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Its official: BajaRon's swaybar is a MUST have for all RT owners!
- Thread starter kinggeek
- Start date
ringalls51
New member
BajaRon's swaybar
you are right got the swaybar. put it on and was not hard at all. my wife and I could not believe the difference a swaybar could make. it is a must on rt. my wife has a 2012 spyder rt a/c. she has had it for about 2 monthes we were taking 40 mph curves at 49 mph and couldn't tell it. just have to watch my speed on curves now. worth every penny for the cost of the bar. had front tires at 30 lbs and shockes at 5 after putting on swaybar now front tires at 25 lbs and shockes at 3. rides so much better.
you are right got the swaybar. put it on and was not hard at all. my wife and I could not believe the difference a swaybar could make. it is a must on rt. my wife has a 2012 spyder rt a/c. she has had it for about 2 monthes we were taking 40 mph curves at 49 mph and couldn't tell it. just have to watch my speed on curves now. worth every penny for the cost of the bar. had front tires at 30 lbs and shockes at 5 after putting on swaybar now front tires at 25 lbs and shockes at 3. rides so much better.
SpyderAnn01
Active member
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Wow, you run really high pressure in your front tires How are the tires wearing?
Sarge707
Active member
25 Pounds is a LOT according to 100,s of posts on the Forum?? I think if you tried 20 Pounds with the stock shocks on 4 or even 5 and the Sway Bar you would see a BIG difference.
The manual says #4 Shocks =200 pound rider and cargo!
#5 Shocks=Rider, Passenger, and Cargo!
Just my opinion.
swaybar
my husband ordered this from Ron, arrived within a few days, and he put it on very quickly with no problems with the instructions that Ron included. took it out for a test drive this past weekend and curves that stated 30 could go around them at 39,so,smooth, now states just have to watch his speed now because it makes it so smooth that you dont realize youre going that fast. best buy for the bucks. thanks ron!
my husband ordered this from Ron, arrived within a few days, and he put it on very quickly with no problems with the instructions that Ron included. took it out for a test drive this past weekend and curves that stated 30 could go around them at 39,so,smooth, now states just have to watch his speed now because it makes it so smooth that you dont realize youre going that fast. best buy for the bucks. thanks ron!
thanks for info. i'll try it at 4 ,we've only got 2000 on it and the mechanic said tires wear on the inside of the spyder,
have you heard anything differently? this is ringalls with wife here signed in,so hopefully i wrote what he wanted to say.thanks again, in the process of learning about our spyder open to any and all info.
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NancysToy
Motorbike Professor
Mechanic is full of baloney. That is the standard answer, but the truth is that a Spyder whose tires wear unevenly on the inside of both front tires is :
a. Overloaded without the front spring (shock) preload being set high enough,
b. Misaligned, with insufficient toe-in,
c. Running inadequate front tire pressure in combination with aggressive riding,
A correctly aligned Spyder with the front suspension in good shape will wear the tires evenly, and the fronts will last 20K or more. At 22K mine are only half worn. Check your front preload, and set it higher if needed. I recommend one notch above the recommendation in your manual for your weight, passenger, and cargo load. Be sure your front tire pressure is even, and high enough. The 15 psi in the manual is too low for most riders. A good place to start is 18 for an RT and 20 for an RS. If all else fails, find a good shop, that has experience with front end alignment, and have it done (after a thorough front suspension inspection). If your Spyder tends to follow every bump and bank in the road, and you are not holding the bars too tight and overcontrolling, the chances are it needs an alignment.
Only got 2000,on it since we just got it in oct, the spyder mechanic said the spyder tire wear down on the inside of the tires so thats why we're trying the highe pressure, have you heard anything differently? this is ringalls talking thru wife since I'm on at the moment. thanks for the info.always open to more info.
Thanks for the info. will do...mechanic is certified by BRP "master" maybe he misunderstood our question when asked:banghead:
NancysToy
Motorbike Professor
I'm afraid that the alignment procedure is not stressed in the BRP certification course, if it is taught at all. Very few otherwise good techs really understand it...or realize when it is needed. BRP's official position on this was to rotate the tires regularly, so that does not help. With a little luck, your tech will be open-minded, and willing to invest the time to learn the procdure, and buy the simple tools and materials to do an alignment for you. Have a heart-to-heart with him, and if it bears no fruit, find another dealer if you can. There are some that understand.
BajaRon
Well-known member
Scotty is right. If your Spyder is right your front tires will last a very long time. If it isn't then you may be putting tires on every 5k or so. Scotty is right again about how little some Spyder dealers seem to know about proper front end alignment. Unless you get a good dealer this seems to be the order of response to bad front tire wear.
#1 Answer - It's supposed to wear like that, they all do. Expected front tire life is 5,000 miles. (Bull Puckie!)
#2 - Run higher tire pressure and or set spring adjuster to a higher notch. (This will help if the problem is load related, but it won't cure a bad alignment. I recommend the same as Scotty, 18~20 lbs in front depending on conditions and spring setting higher with a heavier load)
#3 - Fiddle with alignment by 'Guessing' with adjustment. (I was shocked to see dealers recommend this approach. Quick, cheap, easy but NOT a good idea)
#4 - Actually align the front end properly. If alignment is the culprit then this is the only effective solution. It appears that many dealerships do not know how to do this which may be the reason for responses #1-#3.
