Yep, Honda makes a great two wheeled motorcycle. They have been making them for 69 years, they have encountered a lot of problems over that time and have been building them long enough to work out most of the kinks.
Now on the other hand BRP has been building the Spyder for 11 years and has no other trikes of its kind to follow or pattern itself after. In other words, all new technology.
In 11 years they have made lots of changes in what they are doing, but they are not there yet. In 1982 Honda produced almost 3 million motorcycles that year alone, that has now dropped to less 550,000.
In 2015 Can Am delivered its 100,000 Spyder, yes they are learning, yes each year gets a little better, the 1330 is no comparison to the 998 in maintenance cost.
My 1986 Yamaha Venture ran circles around the 1100-1500 gold wing and I thought was far superior to the wing of its day.
So why was and is Honda still successfully selling motorcycles when it was outclassed by the Venture for a few years, and the venture is no where the top of the line it used to be?
I think a lot of it is brand loyalty. I have friends that have had many problems with the Honda's they have owned over the years, but they still brag it up and buy another one. Its the same way with Harley Davidson, they have had more than their share of problems over the years, and because of brand loyalty, people still swear by them and keep buying them.
This is the only forum I have seen where so many people complain so much and want to abandon ship when they don't even know if something better is out there. They assume that if Honda made it, it would be awesome, and in the meantime trash what we have to the point that if a new rider was looking at one of these, they would have second thoughts and run from it.
So is the consequences of all the bad mouthing and complaining? More dealers won't sell them, more people won't by them, this makes less of them being built, this is less income for the brand, and yes pretty soon it is gone.
Honda and Harley didn't start out with the dealer network they have, or the quality of bike they have overnight. It took both companies years to develop that to achieve the brand loyalty they have, so don't expect the Spyder to have that network and quality overnight.
No my spyder is not perfect, but I have put more miles on it in 3 years than I have any other motorcycle I have ever owned. Its a riot to ride!