Sooooo I did a demo ryde last Saturday

[ARtraveler]

:agree: You can always sell your 2-wheeler later.

Another :agree: thrown on the pile. Hang on to the two wheels if it works financially for you. I recently added two wheels back to my stable. I missed the ride too much.

Don't forget to post a picture of the F3 when you bring one home. :yes:

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

GOOD SPYDERS VS BAD SPYDERS

Kindly disagreeing. These are NOT and never will be one of the most stable bikes there are. The F3L (ours anyway) is by far not the most stable bike. It is def fun, but stable? Yes on nice flat roads. But Def not over road irregularities. No amount of "learning" how to ride one will change the geometry of the machine, or the tires that come on it. Ive been logging lots of miles daily and guess what? Geometry is still the same. It still will slowly just ride off the road if you relax or let go of the bars. Yes theres a learning curve and lots of two wheel riding knowledge that is useless with them, but in no way am i white knuckling it or fighting it. A relaxed grip is all thats normally needed to let a machine do its thing, but when you relax and then encounter a banked road and it wants to ride off into the bushes, you have to make corrections, theres no choice. Thats not the Spyder inexperience or stiff rider input. Your machine may be the most stable bike ever, but ours is not - yet. Would love for you to ride ours the way you ride yours and see what you think lol. Still going try the sway bar and different tires. Those may hold the key to helping it hold a straight line with a relaxed grip. We will def get it tweaked correctly in time. Plenty of other people here echoing this as well.
All that being said, its a super fun ride. No doubt. My comment was to help the op not be as surprised as some of us if they end up with one that grabs and tracks with every rut or crack in the road, wasnt a complaint or discouragement.

I didn't post what I posted to offend you ..... I have read about the issues you have been incurring with your Spyder ...... I have close to 100,000 miles on three different Spyders and my take is far different from yours ... I also have extensive TWO wheel history ( 50 + yrs ) ..... so I can compare the two also .... I'm not that far from you ( 194 mi. on the interstate ) come up some week-end and maybe I can help you out .... Mike 05660 :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[LateLifeCrisis]

I've been following comments by this poster (nothing wrong with them! we all start somewhere, but part of the issue that the poster is having with tracking is the newness of the spyder and too much overcorrection/death grip). Once you have a certain amount of experience, there is no issue. Everyone has their own miles to reach before it happens. I came off 2 wheels and was one of the slower folks to get used to the spyder. For me it happened around 2000 miles. Of course I put those on in about 2 weeks, but it did take that many miles....

Everyone has their own journey.

Well now I'm wondering what's wrong with my 2016 F3 L...... While I don't have ANY experience on 2 wheels, I did ride snowmobiles for decades but don't think that's the difference in this case. I bought my Spyder this spring and while I only have a few months of riding under my belt, I have yet to experience anything like "Slowpoke387" describes. " The F3L (ours anyway) is by far not the most stable bike." and " My comment was to help the op not be as surprised as some of us if they end up with one that grabs and tracks with every rut or crack in the road." :yikes:

I have only experienced a stable, secure ride that allows me to RELAX whether just sitting back enjoying the scenery or kicking it up a bit on winding roads - - and all in total comfort. My F3 is all stock - no added sway bars, shocks or even a laser alignment, (OK - I did add Lamonster Mirrors & Pitbull Highway Pegs) but if it were acting as "Slowpoke387" describes, the sucker would be at the dealership undergoing a thorough shake down.

Oh, come to think about it, I do have one complaint - - how to get this sh*t eatin' grin off my face every time I ride........:riding:

 

[monkeyboymorton]

Still going try the sway bar

Makes a big difference.

I can echo some of your comments, we have a mixture of very good and terrible road surfaces here. The spyder does wander around a lot on poor roads and cambers - as you say it's just down to the 3 wheel design as it makes it very hard to keep all 3 wheels out of ruts, depressions, dips in the road. I have the RT sway bar on my F3 by the way.

