still another bad rear shock

[Coolbreeze]

Got my 5 spd rt back today after it spent two weeks in the shop waiting for BRP to send the dealer a rear shock. I don't feel too bad about it. I expected something to go wrong after reading about the nightmares others are facing. What really ticked me off though was that while my bike sat in the shop BRP sent me a package, which included among other things, small cards/brochures that they want me to hand out to people who might be interested in their bikes. I think they should have taken the money they spent on this promotion and sent my shock overnight express (which they finally had to do after ten days) and I could then tell people that, yes, the shock broke but BRP responded promptly and replaced it. If someone asks I'll tell them what I think about the Spyder, yes it's a great ride but expect some problems, play it safe for now and buy the 5 spd and hope that BRP can not only fix the problems with the rt but can get it's customer service upgraded. They had better do something fast because if a company like Honda decides to built one of these the Spyder will become extinct almost overnight.

 

[widowmaker2011]

Got my 5 spd rt back today after it spent two weeks in the shop waiting for BRP to send the dealer a rear shock. I don't feel too bad about it. I expected something to go wrong after reading about the nightmares others are facing. What really ticked me off though was that while my bike sat in the shop BRP sent me a package, which included among other things, small cards/brochures that they want me to hand out to people who might be interested in their bikes. I think they should have taken the money they spent on this promotion and sent my shock overnight express (which they finally had to do after ten days) and I could then tell people that, yes, the shock broke but BRP responded promptly and replaced it. If someone asks I'll tell them what I think about the Spyder, yes it's a great ride but expect some problems, play it safe for now and buy the 5 spd and hope that BRP can not only fix the problems with the rt but can get it's customer service upgraded. They had better do something fast because if a company like Honda decides to built one of these the Spyder will become extinct almost overnight.

Some one is telling you a story I think. The lowest inventory I have seen on the rear shock on BRP's ordering system is a quantity of (7). I have had to have one replaced and I know several others at my dealer also. From what I have seen on the BRP ordering system they have never been *out* of rear shocks. The ones I have been involved with arrived in 2 days and I have not seen any back orders on these part numbers (unlike the clutch parts). I'm only guessing BRP was made the scapegoat by the dealer as an excuse why it wasn't done for 2 weeks as this is a busy time of year for all powersport shops. The actual repair is about 30 minutes and unless your dealer is getting his parts from indonesia :yikes: , there have been no delays on these. The average order to receipt days on an in stock part (which these are) is 3 days. Not saying BRP is perfect but I sincerely doubt they were the cause of the 2 week downtime. On a side not , with the air pressure set up slightly higher than normal , there is no reason not to ride you RT while waiting for a rear shock, as the handling is not reduced horribly and lastly after a 25k purchase you'd think they would grab a shock off a stock unit for you and send you down the road in an hour... :dontknow:

 

[bodymanpainter]

Got my 5 spd rt back today after it spent two weeks in the shop waiting for BRP to send the dealer a rear shock. I don't feel too bad about it. I expected something to go wrong after reading about the nightmares others are facing. What really ticked me off though was that while my bike sat in the shop BRP sent me a package, which included among other things, small cards/brochures that they want me to hand out to people who might be interested in their bikes. I think they should have taken the money they spent on this promotion and sent my shock overnight express (which they finally had to do after ten days) and I could then tell people that, yes, the shock broke but BRP responded promptly and replaced it. If someone asks I'll tell them what I think about the Spyder, yes it's a great ride but expect some problems, play it safe for now and buy the 5 spd and hope that BRP can not only fix the problems with the rt but can get it's customer service upgraded. They had better do something fast because if a company like Honda decides to built one of these the Spyder will become extinct almost overnight.

:agree: My RTS sat in the shop almost two weeks waiting for the new and improved rear shock. Sure hope it works for the new owner as I no longer own it. Just got tried of all the issues and down time. But I will keep watching this forum and Spydertalk.com and when BRP can (and I think they will) make the RTS a dependable road machine I will buy another one.:2thumbs:

 

[Coolbreeze]

rear shock

I thought you could be right abut the dealer making BRP the scapegoat until another post mentioned that they too had to wait for two weeks for a shock. I e-mailed Carlo twice for help with no reply but then found out he was out of the office. It would be very interesting to see a timeline on the order of this part to see just what happened. When the dealer told me that they were seizing my machine because it was extremely unsafe with a defective rear shock I was on my way to see my attorney. But after I calmed down and thought about it, I have a two car garage/ woodworking shop and was in the process of converting about a quarter of if for my grandson and his friends to use as a hangout. So, the "seizure" came at a good time for me so I just thought of the incident as free storage for a couple of weeks. Any other time and I would have handled it differently. I'm not thrilled about my dealer but they are few and far between so you don't get a choice. I was wondering, do you have to go to the dealer where you made the purchase for warranty work or could you go somewhere else? Any other work is done for me at a local motorcycle shop that has been working on my Gold Wings for years.

