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Interesting conversation at the gas pump - asked why I chose to ride a Spyder rather than 'a real motorcycle'?!

V

vito1943

Active member
Yesterday I had a beautiful two hour ride, mostly along the Rock River in Illinois, and ended with a stop near my home to refill the gas tank. A middle aged guy approached me, curious about the Spyder. He said it looked really interesting, but wondered why I chose this ride rather than, in his words, "a real motorcycle". He said that he had been a casual motorcyclist earlier in his life, and that he didn't think trikes were still motorcycles, although he said that traditional trikes, like the Harley Triglide, were still "real" because you had to manually change the gears, and they had a single wheel in front of you when you're riding. I told him that I had ridden traditional motorcycles for over 40 years, but preferred my Spyder for many reasons. I told him that I didn't dismiss any of the earlier motorcycles I owned as less than real because they had electric starters, or cruise control, or ABS, or any other technological improvement over the bikes of the past. He said that he'd consider getting a Miata or some other small convertible when he gave up riding two wheelers, but hadn't yet done so. I told him that I also owned a small convertible, a Mini Cooper S, which was a hoot to drive, but a totally different experience to riding the Spyder. I sort of ended the conversation with telling him that whether he considered my ride a real motorcycle or not was of no consequence to me. I said that I had traded in a Honda Goldwing to buy this Spyder, and in the four years since, I have never regretted that decision for even a moment, considering the Spyder a far more enjoyable ride. He just shook his head and walked back to his car.
 
I have the same discussions again and again here in Germany.
Why I wouldn't ride a real motorcycle?
From time to time I let these people sit briefly
for a rehearsal. After that you can literally
observe how amazed they are. :cool:
 
We have have two rides now and have another today with the in-laws (in their late 70's) who picked up a nice low mileage 2014 RT S. They were long distance riders on Goldwings and Valkyries. They were in an accident about 10 years ago and stop riding at the time. He now is in love with the Spyder (after two rides, and still reaching for the clutch lever) and it will be moved to their winter place in Arizona this fall.
PXL_20250530_223222473.jpg
 
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We all have preconceived ideas that we just assume are correct. They die hard because we are unwilling to look at them objectively. 3 wheels have always been considered wanna-be motorcycles. That's because they were basically converted 2-Wheelers.

But the Spyder is different. It's built from scratch to be what it is. Not a morphed conversion from something else, ending up as something that it wasn't meant to be.

The difference is an incredibly satisfying machine! But some need to be willing to admit that they might be wrong to be able to realize this.
 
vito1943 said:
Yesterday I had a beautiful two hour ride, mostly along the Rock River in Illinois, and ended with a stop near my home to refill the gas tank. A middle aged guy approached me, curious about the Spyder. He said it looked really interesting, but wondered why I chose this ride rather than, in his words, "a real motorcycle". He said that he had been a casual motorcyclist earlier in his life, and that he didn't think trikes were still motorcycles, although he said that traditional trikes, like the Harley Triglide, were still "real" because you had to manually change the gears, and they had a single wheel in front of you when you're riding. I told him that I had ridden traditional motorcycles for over 40 years, but preferred my Spyder for many reasons. I told him that I didn't dismiss any of the earlier motorcycles I owned as less than real because they had electric starters, or cruise control, or ABS, or any other technological improvement over the bikes of the past. He said that he'd consider getting a Miata or some other small convertible when he gave up riding two wheelers, but hadn't yet done so. I told him that I also owned a small convertible, a Mini Cooper S, which was a hoot to drive, but a totally different experience to riding the Spyder. I sort of ended the conversation with telling him that whether he considered my ride a real motorcycle or not was of no consequence to me. I said that I had traded in a Honda Goldwing to buy this Spyder, and in the four years since, I have never regretted that decision for even a moment, considering the Spyder a far more enjoyable ride. He just shook his head and walked back to his car.
Click to expand...

BajaRon said:
We all have preconceived ideas that we just assume are correct. They die hard because we are unwilling to look at them objectively. 3 wheels have always been considered wanna-be motorcycles. That's because they were basically converted 2-Wheelers.

