Alignment tip worth reiterating - check your tire pressure!

[RykerUSA]

Just got a 22 Ryker, and the alignment is really pretty good except that I found it wanders a bit in the lane at highway speeds. I immediately jump to the conclusion that I needed laser alignment so I made an appointment. In the meantime, I remembered that I could play around a bit with the air pressure and see if I could fix this issue. I dropped the air pressure in the front wheels to 18 and she now is perfect.:yes: No more wandering. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Markubis]

Here's my take on that. A lot of highway lanes have slight crowns in them due to traffic weight creating two wheel paths. Cars aren't affected by it and neither are motorcycles. Our Rykers are though due to way the wheels are set up. Your back tire is always on the crown, or one side or the other trying to dip into the groove that one of the front tires is in. This causes the bike to wander.

 

[Woodenfish]

I didn’t notice anything on the Spyder that could be “Aligned” other than setting toe-in. Setting toe in/out doesn’t help or create any vibration or pulling. It can cause an offset of the handlebars in consideration of the two front tires and increased tire wear but I assume that would be a very rare condition.

Cars are set up where you can measure all kinds of angles but most of them on today’s vehicles are fixed. The Spyder caster and camber appear to me to be fixed. I did not notice any cam bolts for adjustment. I know better that those cam bolts aren’t always installed by a manufacturer and adjustment can be made.

I just don’t get the hype of “Laser Alignment” on a 3 wheel motorcycle. Somebody with knowledge or experience in providing this service please set me straight. Pun intended.

 

[EdMat]

Woodenfish, you are correct in the castor and camber can't be adjusted.

A good laser alignment not only gets the toe in correct and centered with the handlebars but it also gets it lined up with the rear tire and then BUDS is used to make sure it's calibrated correctly in the steering system. While Can-Am seems to be getting better with the alignment straight from the factory, many are still off. While I don't have experience doing the alignment myself, have watched several.

 

[Peter Aawen]

I didn’t notice anything on the Spyder that could be “Aligned” other than setting toe-in. Setting toe in/out doesn’t help or create any vibration or pulling. It can cause an offset of the handlebars in consideration of the two front tires and increased tire wear but I assume that would be a very rare condition.

Cars are set up where you can measure all kinds of angles but most of them on today’s vehicles are fixed. The Spyder caster and camber appear to me to be fixed. I did not notice any cam bolts for adjustment. I know better that those cam bolts aren’t always installed by a manufacturer and adjustment can be made.

I just don’t get the hype of “Laser Alignment” on a 3 wheel motorcycle. Somebody with knowledge or experience in providing this service please set me straight. Pun intended.

:agree: with Ed about what it does; but your assumption about 'it being a rare condition' is really WAaaaayyyy off! :lecturef_smilie: . Sure, there are more Spyders (& Rykers) leaving the factory now with 'sorta OK' wheel alignment than ever before, but you'd almost certainly still hafta use more'n just a couple of fingers on each hand to show how many out of each batch of 10 had dodgy factory alignments that could be readily improved upon!! :banghead:

Still, there was a time (& not that long ago either! ) where you could ask "Has your Spyder been properly aligned by anyone who's not a dealer/using BRP alignment methods & specs?" and if the answer to that question was 'No' then the odds would be in your favour if you wanted to bet that THAT Spyder NEEDED a proper alignment, and the Laser Alignment systems have proven to be one of the better ways of achieving this!! hyea:

That said, the ROLO Laser Alignment System is simply one of the tools available that, in the hands of a skilled & competent operator, will help get the job done properly & reliably! There are other methods that can work just as well, but most of those require even more training, skills, and competency than most dealers/Spyder techs can muster on a good day, let alone one when they're under the pump:! :shocked:

And btw, your Spyder's Camber can be set/adjusted by a wheel alignment operator or messed up by a ham fisted home spanner spinner quite easily - all it takes to do it is to adjust/vary the static ride height from that set by the assembly team at the factory, altho maybe just 1 or 2 turns of your shocker's pre-load or height adjusting devices won't change it enough to mess your entire wheel alignment up! Caster's not too far behind either - it's just that there are no OBVIOUS cam bolts or similar, but mess with the static ryde height & suspension/steering settings juuuust a little too much & you might be surprised! :shocked: . Do you REALLY need to ask how I know this lot is true?? pps: :sour: :banghead:

 

[cptjam]

Wooden fish,
Your late model RTs are much better than older ones. We have done a couple of thousand, and even the late models frequently need an adjustment. Sometimes, they are spot on. You might have that, and because you are not fighting the handlebars, don’t see what the big deal is. Imagine taking your hand off the bars for a second, and the bike darts left or right! Or is twitchy at speed, or chews up tires in a few thousand miles. Come see me at the next rally; I’ll check it for you. If it’s correct, it’s free. If not, I’ll fix it for you properly, and reset your buds. For now, ride and enjoy!! Joe

 

[canamryder]

I don't know if it's proper to place this thread here. Speaking of wheel alignments, would a steering stabilizer be the icing on the cake after a laser alignment is done properly. This looks like a good idea to me though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqd_SEN-phE&ab_channel=BiLLRamseyer

 

[Peter Aawen]

I don't know if it's proper to place this thread here. Speaking of wheel alignments, would a steering stabilizer be the icing on the cake after a laser alignment is done properly. This looks like a good idea to me though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqd_SEN-phE&ab_channel=BiLLRamseyer

The OP was talking about his Ryker, and the alignment issues apply to them as well as to Spyders, so yep, I reckon this thread is fine here. :thumbup:

As for the steering stabiliser idea, it's not applicable at all to any Spyder, cos they all have Power Steering :yes:

And while it might be a great gimmick that'll lighten the wallets of some Ryker Owners, it's not really going to be a great idea for any Ryker that already has an alignment issue, cos at best all it'll do is mask the issues completely until the tires scrub enough to be bloody obvious, altho I guess there's a chance it might stop the Ryker Ryder feeling some of the steering feedback while still allowing all the misalignment wandering, scrubbing, & tire wear etc; while at worst it'll stop the top end of the steering from responding to anything in the way of road feedback but still leave the two front wheels either scrubbing out or still wobbling away & pounding the crap outta the tie rod ends, suspension, & steering components etc, and possibly it'll even make any handling &/or control issues worse... :shocked: . And if you get or have already had your Ryker aligned properly by someone like cptjam from Squared Away then you won't need a steering stabiliser anyway cos that will sort all the erratic handling issues PROPERLY - as for getting the alignment done, see cptjam's post above or any of his alignment threads - if your alignment is OK & no correction is necessary, he'll show you & it's free... but if not & it needs some correction, he'll show you & then he'll fix it for you! hyea:

There again, if you wanta whack 35" dia Off Road tires onto your Ryker, maybe stuff a low range transfer case in there between the CVT & the drive shaft somewhere, and give it a dirty great lift to turn your Ryker into a Rock Crawler or maybe just add long travel suspension & turn it into a Course Runner, then maybe a steering stabiliser might be a good idea?!? :dontknow: Or not....

Just Sayin' :thumbup:

 

[DickB]

Setting toe in/out doesn’t help or create any vibration or pulling.

I don't agree that toe-in doesn't help. I added a bit of toe-in on my Ryker, and it became more stable.

From the Ryker Service Manual:

Toe settings affect three major areas of performance:
tire wear, straight-line stability and
cornering.

The wheels should point directly ahead when running
in a straight line. Excessive toe-in or toe-out
causes the tires to scrub, since they are always
turned relative to the direction of travel. Too much
toe-in causes accelerated wear at the outer edges
of the tires, while too much toe-out causes wear
at the inner edges.

Minimum tire wear and power loss are achieved
with zero toe. Toe settings have a major impact
on directional stability. A small amount of
toe-in insures that normal deflection of bushings,
and other components is compensated for
and the wheels travel down the road with close
to zero toe. The illustrations above show the
mechanisms involved. With the steering wheel
centered, toe-in causes the wheels to tend to
roll along paths that intersect each other. Under
this condition, the wheels are at odds with each
other, and no turn results.