Calimusjohn
Active member
A Sea to Sky Spyder is my choice for long-distance touring. For fun weekend runs, the Ryker Rally is hard to beat.
Based on reports on this forum and discussions with other riders about how to improve my Ryker’s handling, I decided to upgrade its stabilization/sway bar. To determine if the added expense was worthwhile, I ran my own tests.
The roads between my home and BajaRon’s shop are made of gravel, asphalt, cement, and grooved concrete. The terrain provides everything from ten-mile-long straight stretches, sweeping curves over verdant hills, to hairpin turns on forested mountains. Speeds range from crawling in traffic jams to 85 mph in the slow lane on I-40 through Knoxville.
The results:
Riding around on city streets didn’t show any change in performance.
At Interstate highway speeds where semi-trucks create wind walls that buffet lightweight machines, the Ryker still wiggled when slammed by the disturbed airflow, but significantly less.
At points where depressed asphalt sections stopped at metal expansion joints leading to concrete bridges, the bike originally jumped and leaped sideways, leading to OMG! white-knuckled reactions. With the new bar, the bike still jumped, the shocks were the same, BUT, the machine barely squiggled.
On washboard roads, the newly-equipped Ryker simply danced (waltz - no polka), without veering from side to side.
On mountain twisties that I’ve ridden hundreds of times and know the limiting speeds; I comfortably picked up seven to ten miles per hour.
Conclusion: Thanks, Ron. Your stabilizer is well worth the price.
Note: This not a solicited ad. I received no discount. Simply my observations.
Based on reports on this forum and discussions with other riders about how to improve my Ryker’s handling, I decided to upgrade its stabilization/sway bar. To determine if the added expense was worthwhile, I ran my own tests.
The roads between my home and BajaRon’s shop are made of gravel, asphalt, cement, and grooved concrete. The terrain provides everything from ten-mile-long straight stretches, sweeping curves over verdant hills, to hairpin turns on forested mountains. Speeds range from crawling in traffic jams to 85 mph in the slow lane on I-40 through Knoxville.
The results:
Riding around on city streets didn’t show any change in performance.
At Interstate highway speeds where semi-trucks create wind walls that buffet lightweight machines, the Ryker still wiggled when slammed by the disturbed airflow, but significantly less.
At points where depressed asphalt sections stopped at metal expansion joints leading to concrete bridges, the bike originally jumped and leaped sideways, leading to OMG! white-knuckled reactions. With the new bar, the bike still jumped, the shocks were the same, BUT, the machine barely squiggled.
On washboard roads, the newly-equipped Ryker simply danced (waltz - no polka), without veering from side to side.
On mountain twisties that I’ve ridden hundreds of times and know the limiting speeds; I comfortably picked up seven to ten miles per hour.
Conclusion: Thanks, Ron. Your stabilizer is well worth the price.
Note: This not a solicited ad. I received no discount. Simply my observations.