SpyderAnn01
Active member
Ron I've got to say that the sway bar is fantastic. I got in a nice ride yesterday on some curvy roads and the new bar upped the fun level several notches! I'm hoping that the Owner's Event is in Durango again this year so I can give the Million Dollar Highway another run.:2thumbs:
BajaRon
Well-known member
It really gives you a brand new riding experience. It is difficult to convey what a good sway bar will do for the Spyder. But once you've tried it, no more explanation is necessary.
Have a great time on your new suspension! :thumbup:
Spyder_Cowgirl
GOS member (Girls On Spyders)
I've got the bar, waiting on the "bump skid" and plan to do both installs at the same time (since the Spyder will be "up" anyway). One thing that I cannot find are torque specs for any of the bolts in the install. Near as I can tell, there are 8 involved (4 on the bar, 2 at the heim joint, and 2 to loosen the frunk). I've checked the BRP 2012 RT maint. manual (on CD) and all it shows are instructions on removal and replacement, no mention of torque for any of the subject bolts (though I see torque mentioned many other places in the manual).
Does any one (Ron, maybe? :bowdown
have a recommendation for each of these? Also, for the two collars that go on at the end of the install, would there be a recommendation to use loctite on those small screws?
Looking forward to the improved ride and keeping up with SpyderCowboy on his HD Ultra Classic!
Does any one (Ron, maybe? :bowdown
have a recommendation for each of these? Also, for the two collars that go on at the end of the install, would there be a recommendation to use loctite on those small screws?Looking forward to the improved ride and keeping up with SpyderCowboy on his HD Ultra Classic!
flybuddy
New member
I've got the bar, waiting on the "bump skid" and plan to do both installs at the same time (since the Spyder will be "up" anyway). One thing that I cannot find are torque specs for any of the bolts in the install. Near as I can tell, there are 8 involved (4 on the bar, 2 at the heim joint, and 2 to loosen the frunk). I've checked the BRP 2012 RT maint. manual (on CD) and all it shows are instructions on removal and replacement, no mention of torque for any of the subject bolts (though I see torque mentioned many other places in the manual).
Does any one (Ron, maybe? :bowdown
Looking forward to the improved ride and keeping up with SpyderCowboy on his HD Ultra Classic!
I don't think you'll be able to torque the clamp bolts as pretty much only an open end or box wrench will fit, The clamp bolts were god awful tight on mine and it took a hammer to break the uppers loose. The 2 at the heim were fairly standard as were the frunk. You can feel the tightness coming off and try to duplicate that going on, I don't believe torque is critical on any of these other that to not vibrate loose. Loctite might be useful.
I installed mine today. Ran it up on ramps and did the following:
removed plastic bump skid - 4 screws and 2 bolts
removed 2 lower frunk bolts
removed lower clamp bolts and loosened uppers as far as I could without them falling off
removed heim joint bolts
pushed up on the frunk with my knee while using one hand to move clamp and other to pull stock sway bar down, same for other side
Put the rubber bushings on the outside of the new bar (near the bends) and pushed the bar up into the clamps(while holding the frunk up with knee again)
slid the bushings into the clamps
put all the hardware on loose and tested for centering of the bar--I used a small piece of safety wire to measure each side (tough to measure a curved surface with limited room) bent the wire when it hit the curve. Tap the sway bar back and forth until the it matched. Check the Heims clearance.
Tighten everything up, install lower cover and done
If I had a longer 13mm open end I think I could have done this in under an hour. I wasted 20 minutes where I couldn't get enough leverage on the upper clamp bolts.
BajaRon
Well-known member
Like others here I can only tell you what I do. I'm not a big torque guy. Head bolts, rod bearings, things like that, absolutely. Otherwise, torque wrenches are very good at twisting things right off in your hand if you're not careful.
Again, as mentioned, the important bolts in this install have Nylock nuts and they aren't going to go anywhere. The sway bar clamp bolts that I've done are all pretty tight but some are really killer tight. This tells me that they are not torque spec'ed at the factory, they just get them tight. And that is what I do. They don't need to be killer tight, just good and tight.
Go easy on the Frunk bolts. They just need to be reasonably tight. If you go Frankenstein on them you may strip them. Same with the Billet Aluminum collar clamps. Just get them good and snug. If you ape up on these you may strip them.
How's that for a scientific answer!
Again, as mentioned, the important bolts in this install have Nylock nuts and they aren't going to go anywhere. The sway bar clamp bolts that I've done are all pretty tight but some are really killer tight. This tells me that they are not torque spec'ed at the factory, they just get them tight. And that is what I do. They don't need to be killer tight, just good and tight.
Go easy on the Frunk bolts. They just need to be reasonably tight. If you go Frankenstein on them you may strip them. Same with the Billet Aluminum collar clamps. Just get them good and snug. If you ape up on these you may strip them.
How's that for a scientific answer!
GeoffCee
New member
Thanks for taking, annotating and posting the interesting photos of your install of BajaRon's swaybar. I had thought to load them into my iPad to use them to guide my own install at some future date but I don't seem to be able to copy them at good quality out of Photobucket. Is there a way to do it, Larry?
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