Durango and Spyder reliability.

[hrbeta]

Beside oil change (I have to baby the new engine) the Spyder was running like a champ in this "around the corner" 5,600 miles trip. However on the way back the left back fender support failed:

You trend setter, you doc you... LOL


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[Paula(Butch2025)]

3600 miles on an "08 GS and a "12 RS...one limp mode (vss code) for the "08 and we both lost a bolt or two - Butch's license plate is being held on with a zip tie right now! Other than heat and altitude causing some weirdness with our gas gauges they both ran great!

 

[RTGENE]

Hot allot

The event was more fun than the Chicago trip---that one had rain all the way home.
In Albuquerque nine fingers tells me I have no running lights?
Tech's at Durango were unbelievable-----figured out it was the key ignition switch had burned up.
Tore down the RT and put it back together under 2 hours. All the Tupperware and dash from the seat forward.
Got me a temporary fix to get me home-------just to stay on the safe side only drove during the day.
2974 Miles most fill up's around 30MPG----Crossed the Continental divide headed south for Raton Pass and got 41MPG go figure.
So were to next year. Maybe meet up with Pee-wee get an up date on his travels

 

[ABQ_Spyderman]

My Spyder performed perfectly....it loved being in the high altitudes...I'm not sure what the difference is...but I got the best gas mileage ever...all the way to Durango and home...2700 miles...the olny thing I've done is put Spyderpops 'Bump Skid' on the Spyder over Memorial weekend.....did roll over 40,000 miles in 2 years 1 month...getting ready to replace plugs and wires and check valves and coolant ...of course...change oil...love my Spyder

I can't explain the incredible mileage either. I got 43mpg on my ride from ABQ to Mountainair. I mentioned this to RAYYOU and Captblack on our ride and they were right there with me. The theme was "I don't trust my fuel gauge!".
I also experienced really good mileage to Durango and back, but nothing like my 43/gallon to Mountainair. Lamont mentioned that he and one of his friends got 44 miles per gallon en route back from Durango to Albuquerque. That beats my 43, but man I will take that every day of the week!

 

[Desert Spyder]

I broke my clutch hub going home on Hwy 160 about 10 miles south/west of Durango. AAA towed the RT & RT622 in to Fun Center where I ran into Doc, who was ryding SethO's bike, the GloryRyders and a few others. Good time of fellowship outside talking about our bikes and MRSA (google it). I had to rent a car as the part was not expected in to Wednesday (turned out to be Thursday as BRP shipped the wrong part) and the bike and I finally arrived home in Calif. Sunday at noon. Lyle and staff at Fun Center went beyond the call of duty that weekend certainly deserve a Spyder Medal for Incredible Service. Didn't happen to have one with me so I left them with the pieces of the broken clutch hub instead. I wish I had Lamonts and others MPG but I averaged about 28 towing the trailer. Something about getting away from California gas agreed with the bike. I wouldn't trade this trip despite the mechanical issues. Thank you BRP!

PS: I kinda like that idea about the Spyder Medal for Incredible Service. We need to design something like that. A tip is nice but its temporary. A medal is forever!

 

[kinggeek]

3700 mile roundtrip two up towing an RT-622, trouble maintaining 75+ MPH on the RARE hills in OK, TX and NM, 1 limp mode in ABQ, 3 limp modes between ABQ and Durango, culminating in an approximately 60 mile tow into Durango. Thanks BRP Film crew for the tow and to Hotglue for the company while we waited it was great meeting you and Flamingobabe!

After the first of the three limps before the tow I had the pleasure of trying to keep up with DocDoru through the NM desert, I think we held our own considering we were riding two up on an RT towing a trailer, or maybe it was just my imagination....

Root cause of all issues, bad throttle position sensor. BRP surprised me with a 2012 Limited as a loaner to ride while they had mine in the tech tent! Did not get to ride it because they had mine fixed less than 30 minutes after we unloaded it.

Absolutely no issues on the trip home thanks to BRP Techs!

It was a great trip, we had a great time!

 

[McGone]

Durango

Put +3100 miles on round trip. Had 6 limp modes on Tuesday on the way out there. Very hot and windy day.
BRP techs diagnosed the orignal relays (2008 GS SM5) might be the cause and ordered replacements. No limp mode on the way home. Thanks to the techs for great service and advice.
My front right fender support cracked again, but I was able to ride it home without a problem.

