Alaska

[beef56]

This may be an old, worn out topic but here goes. I plan to retire in 2021 and plan to take our toy hauler to Alaska. Is it worthwhile to take a Spyder along? We were there 5 years ago on a cruise and a land tour. We only traveled the Parks Highway. I know there are oiled roads but I don't know the condition for Spyder travel. We travel a limited amount of gravel in our home state of South Dakota and are not anxious to travel much gravel with a Spyder.
Thanks!

 

[NautiBrit]

We were part of a Spyder group that rode to Alaska a few years ago. We did encounter a lot of road work where gravel was the primary road bed, but we stayed off of the gravel roads. I don't recall anyone having a problem with the roads under construction. There are many on this board that have gravel driveways and don't encounter any problems, but there's always a chance of a stone getting caught and damaging the belt. You could consider the Ryker.

 

[WisconsinDavid]

I know that Spyders don't like gravel. I recently installed the missing belt guard from Spyderpops because of that warning from folks. What is it about the Spyder that makes it prone to problems of this sort? I have ridden belt driven Harleys for the last 20 years and have not encountered any problem or heard warnings from other Harley owners about problems on gravel. Just curious.

 

[Wildass]

Just got back from Arizona. We got down 30 miles and the road turned to rock. 3 harleys and me on my 2018 F 3 T. Decide to keep going. Well 20 more miles we find pavement. I keep the speed down the first 5 then packed it up to about 40mph. No problems checked the belt looked ok . Drove 2 days more days in Arizona then 1000 miles back to Texas. The only problem was dang the F3 sure got dirty!

 

[beef56]

We have a 2012 RT and a 2018 RT. We drive over a mile of gravel each way. I put the belt guard on the 12 but haven't the 18 yet. I forgot, thanks for the reminder!

 

[beef56]

We have a 2012 RT and a 2018 RT. We drive over a mile of gravel each way. I put the belt guard on the 12 but haven't the 18 yet. I forgot, thanks for the reminder!

 

[Joerolwing]

I’m just now returning from Alaska, currently in Prince George, BC. I rode the Top of the World gravel at speeds up to 47. This has about 90 miles of gravel. Fortunately it was dry. I had had added a bump skid, missing belt guard, and air bag protection and carried an extra belt, and fortunately didn’t need the extra belt. I had contemplated the gravel and dirt Dalton Highway but decided it wasn’t worth the bragging rights. Cleaning the bike is going to take some time. I’ve only had to add 3 teaspoons of brake fluid, and will be getting an oil change in Langley, BC (near Vancouver) on Friday.
A concern was the durability of the factory belt idler initially designed for the F3 but repurposed for my RTS. I’ve been using it for over 15,000 miles including the 9,000 so far on this trip.