pontow
New member
Greetings folks. First time poster, been lurking for a while. Took my first Spyder demo ride today so i thought it was high time I joined up. This forum has already been a fantastic resource and I'm so looking forward to being a part of it.
Before I ask any questions, a little bit of background is probably in order. The demo ride today was a 2015 RT-S SE6 Special. My experience is close to 50 years of two wheeled escapades. Mini-bikes to two stroke enduros, several metrics, a couple of Harleys and a couple of BMW's. The current ride is a K1600GTL. While I love this machine, especially that fantastic 6 cylinder motor, I have recently gone through some medical issues. The last 6 months of 2014 was spent in surgeries, treatments and recoveries. I have fought my way back to reasonable health but at 57 years young, I have been forced to come to the conclusion that total recovery of strength, stamina and balance just may not be in the cards. The wife and I recently took our first distance trip (San Diego to Morro Bay) since not riding for almost 8 months. As long as we were cruising down the road, all was well. It was the stopping that has brought with it a whole new set of negative sensations. Is there any sand on the street? Am I pulling into any wet spots? Is the camber OK so I don't end up leaning to one side? Between the 750 lbs. of bike, a full load of gear and my wife perched on the back, I found that the stopping and balancing had become so precarious for me that the joy and pleasure of the trip was constantly overshadowed by the fear of dropping this monster in the middle of the street and not being able to pick it back up, not to mention the expense of replacing tupperware. We can't pull off of the road at scenic overlooks unless the pullout is hard surfaced and not congested. We have to be extremely cautious of our parking lot choices. We just have to be careful of everything, and I can no longer call it fun.
So, a Spyder seems to be the logical choice. Giving up the wind in my face is not. With all that said, I finally got around to taking the first demo ride today. I also have several years as a younger fella riding quads in the deserts East of San Diego so I was not overly concerned about the "way" that you have to ride this type of machine. That proved to be the case and after a few laps around the parking lot, in many ways it felt like it was second nature. I know that it is not the same as a two wheeler and don't expect it to be. What I did find out however was a bit of a surprise. That big, wide front end suddenly seemed to be not nearly as wide once I got out onto the street. I was expecting this 1000# machine to be rather planted and even expected it to be somewhat sluggish in handling. While it does take some considerable effort to make lock to lock turns, the sensation going down the street reminded me of a butterfly trying to skip across a frozen pond. "OK" I thought to myself, "just relax and loosen your grip". I immediately went to a "grip" of simply resting my palms on the handlebars and let the machine do what it needed to do. That did settle it down some but the motion of those two front wheels was still very prevalent. The suspension (I backed the rear suspension off to 2 bars just to see if that would smooth anything out) in the front seemed to be very harsh and I felt like I could feel every little piece of gravel through the handlebars.
So, here is my question: Assuming that there may be some fine tuning such as accurate front tire pressure that the dealer may not have totally nailed down, are the symptoms that I experienced - harsh front end, "dancing" sideways, extremely sensitive to road conditions - symptoms that one can expect improvement on from upgrades such as Bajaron's sway bar and front shock adjuster kit? Or is this a characteristic of this machine that I'm simply going to have to accept and get used to in return for the security of 3 wheels?
It's a little difficult coming from the smoothness and power of that K1600GTL and while I'm not expecting apples to apples in any way, I did expect a little bit smoother of a ride experience from this large touring machine.
Any feedback for me? Heading out to a social function but I'll be running home later tonight to see if anybody has any suggestions for me.
Before I ask any questions, a little bit of background is probably in order. The demo ride today was a 2015 RT-S SE6 Special. My experience is close to 50 years of two wheeled escapades. Mini-bikes to two stroke enduros, several metrics, a couple of Harleys and a couple of BMW's. The current ride is a K1600GTL. While I love this machine, especially that fantastic 6 cylinder motor, I have recently gone through some medical issues. The last 6 months of 2014 was spent in surgeries, treatments and recoveries. I have fought my way back to reasonable health but at 57 years young, I have been forced to come to the conclusion that total recovery of strength, stamina and balance just may not be in the cards. The wife and I recently took our first distance trip (San Diego to Morro Bay) since not riding for almost 8 months. As long as we were cruising down the road, all was well. It was the stopping that has brought with it a whole new set of negative sensations. Is there any sand on the street? Am I pulling into any wet spots? Is the camber OK so I don't end up leaning to one side? Between the 750 lbs. of bike, a full load of gear and my wife perched on the back, I found that the stopping and balancing had become so precarious for me that the joy and pleasure of the trip was constantly overshadowed by the fear of dropping this monster in the middle of the street and not being able to pick it back up, not to mention the expense of replacing tupperware. We can't pull off of the road at scenic overlooks unless the pullout is hard surfaced and not congested. We have to be extremely cautious of our parking lot choices. We just have to be careful of everything, and I can no longer call it fun.
So, a Spyder seems to be the logical choice. Giving up the wind in my face is not. With all that said, I finally got around to taking the first demo ride today. I also have several years as a younger fella riding quads in the deserts East of San Diego so I was not overly concerned about the "way" that you have to ride this type of machine. That proved to be the case and after a few laps around the parking lot, in many ways it felt like it was second nature. I know that it is not the same as a two wheeler and don't expect it to be. What I did find out however was a bit of a surprise. That big, wide front end suddenly seemed to be not nearly as wide once I got out onto the street. I was expecting this 1000# machine to be rather planted and even expected it to be somewhat sluggish in handling. While it does take some considerable effort to make lock to lock turns, the sensation going down the street reminded me of a butterfly trying to skip across a frozen pond. "OK" I thought to myself, "just relax and loosen your grip". I immediately went to a "grip" of simply resting my palms on the handlebars and let the machine do what it needed to do. That did settle it down some but the motion of those two front wheels was still very prevalent. The suspension (I backed the rear suspension off to 2 bars just to see if that would smooth anything out) in the front seemed to be very harsh and I felt like I could feel every little piece of gravel through the handlebars.
So, here is my question: Assuming that there may be some fine tuning such as accurate front tire pressure that the dealer may not have totally nailed down, are the symptoms that I experienced - harsh front end, "dancing" sideways, extremely sensitive to road conditions - symptoms that one can expect improvement on from upgrades such as Bajaron's sway bar and front shock adjuster kit? Or is this a characteristic of this machine that I'm simply going to have to accept and get used to in return for the security of 3 wheels?
It's a little difficult coming from the smoothness and power of that K1600GTL and while I'm not expecting apples to apples in any way, I did expect a little bit smoother of a ride experience from this large touring machine.
Any feedback for me? Heading out to a social function but I'll be running home later tonight to see if anybody has any suggestions for me.