Now have 43,000 miles on the Spyder. :doorag:

 

[hawkiii]

We were a little over 2700 miles. Travelled HWY 50 from Sacramento, CA to Salina, UT. Had some pretty long stretches with no gas or services but the Spyder ran well until the front and rear gaskets on the Micron blew out. Ended up buying a Hindle from the folks at Fun Center in Durango. Spyder ran well all the way home. Only problem was my poor old Micron. Hope to be able to get gaskets to rebuild it one more time. If not, I guess I will be in the market for a new exhaust system.

 

[wrbrown]

3200 miles,with two-up, no problems, ran great and we had a wonderful time !!!

 

[dick574]

3700 mile roundtrip two up towing an RT-622, trouble maintaining 75+ MPH on the RARE hills in OK, TX and NM, 1 limp mode in ABQ, 3 limp modes between ABQ and Durango, culminating in an approximately 60 mile tow into Durango. Thanks BRP Film crew for the tow and to Hotglue for the company while we waited it was great meeting you and Flamingobabe!

After the first of the three limps before the tow I had the pleasure of trying to keep up with DocDoru through the NM desert, I think we held our own considering we were riding two up on an RT towing a trailer, or maybe it was just my imagination....

Root cause of all issues, bad throttle position sensor. BRP surprised me with a 2012 Limited as a loaner to ride while they had mine in the tech tent! Did not get to ride it because they had mine fixed less than 30 minutes after we unloaded it.

Absolutely no issues on the trip home thanks to BRP Techs!

It was a great trip, we had a great time!

Dax, good to hear that you & Sam had a good trip home. I got John's RT back to Cuba on Wed. Really had a great time enjoying your company. Best wishes to the both of you. Dick

 

[BajaRon]

We were a little over 2700 miles. Travelled HWY 50 from Sacramento, CA to Salina, UT. Had some pretty long stretches with no gas or services but the Spyder ran well until the front and rear gaskets on the Micron blew out. Ended up buying a Hindle from the folks at Fun Center in Durango. Spyder ran well all the way home. Only problem was my poor old Micron. Hope to be able to get gaskets to rebuild it one more time. If not, I guess I will be in the market for a new exhaust system.

Friendly advise... Give up on the Micron. Great looking, great sounding piece of junk. Hate to be so blunt but the longer you go with that muffler the more you'll tend to agree with my prognosis.

I love my Yoshimura but there are also other good quality mufflers that will hold up much better than the Micron. The Spyder is very hard on mufflers.

 

[scooterexpress]

went 2300mi only had 2 incidents with the gas tank there was alot of air pressure when i went to take the gas cap off,lamont said i might need a new turn-over valve replaced but considering all the hot weather i drove in and it only happened twice what else could it be? could it be i just have a bad gas cap?.but we loved the scenery and all the spyder ryders in durango..someone mentioned in this thread that his butt was hurting i bought a airhawk seat cushion my butt did not hurt only 200.00 give it a try you might like it they give you a 60 day trial so theres no loss if you don't like it. it was also great to see someone from texas win the big trip to europe congrats whats funny about this couple winning was i had just met them early fri a.m. at the brp tech tent while i was getting the updates, they needed help with there spyder and was told they had to leave it there for the most part of the day then they asked if they could get a loaner but none were avail so i think brp compensated them very well by being the lucky winners of the drawing. by the way what happened to the guy they drew first from iowa? anyone know what happen to this person?

 

[Mspiv]

Very interesting thread. Most of the people who reported issues were incredible
layer back, easy going and non pulsed after having "reliability " issues. I hope to some day learn those traits. Better yet, I hope to never need to.

As for the Idahowrson who was drawn first and missed out, he was probably in limp mode trying to get back to BRP for replacement of TB.

AS TO RELIABILITY:

I always hear folks on this forum saying that , like any forum, the folks with issue are always the most vocal. Seems to me that the folks who reported on this thread are not those folks and look at the number of them who had issues. Once again reliability rears it ugly head.

Just sayin

 

[spyderbirds]

Ours is reliable. Things break occassionally.... ryde on.
Over 15k now and no major issues. Most of this two up and by ourselves touring pulling a trailer.

