I can say with no doubt i was a potential Spyder hater until i rode one. Being a die hard motorcycle lover and working at a dealership that sold both Yamaha, Kawasaki and Can-am when i saw the first spy photo of the GS i honestly wouldn't type the words that came out of my mouth. My motorcycling back round at the time consisted of about 35,000 miles of street riding and a few thousand miles of racing.
Sadly the racing had for the most part ended my motorcycling career as i purchased a brand new Suzuki sport bike after i had realized i could no longer afford to race them and found while riding said sport bike i was traveling on my favorite twisty road going half the speed i could on the race track yet risking twice as much should i fall. With that said, i sold the bike, couldn't even bring myself to break it in and had to have a friend put the miles on it. Keep in mind i rode between 16,000 and 10,000 miles per year on a sport bike prior to racing them! Being 20 some years old i had no desire for a cruiser so i went with out a motorcycle of any kind for a long long time. When the Spyder GS came out i though "stupid" and that's being nice. One evening as we had our first Spyder demo on site the owner forced me to take it home. I had absolutely zero interest in riding it, i was grumbling as i put my helmet on to head home on the Spyder.
What happened next will stay with me for the rest of my life! I 100% no doubt fell in love with street riding again because it was NOT a motorcycle! I felt like the same 16 year old that will never forget pulling out on to the highway on my first motorcycle. By the time i got home i had learned a very important life lesson. Do not judge until you try it. I was amazed, this thing that i had made fun of now had me a believer. When i arrived home, my wife says what the h^&@ is that? I said grab your helmet and jump on. She did and we proceeded to go to the local Harley bar and park proudly among the Harley's. We put our helmets in the storage compartment and made it inside the bar without anybody noticing us. Remember now, nobody had ever seen a Spyder before.
So as we ate dinner and we were laughing at the crowd building at the door once somebody had noticed what was parked outside. Every biker was panning around the bar trying to figure out who rode it in. Finally, a nice younger gal approached us. Yes a gal, not a big bad leather wearing biker but a young lady. She said, i'm sorry for interrupting your dinner but nobody here has the b*lls to ask if that "thing" outside is yours? If it is, what the h^&@ is it and can i sit on it? I said, why yes it is and yes you may. The brochures are in the large storage space up front. She looked like a school girl that just made the cheer leading team for the first time! I swear she would have hugged me had my wife not been there.
We walked outside to see a crowd of about 20 bikers taking turns sitting on it and rationalizing the reasons they should and would own one. I heard it all. From the gentleman that was to short to ever ride a motorcycle, to the guy with a broken leg that wanted to ride something while his leg was healing to all the girl friends and wives that looked at their boy friends and husbands like why would i ever ride on the back with you again when i can ride one of these! I knew right then, the Spyder was a home run.
Since that day i have had the chance to take a Spyder back to the race track, defend it's honor just long enough to go do 2 flying laps on it and watch the paddock full of haters go, "Dang, that thing looks like it can hang pretty well". In a matter of 4 minutes, two 2 minute laps, i had the whole place coming over with a totally different outlook on what they had seen me ride in on earlier.
Thanks to the Spyder, i have not said a single bad word about the slingshot. Why? Because i have never driven one!
hyea:
Me either! :yes: :agree: :thumbup:
