limp mode indicated on either occurrence.

After about 2 minutes of trying to upshift and increase throttle, the bike all of a sudden started to run properly with cruise control on and I was able to return home without incident.

I have experienced limp mode once on my 2011 RTS but that was due to overheating while on I-95 on a high heat day in mid summer.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Bfromla]

Finger accidentally down shifting:dontknow::dontknow: If you wearing gloves or gripping bar too close to hilt. Hope you find out unexpected downshifting worse than “brake check”:yikes:

 

[Boilermaker]

Did you check for fault codes?

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Maybe your foot was touching the brake pedal causing it to trip the brake switch.

 

[Bfromla]

Maybe your foot was touching the brake pedal causing it to trip the brake switch.

:thumbup:

That would cut CC but not down shift as OP describes :dontknow:

 

[Mikey]

I know mine and my friend's do not like the 40 mile an hour range, ether it will not set or it jumps out of cruse! I think it's the speed your trying to set it at and ride, but some of the other ideas you have up there will make it act up also, brake peddle spring getting loose and hitting switch, foot rubbing against the side and pushing it down slightly! There must be some sort of speed sensor involved in the unit some where possibly that may have something to do with it!!:dontknow: Good Luck if you find you problem let us know what you found!!

 

[Peter Aawen]

.....I use my cruise control a good deal (prevents me from having a lead foot) and in this last occurrence much like the first I was doing 40 MPH with cruise on when all of a sudden, the cruise control seemed to turn off by itself and the bike downshifted to 3rd from 5th gear then down to 1st and when using the throttle to try to regain speed and also upshifting, the bike did not at first respond. There were no warning lights lit or limp mode indicated on either occurrence.

After about 2 minutes of trying to upshift and increase throttle, the bike all of a sudden started to run properly with cruise control on and I was able to return home without incident.......

A little bit of 'thinking out loud' here, but given that I've been able to reproduce pretty much exactly what you've described above on a couple of other Spyders Germain, I think there might be at least a little bit of value in my suppositioning! :dontknow:

Cruise control is governed by a lot of things, including the ECU, and it needs certain minimum revs &/or road speed to operate, so if you were in 5th and only going 40mph, there's a good chance that you were probably only juuuust making the minimum required in both; and that 'good chance' probably extended as soon as your speed &/or revs started dropping, probably causing the computer to turn cruise off because your engine revs for the given speed were just too low. Then I'd guess that because your speed kept dropping even more, the SE6's 'safety over-ride' semi-auto gear down-change kicked in, and dropped the gearbox down in to 3rd, which was likely when you started trying to feed throttle & revs back in, which then meant there was too much torque being fed in even for 3rd, so the computer dropped the gearbox back down to 1st!! :shocked: And it wouldn't let you change up then because you were STILL going too slow for any higher gear.... only possibly now with too much throttle wound on too! Once your speed & revs got back up above the minimum for both, things went back to normal & off you went....

Given all that 'thinking out loud', do you reckon there's any chance it was actually the Spyder's computer doing exactly what it was designed to do by dropping out of cruise because you were ryding too slowly for that gear; then changing down to match the speed & revs; and dropping right down to first as you wound on throttle trying to get it up & moving again; & only allowing that once the road speed & engine revs were matched and your throttle setting wasn't trying to dump in too much torque before that?!? :dontknow:

 

[Mikey]

A little bit of 'thinking out loud' here, but given that I've been able to reproduce pretty much exactly what you've described above on a couple of other Spyders Germain, I think there might be at least a little bit of value in my suppositioning! :dontknow:

Cruise control is governed by a lot of things, including the ECU, and it needs certain minimum revs to operate, so if you were in 5th and only going 40mph, there's a good chance that you were probably only juuuust making the minimum required in both; and that 'good chance' probably extended as soon as your speed &/or revs started dropping, probably causing the computer to turn cruise off because your engine revs for the given speed were just too low. Then I'd guess that because your speed kept dropping even more, the SE6's 'safety over-ride' semi-auto gear down-change kicked in, and dropped the gearbox down in to 3rd, which was likely when you started trying to feed throttle & revs back in, which then meant there was too much torque being fed in even for 3rd, so the computer dropped the gearbox back down to 1st!! :shocked: And it wouldn't let you change up then because you were STILL going too slow for any higher gear.... only possibly now with too much throttle wound on too! Once your speed & revs got back up above the minimum for both, things went back to normal & off you went....

Given all that 'thinking out loud', do you reckon there's any chance it was actually the Spyder's computer doing exactly what it was designed to do by dropping out of cruise because you were ryding too slowly for that gear; then changing down to match the speed & revs; and dropping right down to first as you wound on throttle trying to get it up & moving again; & only allowing that once the road speed & engine revs were matched and your throttle setting wasn't trying to dump in too much torque before that?!? :dontknow:

:bowdown::agree:

 

[Germainiac64]

Finger accidentally down shifting:dontknow::dontknow: If you wearing gloves or gripping bar too close to hilt. Hope you find out unexpected downshifting worse than “brake check”:yikes:

No, been ryding Spyders for 9 years with SE5 and SE6 transmissions.

 

[Bob S]

I have a 2016 RTS SE6 (previously owned a 2011 Spyder RTS SE5) now with 5700 miles on it and for the second time, it exhibited a problem with shifting. Once occurrence was this past weekend and the previous occurrence about a month ago. In both instances, I had travelled at least 100 miles before the problem occurred. In both instances, after about 5 minutes, it returned to a properly running trike.

I use my cruise control a good deal (prevents me from having a lead foot) and in this last occurrence much like the first I was doing 40 MPH with cruise on when all of a sudden, the cruise control seemed to turn off by itself and the bike downshifted to 3rd from 5th gear then down to 1st and when using the throttle to try to regain speed and also upshifting, the bike did not at first respond. There were no warning lights lit or limp mode indicated on either occurrence.

After about 2 minutes of trying to upshift and increase throttle, the bike all of a sudden started to run properly with cruise control on and I was able to return home without incident.

I have experienced limp mode once on my 2011 RTS but that was due to overheating while on I-95 on a high heat day in mid summer.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I know exactly what is going with with. I have the same problem and have spent over $2,000 so far trying get it fixed. I replaced the Brake Pedal with a larger pedal. I think that the Brake Pedal is not coming back to up 100% at all times. It only takes a tiny amount of drift to cause what it is happening to you. Downshifting from 3rd to 2nd or 4th to 3rd and the Cruise Control working intermittently. I find that when this begins to happen that if I put my foot under the Brake Pedal and try to lift the Pedal upwards, the problem goes away. I have not yet brought my Spyder back to dealer since I discovered this cause of the problem, to see if they can fix it. I was also told to check the Brake Switch as it can accumulate dirt and cause it to be problematic, so I sprayed some compressed air pressure into the Brake Pedal switch area and that seemed to stop the problem for a while.

Hope this helps you.

BobS

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Concerning the SE trans. ... it operates flawlessly IMHO ..... I have drag raced both my 12 RSS and my 14 RT. ... Max the throttle and keep it Full on ... Just watch the RPM's and shift it up, no hesitation works best ..... good luck .... Mike :thumbup:

 

[ARtraveler]

I love cruise control. Most of my miles these days are at 40 mph. I alternate between third and fourth gear depending on terrain. No issues whatsoever.