But the Spyder is different. It's built from scratch to be what it is. Not a morphed conversion from something else, ending up as something that it wasn't meant to be.

The difference is an incredibly satisfying machine! But some need to be willing to admit that they might be wrong to be able to realize this.
Click to expand...
There's a couple of people in town who are always asking me if I had my scooter out for a ride. I usually kind of take it with a grain of salt as they say, but it finally irritated me and I said it's not a freaking scooter, it's a 3 wheel motorcycle and it has a 1330cc engine that will take me wherever I want to go, they haven't called my Spyder a scooter since, l was in the grocery store at the time when the person asked me.
 
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racoon said:
I used to watch the TV show Counting Cars, where they did a bunch of custom cars and motorcycles.

On more than one occasion the head of the shop, Danny Koker, referred to a motorcycle as a "scoot".
Click to expand...

Back in the 1960s and 1970s it was fairly common, in some areas of the country to call any motorcycle a scooter or a scoot. It had noting to do with it being a trike or any particular brand. It was just a commonly used term for motorcycle.
 
I also had this conversation with a friend 2 days ago while riding in North Carolina. He was riding his BMW bike and I was riding my Can Am Spyder trike.
Mirriam Webster defines "Motorcycle" as "an automotive vehicle with 2 in-line wheels".
Miriam Webster defines "Trike" as a "Tricycle"
Miriam Webster defines "Tricycle" as "A 3-wheeled vehicle propelled by pedals or a motor".

I call my Spyder "That thing I ride to clear the demons". :ROFLMAO:
 
You can call it what you want, I call it a ton of fun!!! Matter of fact while I was in Tenn seeing my brother-in -law with my ride, I found a person that has a 2025 STS with 700 miles on it, that just couldn't get use to three wheels! I am going home with a sweet deal and the brother-in-laws getting a nice 2012!
 
The Internet does not know everything, and neither does Webster.


Quote the Internet when asked;
"These are results for Was Merriam Webster a biker?
AI Overview
An AI Overview is not available for this search"



Things which do not really matter are not very important to me.
Call your machine whatever you want. Call my machine whatever you want.
It is just words or whatever is the fad of the present moment,
and none of it amounts to a hill of beans.
You don't go out and buy a Can Am, or any other kind of vehicle because of
what other people think about it. If you do, you should not, because you are not
buying it to please other people. You buy it for yourself. If some stranger at a gas
station has a different opinion, he does not have to go buy one.
 
Even after trading in my Goldwing for the RT, I wanted to stay in the 2 wheel community so I bought a little Royal Enfield Hunter 350. The RE is a simple but nicely built little bike, but I found I rarely rode it. Part of the problem was that I was more frustrated than I had thought I would be with the low power of that bike since it has only 20 horsepower. But the biggest problem was that it was just not as much fun to ride as my Spyder. After about 18 months with the Hunter, I sold it on consignment at the Royal Enfield dealership, and I don't miss it at all.

One of the results of switching from two wheels to three has been a marked decrease in the percentage of riders who return my wave, but I can live with that pretty easily.
 
My wife enjoyed riding with me on my Goldwing. But a few times when we stopped on less than pristine pavement she became nervous that we would tip over. And when the road changed to gravel or dirt she became terrified. The very first time she rode as a passenger on my Spyder she said she loved it, felt much more comfortable, safer and better protected from the wind than she had on the Goldwing.
 
My close riding friends call it a 'shopping cart' in jest but they respect that 'it' stays with their Beemers in the twisties and slab runs with no problems. Especially when we park on hills, dirt or gravel!
 
I refer to mine as "my tricycle" because that's what a friend calls hers, and I find it amusing. Friends that I ride with refer to it as my "summertime snowmobile" and we laugh! For others with an issue, I tell them to call it whatever helps them sleep at night because until they start paying my bills, their opinion means nothing to me. I still have my Dyna, but I sold my Road Glide because it was just too top heavy for me.
We bought Dad (my FIL, but he has been "Dad" for almost 30 years) a 2024 RTL in April; he's in love! His brother is chomping at the bit to get on it (he's coming up next week to visit while we're gone, and told Dad "make sure you know where the key to Micki's is so we can go ride together!")
 
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