Another overheated Spyder

[Tripod]

there are roughly 13,000 spyders out there now, and five that we know of out of 3000? on this forum, how many of the other 10,000 caught fire that we didn't hear about?

Well put. Five known fires expressed as a percentage of total production todate is, at best, misleading. The frequency of these incidents are alarming. And, the fact that the subject of this thread was riding when the fire was noticed, adds another ominous feature to the emerging trend.

We need to demand action now. This doesn't need to get Pintoesque.

Hopefully, those involved in the incident described above will share what they know.

Tripod ray:

 

[bone crusher]

Well put. Five known fires expressed as a percentage of total production todate is, at best, misleading. The frequency of these incidents are alarming. And, the fact that the subject of this thread was riding when the fire was noticed, adds another ominous feature to the emerging trend.

We need to demand action now. This doesn't need to get Pintoesque.

Hopefully, those involved in the incident described above will share what they know.

Tripod ray:

I find it hard to believe that the people would not report the incident...that's the first thing that should be done...there is no good excuse for not reporting it...that information could help save lives...

I also agree with others that BRP should get their hands on the burnt bikes to help determine the cause of the fires.

Unless people report the fires, nothing will be done...

 

[WackyDan]

there are roughly 13,000 spyders out there now, and five that we know of out of 3000? on this forum, how many of the other 10,000 caught fire that we didn't hear about?

DOH!! I missed that... Fair point indeed.

Makes you ponder though... One of my customers is a very large insurance company. They literally buy thousands of machines from us that run collectively in a Grid computing environment. For those not familiar with GRID computing... it allows them to use the collective processing power of all those machines to crunch statistics on all sorts of data... Accident rates by zip code, vehicles, competing insurance rates, etc.... They filter on all kinds of data... It allows them to determine as near to real time as possible what a new customer or renewal should be quoted in order for them to remain competitive as well profitable.

You'd think that if a single insurer saw one too many Spyder fires in their claims that they also might take notice and report them??

Meh... Add it to the wish list I suppose.

 

[Seattle]

BRP has been notified of the Spyder fires

Hi Firefly... A couple weeks ago, I spoke with Remy of BRP and he asked me to forward the thread discussions and photos of the other four Spyders that caught fire. If you would forward this thread to him, he will pass it along to the superiors. Customer support did acknowledge that they received my email by phone last week.

I've also cross posted in two other Spyder forums regarding the recent fires so that those Spyder owners are aware of this issue.

Email address is: [email protected] Please sure to write in the subject line Attn: Remy or he will not receive your email.

There is only one fire that was reported to the NHTSA. The others have yet to file a report. I know I begged a couple of them to please take the time and file a report online www.nhtsa.gov.

It only took a handful (8 on the NHTSA site) of us reporting steering issues to get an official recall. BTW - I know that BRP says in their recall letters that it is 'voluntary' - but actually it was mandated by the NHTSA that they do so.

With only one being officially reported to the NHTSA - not much will happen. Reports directly to BRP will be handled differently. BRP had some problems a few years ago with fires on some of their sleds.

I hate to use the word here--- but Pinto comes to mind.

This is a serious issue and BRP needs to be aware of it. I downloaded all the photos of known Spyder fires and saved them in a folder. I'll add these ones to it and will gladly send copies off to BRP asking for them to look into this. I would think they are aware of some of them.

I believe this has happened to both 08 and 09, SM5 and SE5 - and those with stock and aftermarket exhausts. Pretty sure among the 5 there was a good mix - including a pretty much stock Spyder.

This is no longer just a 'freak' accident in my opinion.

I now let my Spyder cool down before pulling into my garage - at home and at work.

 

[CRUCIFIED]

Wow. Not cool.:yikes:

 

[Spanky]

Pics as promised.


http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu262/inthecabin/bigbear002a.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu262/inthecabin/bigbear001a.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu262/inthecabin/bigbear003a.jpg

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu262/inthecabin/bigbear007a.jpg

 

[Firefly]

Thanks for posting those!

Somewhat different looking than the other fires.

If the NHTSA knew about 5 of these catching on fire--- something would be done--- I really believe that!

We need to get these riders to file reports.

 

[Ken5517 / Wish Again]

Hope we get more details on the fire. :shocked:
I'm surprised it was started of the left side.

Hey Lamont

I will comment on this tomorrow if I have any new accurate info, however the Owner was - depending what forum you are on

Power by AJ
PWJ
Badspyder

He rode with me 581 miles on sat with no issues and followed me up for this ride on Sunday as well, he is a regular Ryder on the West Coast Spyder events.

The bike was an SE5 and had been in the shop 3 times for what he said was a gas leak; dealer could not find the issue.

The bike did have around 15K on it

He was on it when the flames came through the tank area - the fire came up the left side but appeared to start under the tank some place but not necessarily on the left side.

Please do not read into it more than the accurate info that I have given, at this time the cause is unknown. It is sitting at the dealer and is being looked at.

The ryder was not hurt and the damage was far less than the other pics that I have seen but I would guess a total.

IF and when the cause is determined I will post only accurate info.

Additionally it is the owner of the bike that would give the best the most accurate info on what happened - If he wishes to.

It clearly is not my place to speculate.

 

[SpyderGirl]

Wow, that is scary stuff. Freaks me out hearing about this stuff so close to the time I am planning on leaving for my cross-country trip.

Glad to hear everyone was okay.

 

[Brevet05]

Might be that a good fire extinguisher becomes a popular mod...:cus:

 

[powerbyaj]

I took my truck into the local mountains with my wife (BlackWidow) and our dog.

We saw a few Spyders pulled off to the side looking like they were resting. Well it seems Ken5517/Wish Again was broke down waiting for a trailer, he had an electrical problem.