 

[IWN2RYD]

Some one is telling you a story I think. The lowest inventory I have seen on the rear shock on BRP's ordering system is a quantity of (7). I have had to have one replaced and I know several others at my dealer also. From what I have seen on the BRP ordering system they have never been *out* of rear shocks. The ones I have been involved with arrived in 2 days and I have not seen any back orders on these part numbers (unlike the clutch parts). I'm only guessing BRP was made the scapegoat by the dealer as an excuse why it wasn't done for 2 weeks as this is a busy time of year for all powersport shops. The actual repair is about 30 minutes and unless your dealer is getting his parts from indonesia :yikes: , there have been no delays on these. The average order to receipt days on an in stock part (which these are) is 3 days. Not saying BRP is perfect but I sincerely doubt they were the cause of the 2 week downtime. On a side not , with the air pressure set up slightly higher than normal , there is no reason not to ride you RT while waiting for a rear shock, as the handling is not reduced horribly and lastly after a 25k purchase you'd think they would grab a shock off a stock unit for you and send you down the road in an hour... :dontknow:

Gonna have to disagree a little bit here. I have been waiting for three weeks , starting #4 for on little kit for the entire shock system. My wife and I are being told by our dealer that they want to (Per BRP I understand) to replace the entire shock system so they do not replace the shock, to only have it fail later do to another possible part failure... Yes the shocks are in most of the time, but I guess this small kit is scarce. :dontknow:

Of course I am just an owner wanting to believe we all will be happy and are not being told a line. One thing is certainly clear. The Spyder engine is one seriously kick A$$ unit and it was the only part I was originally concerned about (Being a de-tuned racing engine).

It is sad that such inexpensive parts are causing such a negative impact on a few to many of us. I sure hope BRP gets us and all the other units up to snuff and quick. It is far more fun to talk to folks bout the ingenuity and ryding experience of these bikes, than not...

 

[widowmaker2011]

Gonna have to disagree a little bit here. I have been waiting for three weeks , starting #4 for on little kit for the entire shock system. My wife and I are being told by our dealer that they want to (Per BRP I understand) to replace the entire shock system so they do not replace the shock, to only have it fail later do to another possible part failure... Yes the shocks are in most of the time, but I guess this small kit is scarce. :dontknow:

Of course I am just an owner wanting to believe we all will be happy and are not being told a line. One thing is certainly clear. The Spyder engine is one seriously kick A$$ unit and it was the only part I was originally concerned about (Being a de-tuned racing engine).

It is sad that such inexpensive parts are causing such a negative impact on a few to many of us. I sure hope BRP gets us and all the other units up to snuff and quick. It is far more fun to talk to folks bout the ingenuity and ryding experience of these bikes, than not...

Well , we may be talking about 2 different things. There is a standard shock that is mounted on the swing arm just as on the RS. (metal spring , internal hydraulic type dampening). In front of that is a secondary air bladder shock which is a completely seperate system and only adds to the load capacity and does not control rebound at all. To further the confusion there have been sporadic failures of 1) the standard shock (which is what I was speaking of) and also 2) some have had issues with the air suspension portion where the system will not hold air or bleeds air off overnite.
So if you have an air system issue , you are probably correct on waiting for parts. However if your shock has failed (appears 100% of the shock failures are the internal dampening hydraulic circuit fails , causing the shock to bounce back up after compression , versus a slow , controlled rebound), these parts appear to be in plentiful supply. Hope this clears this up a bit. :doorag:

 

[Longlegs]

While I was at the Chicago event, one of the BRP techs was explaining the root cause of the air shock failures. There is a little lever linkage that tells it what the ride height is. And that lever gets bent (either in crating, shipping, or un crating) which causes the shock to be over inflated, then the air bladder gets a hole rubbed in it so it goes flat. He was stressing to the guy who had several shock failures, that his dealer really needs to call the tech line for the solution (resetting that ride height lever).

 

[Coolbreeze]

rear shock

Instead of relying on the dealer to call BRP why don't they just put a big yellow sticker with directions on the shock so when the tech opens the box he can see what he needs to do? Is it any more complicated than that? But maybe we're expecting too much from a motorcycle company that holds a rally in Sha Cargo.

 

[IWN2RYD]

Well , we may be talking about 2 different things. There is a standard shock that is mounted on the swing arm just as on the RS. (metal spring , internal hydraulic type dampening). In front of that is a secondary air bladder shock which is a completely seperate system and only adds to the load capacity and does not control rebound at all. To further the confusion there have been sporadic failures of 1) the standard shock (which is what I was speaking of) and also 2) some have had issues with the air suspension portion where the system will not hold air or bleeds air off overnite.
So if you have an air system issue , you are probably correct on waiting for parts. However if your shock has failed (appears 100% of the shock failures are the internal dampening hydraulic circuit fails , causing the shock to bounce back up after compression , versus a slow , controlled rebound), these parts appear to be in plentiful supply. Hope this clears this up a bit. :doorag:

No worries man :thumbup: Great info to get thank you.

I just know from my personal experience that the shock showed up right quick, and the "Kit" (Whatever that is) is still MIA. I for one am pleased that our Dealer refuses to do the potential "Band-aid" by just putting the shock in and sending me on my way hoping it works. Evidently they have already had this happen once before, and that client ended up needing a second shock about 600 miles later... So they are going at this with BRP as if it was a recall by ordering what I am told BRP calls the complete kit.

I do understand the "Bag" is not the shock. But it is a part of the suspension system as a whole. In our situation we noticed the rear-end was weak every morning and we had the "Wham" of the topping out a week later.

Not sure if it is a part of the "Bag" or the suspension at all for that matter, but we can hear what sounds like an air-pump working almost all of the time as well :dontknow:.