However I don't find it diminishes the experience, it's just something I've got used to and now counter almost automatically. I find it's like a performance car with low profile tyres - they feel the same on poor roads and will dart about all over the place.

So I think this debate is a hard one to compare rider to rider unless you ride on the same roads.

 

[blacklightning]

That is the added safety benefit to the Spyder. When cagers say they didn't see you, it's because the 2 wheel bike isn't registering with them as a vehicle because it's two dimensional object. With the spyder and the two wheels up front, that object registers in the mind as 3 dimensional, like a car, truck. I noticed that immediately while riding my new spyder home from the dealer. Don't get me wrong, some will still pull out in front of you.

I must say, I had a guy pull out 4' into the street and stop. If I had been on 2 wheels, i probably would have hit him, or had to swerve to miss him. The added stability and better brakes on my spyder allowed me to stop when my other bikes would not.

 

[NCSpyderGurl]

Well I'm a week out from my last spyder experience and wishin' I had one in the garage to venture out on today. Soon grasshopper .......... I've pretty much decided to hang on to the Harley for now and see how it all goes. We are in Ash, NC which is in Brunswick Co on the coast of NC and just a few miles away from Myrtle Beach, SC. We bought a tiny house in the country with some land for an awesome garden and great back roads. (Although some are not the best - I think the spyder can tackle them with ease) Our house in Wilmington goes up for sale this week and then we will have a single mortgage payment and no cc debt!! So the handwriting is on the wall and I hope to have a white (may do a wrap at some point) F3-T in my possession in the near future. I'm sure I will have a bazillion questions so y'all hang on and help me out.

 

[RussRT]

Keep them both! I have a 2015 RTL and 5 weeks ago I purchased a 2017 Harley Street Glide. Can't justify keeping both. But I am keeping both. Good luck on your d vision!!

 

[rudym]

i ride a 2016 F3T

Be prepared with the F3 to not feel the same as it did on what are probably perfectly flat roads on your demo ride. If your roads at home are crested and have lots of irregularities, the F3 finds and tracks with them all. Mine drifts tremendously with any road banking at all. On flat roads its a dream. Any banking at all however ruins the ride. I too came from years of riding two wheels and everyone is telling me this is how they are and that im trying to make it ride like a motorcycle, which im not. Ive had sleds, quads, etc.
My advice is to take one out onto less than perfect roads and find some roads that are crowned so that you can decide for yourself on real world roads.

I ride a 2016 F3T and it has a sway bar on it and it rides like it is on rails and tracks like a dream regardless of the roads.:yes:

 

[ARtraveler]

Well I'm a week out from my last spyder experience and wishin' I had one in the garage to venture out on today. Soon grasshopper .......... I've pretty much decided to hang on to the Harley for now and see how it all goes. We are in Ash, NC which is in Brunswick Co on the coast of NC and just a few miles away from Myrtle Beach, SC. We bought a tiny house in the country with some land for an awesome garden and great back roads. (Although some are not the best - I think the spyder can tackle them with ease) Our house in Wilmington goes up for sale this week and then we will have a single mortgage payment and no cc debt!! So the handwriting is on the wall and I hope to have a white (may do a wrap at some point) F3-T in my possession in the near future. I'm sure I will have a bazillion questions so y'all hang on and help me out.

We will be looking forward to helping you with your questions. If you have not already, read the thread on Do's and Don'ts. A great and informative read.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...t-Do-s-and-Do-Nots-quot-for-new-Spyder-owners

 

[Slowpoke387]

I ride a 2016 F3T and it has a sway bar on it and it rides like it is on rails and tracks like a dream regardless of the roads.:yes:

Gives me hope lol. Sway bar will be ordered soon. Factory tires still on urs?