We also found out that another Spyder in the group caught on fire and was stranded down the road. We left Ken and others (who names I already forgot:dontknow with some water and continued down the road to see if we could lend a hand.

We found them a 1/2 mile further. Sure enough there was a red spyder that caught on fire. My wife know his name. It seemed to have caught left side in front of the gas tank. The fire started while he was making a uturn. Fortunately there was a convenient spot for him to pull out and to try and dowse the flames. I took pictures but I have them at home and I will post them later.

We left him with a Sprite and went. A couple of hours we returned by the area and they were are gone. So I hope that at least everyone got home safe.

This is the first I heard of them catching fire while riding. I wonder if altitude had was a factor. It happend at about the 7000 ft level.

Stay Safe.

That was my bike that caught fire. I was lucky no injuries.

 

[Spyd3r]

Did you or the dealer ever take the air box apart and clean it? Seems these bikes all had thousands of miles on them. Did you add oil regularly.

 

[xpeschon]

PLEASE REPORT THE FIRES, PLEASE!!

Agreed that a fire ext should be posted on the MY MODS page.. All this info and hopefully the riders who have had these fires have reported them because to be honest with you all it's scary as hell to know that any given minute your machine could start on fire.. Amagine pulling into a gas station to fuel up and turning around only to see your spyder producing flames from one side or the other, this my friends would NOT be a good thing to witness.. I just hope that in the future (when and if) this happen's again to another member he or she does not get HURT because god forbid if a fire accured on a spyder and someone lost there life over this I would hate like heck to be the member who has had a fire with no incidents other then the damage to the spyder and managed to walk away with-out incident to human life and NOT REPORTED it to the correct agency listed in this threat... So I BEG you all the members whom have had fires to report them and lets get a handle on this issuie before it gets out of hand and someone gets hurt or possible killed.... Thank you but again I am very concerned about this and if I can do anything to help let me know and I'll get it done---- In order open up a investigation on this problem it must be reported.. Again Thank you

Joe

 

[czdaryle]

Hi Firefly... A couple weeks ago, I spoke with Remy of BRP and he asked me to forward the thread discussions and photos of the other four Spyders that caught fire. If you would forward this thread to him, he will pass it along to the superiors. Customer support did acknowledge that they received my email by phone last week.

I've also cross posted in two other Spyder forums regarding the recent fires so that those Spyder owners are aware of this issue.

Email address is: [email protected] Please sure to write in the subject line Attn: Remy or he will not receive your email.

That is a good start but for something to get done it needs to be reported to NHTSA, they will push BRP to come up with a solution/fix

 

[Lamonster]

That was my bike that caught fire. I was lucky no injuries.

So fill us in. Ken said your Spyder had been to the shop for a gas leak, are you thinking this was the result of the leak? Glad you wern't burned or hurt.

 

[BajaRon]

That is a good start but for something to get done it needs to be reported to NHTSA, they will push BRP to come up with a solution/fix

I would guess that BRP is as interested in these fire incidents as we are. I can't beleive they would be sitting on their hands.

We get to talk about it and throw around our ideas, guesses and suspicions.

It would be great if BRP could do the same. But BRP is not going to say
anything. That would be foolish in this age of litigation.

Not saying these incidents don't need to be reported to NHTSA, and I hope they have been.

I'm like everyone else, I'd like to see this resolved ASAP. It may be that most of the Spyders were too damaged to get any real cause. It may be that the few that may reveal a cause have different issues and no pattern.

I know wrapping the exhaust has really reduced the heat factor on my Spyder. It still gets hot under the cowling but not nearly as bad as before. Maybe BRP will need to double wall the exhaust in the future.

 

[SpyderGirl]

I would guess that BRP is as interested in these fire incidents as we are. I can't beleive they would be sitting on their hands.

We get to talk about it and throw around our ideas, guesses and suspicions.

It would be great if BRP could do the same. But BRP is not going to say
anything. That would be foolish in this age of litigation.

Not saying these incidents don't need to be reported to NHTSA, and I hope they have been.

I'm like everyone else, I'd like to see this resolved ASAP. It may be that most of the Spyders were too damaged to get any real cause. It may be that the few that may reveal a cause have different issues and no pattern.

I know wrapping the exhaust has really reduced the heat factor on my Spyder. It still gets hot under the cowling but not nearly as bad as before. Maybe BRP will need to double wall the exhaust in the future.

Ron, what did you wrap your exhaust with?

I am interested in finding out the cause of these fires. It's difficult to believe they are random incidents, but it certainly is possible. I just want to know that I don't have anything to worry about. I may be adding a fire extinguisher to my list of things to bring on my upcoming trip and hope I don't have to use it.

 

[Ken5517 / Wish Again]

I was talking to another West Coast Spyder Ryder that is active on this forum as well and he told me that all the burnt spyders had made mods and that none were totally stock with regards to engines, exhaust and air filters.

I found that interesting and will not swear that is true of each bike or should have made a difference.

A bike that burned to the ground will serve up little in clues and I believe that this bike may serve up the best clues to date as we did get the fire out before it burnt to the ground.

 

[Firefly]

I was talking to another West Coast Spyder Ryder that is active on this forum as well and he told me that all the burnt spyders had made mods and that none were totally stock with regards to engines, exhaust and air filters.

I found that interesting and will not swear that is true of each bike or should have made a difference.

A bike that burned to the ground will serve up little in clues and I believe that this bike may serve up the best clues to date as we did get the fire out before it burnt to the ground.

Sorry - but that isn't true. I know one of the ones posted out here - the owner specifically stated they had done no aftermarket mods.

 

[smokster]

Might be that a good fire extinguisher becomes a popular mod...:cus:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...mallest-extinguisher-Lets-hope-big-blaze.html