 

[hawkiii]

Friendly advise... Give up on the Micron. Great looking, great sounding piece of junk. Hate to be so blunt but the longer you go with that muffler the more you'll tend to agree with my prognosis.

I love my Yoshimura but there are also other good quality mufflers that will hold up much better than the Micron. The Spyder is very hard on mufflers.

Yea, I know I should give it up. But I can't help it. I love the sound of the Micron. I have decided the Micron will no longer make long trips. This is the second time this has happened. Had the same problem going to Chicago in 2010. Will put the Micron on for local and short run fun but next time we head out over 1000 miles the Micron goes back on the shelf and the Hindle will go on for the long haul. I am not even certain I can get the gaskets yet. Evan gave me a contact for them while in Chicago, I need to send an email to see if they have any left.

 

[SpyderLady]

All total a group of us road 4538 miles. Yes we added some stops prior to the Owners event. John's bike did not fair too well. On the way to Cody, WY an "O" ring on the transmission blew. Got that fixed. He did get Limp mode one time and then on way back from Silverton to Durango his clutch blew out. BRP did manage to switch out clutch, only to have low/bad oil pressure and. Tic, tic, tic in the engine. Bike was towed back to Cowtown by a great friend. Engine is currently being torn down to be rebuilt. My bike did great!

 

[SteveMac]

My RT did very well. I did my best to keep up with Kinggeek and Dick574.

A little over 2,000 miles.

I had one limp mode, and I expected it, because I was pushing too hard in HOT conditions. 109 degrees in the New Mexico desert, running about 80mph, pulling a trailer, two up, and since I am no tiny-Tim, really pushing the weight limit :yikes:!

Shut the Spyder off for a bit, fired it up and had no more issues with that again. Ran like a champ on the way home, but I suffered a bit from heat exhaustion. Wow. It seemed hotter back in Missouri than it did in Texas and New Mexico.

Edit. Oh yeah, I did have one more item. My right panel decided to stay somewhere in Oklahoma. I had loose grommets and knew it, so I had added the Velcro. But it was so hot that the sticky tape on the Velcro gave up the ghost. So it flew off in the amazingly strong winds we fought for hundreds of miles. Bummer.

 

[SethO]

I ran down 1566 miles one shot in 27. 5 hours on the way down and on the way down was running triples thru SD at night and when I stopped for gas I would see smoke come thru the dash, I have had my spdyer in 7 times now in 8 months for random oil leaks, the last one before the trip was both lower cylinder gaskets which turned into a piston rebuild because of a broken ring.

so my first day after the death ride was at the Fun dealership where they could not tell where the oil leak was but thought it was a loose hose clamp which I have been told before but they did not charge me to wash the engine and then they had to get me 2 front tires and a mild toe in because of the inside of the tires getting ate out.
so the last day in durango with another oil leak Doc ran my spyder over to the fun center while I took care of handicrapp stuff and they found the front valve cover gasket bolts hand tight.
on my 1566 mile run back I had a small oil leak at my stop in colorado springs and by the time I got to mobridge.sd it was still smoking kinda, but when I got pulled over 100 miles from dirt town it was smoking worse than ever and dropping oil all over.
So I worked till 6am yesterday ran to st cloud honda house (160 mile one way trip) had to bribe them to work on it a day early because I have to work then next 5 days, (I have worked every day since I got back from durango) They told me the oil was all the old oil from teh previous leaks and that is why I am not losing that much oil. So I drove back to dirt town and no sleep slept for a few hours and am back at it, with more oil spots under the bike.

My spyder did not run as well in the mountains until I adjusted the PC with docs laptop.

 

[GeoffCee]

Edit. Oh yeah, I did have one more item. My right panel decided to stay somewhere in Oklahoma. I had loose grommets and knew it, so I had added the Velcro. But it was so hot that the sticky tape on the Velcro gave up the ghost. So it flew off in the amazingly strong winds we fought for hundreds of miles. Bummer.

This won't help you with the panel you've lost, but I've clipped the wings of my fly-away's.

 

[SteveMac]

This won't help you with the panel you've lost, but I've clipped the wings of my fly-away's.

Great idea. That would definitely have helped!