 

[ca8920]

F3 Tracking

Be prepared with the F3 to not feel the same as it did on what are probably perfectly flat roads on your demo ride. If your roads at home are crested and have lots of irregularities, the F3 finds and tracks with them all. Mine drifts tremendously with any road banking at all. On flat roads its a dream. Any banking at all however ruins the ride. I too came from years of riding two wheels and everyone is telling me this is how they are and that im trying to make it ride like a motorcycle, which im not. Ive had sleds, quads, etc.
My advice is to take one out onto less than perfect roads and find some roads that are crowned so that you can decide for yourself on real world roads.

Unlike a motorcycle which leans, the F3 doesn't lean but for the best cornering, the rider does... Lean with the corners and you will have a much more enjoyable ride. Also, replace the stock sway bar with a Baja Rons, you will corner much better.

 

[Slowpoke387]

Unlike a motorcycle which leans, the F3 doesn't lean but for the best cornering, the rider does... Lean with the corners and you will have a much more enjoyable ride. Also, replace the stock sway bar with a Baja Rons, you will corner much better.

You are correct but its the straights, not the turns. Go figure lol. We def lean into the corners. If you dont things get weird real fast lol :shocked: We've had quads and sleds and are used to the leaning needed in turns with more than one wheel up front. Sway bar will def be added in the next cpl of weeks. Cant wait for that and different tires. We'll get it dialed in, i have faith. Its fun even as it is :yes:

 

[TRLBLZR1]

THIS:

Oh, come to think about it, I do have one complaint - - how to get this sh*t eatin' grin off my face every time I ride........:riding:

I can't imagine someone with a background in both motorcycles & snowmobiles (and atv's for that matter) to not think favorably after spending a few days on one of the newer F3-S models with drag bars. (Possibly the laser alignment makes a difference too. ~ Mine was aligned by dealer and I'm a believer!)

Have ridden watercraft, atv's snowmobiles (and sport/race bikes) much of my life. (off-road bikes too) When ridden like a "sled", my F3-S reminds me (so closely it's scary) of driving a phenomenally setup high performance snowmobile on a nicely groomed trail. I've been down all sorts of crappy/less than perfect roads (frost heaved roads etc.) ~ Totally stock machine and I'm literally amazed at how it handles. Besides rider style, I suspect drag bars have a huge (beneficial) impact in both how the sled (oops, I mean machine) is driven, and also the balance & feel. If I rode this machine with the notion of replacing a GSXR, I would be disappointed when riding high speed twisties, but that's about it. At sub 70 mph. speeds, I honestly don't see the point of 2 wheels anymore. (Unless there's a pothole etc. lol.) In all seriousness: I can safely drive this machine very aggressively (and still very relaxed) without the fear of getting into trouble (both safety & "speed-wise", fingers crossed & knocking on wood.) Sure, I could drive it quite a bit faster, but the Spyder doesn't require me to do that to have a blast. So I typically do not push posted limits like I used to. ~ To me, that's a win win win situation!

What I like best about my setup (besides handling/being both fun and relaxing to drive is): From my experience (unlike a sport bike), F3's don't bring out a "type-A" mentality and/or provoke one to push their limits just to have fun. Because of this: I'm giving the D-500 model (SE) a fun factor rating of 9+ out of 10.

Disclosure: The other night I actually had a dream I proved everyone wrong and was doing wheelies on my D-500 lol. Truth is: I've never even tried to spin/smoke the rear tire or disabled nanny mode. ~ And I haven't had to even think about "the nanny" because it's never kicked in. (Even so, it's nice to know it's there so I have very little/no desire to disable it.) FWIW, my last serous street bikes (demos) were a GSXR-1100's & a GSXR-750.

PS: Absolutely LOVE the paddle shift. (Was initially worried I had made a mistake not going with a clutch.)

Hope this helps other trying to decide.....

 

[five-0]

Soooo much fun just like my 1200 ski doo when riding down the roads. Do not see how anyone can get in trouble with one just came off the dragons tail a month ago and had the nanny working on every corner except the ones i went over the yellow line love my f-3 t:yes: