h0gr1der
New member
All,
First, many thanks to all the folks willing to teach us newb's. We're all ignorant until we know. Thanks to the knowledge base here, the learning curve is shortened and less painful.
So, on to the update. My RTL 2018 model has almost all the dreaded caveats of the Spyder, but for some reason I still can't stop grinning! I'm all sunburned to heck and back.
It definitively has the crappy Chinese tire problem, it shakes the front end badly. Enough so that I'm taking it back to the dealer to make them fix the problem. Just to further the record of how many bad tires they're pushing. It was balanced (?) from the factory, has the weights to prove it. Anyway, I have the Vredestein's on standby (Thanks Mr. Bluenight911, Peter Aawen, and all the others), but the tires on mine are unacceptable on a new bike.
I also have the dreaded drive-line belt vibration. The drive belt came from the factory at 220 lbs / 978 N. Now in the OEM service manual under the drive line section it calls for this much. but in the technical specifications toward the end it calls for 174 lbs (±33.7 lbs) / 775 N (±150 N), so I reset it with the Krikut to about 150-160 Lb with the wheel off the ground. I was really concerned about alignment as before letting the tension off the belt appeared to be touching the front left flange and the right rear flange, giving the impression of zero tolerance for adjustment. (Thanks for the good discussion PMK) After removing 60-70 lbs of tension, guess what? I have clearance enough on the front pulley to put the belt in perfect alignment on the rear pulley, with the 1mm from the flange spacing, leaving about 1-2mm clearance at the front. Amazing how that works! Don't know if the lower belt tension will correct the vibration, but if it doesn't there are a lot of good vibration dampeners on this site. I'll see when I run it tomorrow.
As a sub note, the shortcut I took using a 20" bar that fits through the axle hole and a ratchet strap to hold a little forward tension on the right side of the axle worked well. The drive belt holds the left adjuster seated, it seems to be the right side that gave me fits. Add a little forward tension and it all comes together fast. Alignment in 20 minutes. Right tools though. Bought the big cheap 36mm combination Sunex wrench ($22 ebay), a Kolbalt 36mm short 1/2" drive 12 point socket (Lowes $9). The Kolbalt is short enough to get by the muffler while attached to a torque wrench.
Just finished my 600 mile break in. so now I can run it like I mean business. I will say this; I never expected this level of performance from a 1000 lbs plus machine with only a 1330 cc engine. Amazing! I'm glad I chose the Delta trike form, it seems to have all the stability a person could ever need. I've been testing the envelope, and it feels like if I turned it hard enough I may leave the saddle before the bike flips. Not sure, don't want to find out. Never met the nanny though (yet). Gas mileage has been hovering around 37 MPG U.S., but today with more consistent speeds it got 39.3 MPG on my last fill. I've been slowly ramping up my throttle application as it breaks in. Above 5000 RPM this thing sounds like a formula car. Nice! Moves out very rapidly as well.
All in all, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The downfalls are known, and there are remedies available. I'm glad I made this choice.
First, many thanks to all the folks willing to teach us newb's. We're all ignorant until we know. Thanks to the knowledge base here, the learning curve is shortened and less painful.
So, on to the update. My RTL 2018 model has almost all the dreaded caveats of the Spyder, but for some reason I still can't stop grinning! I'm all sunburned to heck and back.
It definitively has the crappy Chinese tire problem, it shakes the front end badly. Enough so that I'm taking it back to the dealer to make them fix the problem. Just to further the record of how many bad tires they're pushing. It was balanced (?) from the factory, has the weights to prove it. Anyway, I have the Vredestein's on standby (Thanks Mr. Bluenight911, Peter Aawen, and all the others), but the tires on mine are unacceptable on a new bike.
I also have the dreaded drive-line belt vibration. The drive belt came from the factory at 220 lbs / 978 N. Now in the OEM service manual under the drive line section it calls for this much. but in the technical specifications toward the end it calls for 174 lbs (±33.7 lbs) / 775 N (±150 N), so I reset it with the Krikut to about 150-160 Lb with the wheel off the ground. I was really concerned about alignment as before letting the tension off the belt appeared to be touching the front left flange and the right rear flange, giving the impression of zero tolerance for adjustment. (Thanks for the good discussion PMK) After removing 60-70 lbs of tension, guess what? I have clearance enough on the front pulley to put the belt in perfect alignment on the rear pulley, with the 1mm from the flange spacing, leaving about 1-2mm clearance at the front. Amazing how that works! Don't know if the lower belt tension will correct the vibration, but if it doesn't there are a lot of good vibration dampeners on this site. I'll see when I run it tomorrow.
As a sub note, the shortcut I took using a 20" bar that fits through the axle hole and a ratchet strap to hold a little forward tension on the right side of the axle worked well. The drive belt holds the left adjuster seated, it seems to be the right side that gave me fits. Add a little forward tension and it all comes together fast. Alignment in 20 minutes. Right tools though. Bought the big cheap 36mm combination Sunex wrench ($22 ebay), a Kolbalt 36mm short 1/2" drive 12 point socket (Lowes $9). The Kolbalt is short enough to get by the muffler while attached to a torque wrench.
Just finished my 600 mile break in. so now I can run it like I mean business. I will say this; I never expected this level of performance from a 1000 lbs plus machine with only a 1330 cc engine. Amazing! I'm glad I chose the Delta trike form, it seems to have all the stability a person could ever need. I've been testing the envelope, and it feels like if I turned it hard enough I may leave the saddle before the bike flips. Not sure, don't want to find out. Never met the nanny though (yet). Gas mileage has been hovering around 37 MPG U.S., but today with more consistent speeds it got 39.3 MPG on my last fill. I've been slowly ramping up my throttle application as it breaks in. Above 5000 RPM this thing sounds like a formula car. Nice! Moves out very rapidly as well.
All in all, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The downfalls are known, and there are remedies available. I'm glad I made this choice.
