Talk to me about reliability

[Bob Denman]

Everyone Have An Incredible Thanksgiving...we all have so much to be thankful for..not the least is my RT and finding all you wonderful folks here at Spyderlovers.com. You have truly made my ownership of Ms Spyder delightful..as a novice I had so many ? and every one was answered and every "fix" worked..batting 1000% ain't bad. So thanks for helping this great grannie enjoy her ryde.:2thumbs:

:agree: We can all find things in our lives to be thankful for, so let's all start remebering them, and dig into the bird and watch too much football together! :shocked: :2thumbs:

 

[GI Jane]

I have enjoyed every minute on my 2008 SE5, almost 15,000 miles. Would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[Oldmanzues]

I had a 08 Spyder with quite a few miles with no problens ever from the M/C. My complaint was the foot position hurt my upper legs. Not that my age (75), height (6'1")or weight ( 230) had anything to do with that. I debated on buying a RT at my age.
Bought it in May, have over 6500 on it right now and love it. Only problem was limp mode a couple times, caused by a very slight "pressur" on brake pedal and "Nanny thinking". BRP rep at SITS told me about it, confirmed problems. Nothing since.
I have given out almost all of the cards from on the RT.
Old Man Zues

 

[rogerb]

11000 miles since June with my first problem. I recently lost my headlights. Don't know what is the cause but dealer told me he would let me know when it slows down in repair shop. I told him I had to have it ready by next April for Spyderfest. He said he will try his best. You have to pressure them to keep them on they're toes. :lecturef_smilie:

 

[bullant12]

Only had mine for a month, but every ride is a blast... so far so good!hyea:

 

[BajaRon]

11000 miles since June with my first problem. I recently lost my headlights. Don't know what is the cause but dealer told me he would let me know when it slows down in repair shop. I told him I had to have it ready by next April for Spyderfest. He said he will try his best. You have to pressure them to keep them on they're toes. :lecturef_smilie:

That's right! Don't cut them any slack! You put it to them and hold them to your time table.

Uhhh.... Did you tell them which year? :yikes:

 

[sealfloorboards]

My 09 RS SE5 will turn 6,000 tomorrow. So far I have not had a single complaint. When I took it in for my second service my dealer said he had the recall part in and took care of it in a couple of hrs. All I have done is add HeliBar extenders, a larger windshield and my Seal FloorBoards. Now I ride in real comfort. Right now I'm in Mexico, riding on cobblestones and dodging potholes. The historic part of Puerto Vallarta insists on cobblestones but much of the rest of the city streets are just fine. I find that standing on my FloorBoards when I go over a speed bump or see a pothole makes a huge difference in my ride and probably saves wear and tear on my bike. I blow the dust off my drive belt and brakes often. It will be interesting to see how a couple of months on these streets affects my baby. I'll know when I get to SpyderFest. So far no problems. I sure get a lot of smiles, waves and thumbs up from my very friendly Mexican neighbors.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my Spyder friends. Eat till you burst, drink in moderation and give thanks for all your gifts.

John
Seal FloorBoards

 

[Sarge707]

Had my 09SE5 Little over a year and 8,000 Miles. Never left me stranded-the one problem ( shifting ) occurred in the driveway.
Dealer drove an hour to pick it up and did deliver back for FREE- BUT since it was a week before the 4th of July it took them 6 weeks to get it back to me?:cus:

BRP needs to spend a lot of Time and $$ on their dealer network service departments!!!!!!!!!nojoke

I would drive it anywhere when I have the $$$ to support the trip.:roflblack:

 

[SpyderWolf]

My 09 SE5 has almost 16,000 miles on it now and no major issues whatsoever. It has never left me stranded anywhere, and I am very thankful for that.

 

[bullant12]

I have about 7k on my RT ac; the only real repair has been the DPS. That was done a few weeks after the recall was announced and only was in the shop for a few hours. I think the quality of the dealer is the most important part of the ownership experience. Thus far I have had good service from Spyder and very good service from my dealer Yamaha of Millington.
:2thumbs:

Good to hear this! Bought mine from David too... real nice and down home feeling! No push was what we really enjoyed. Now to get it serviced after the holidays...:helpsmilie:

 

[Shewhoprays]

I've had my RT for less than a month so it's too early to tell. Plus the fact that winter has arrived in Columbia with 5-6 inches of snow so the RT is put away for the season. RATS!!!

 

[IWN2RYD]

I selected "Pain".. But it is not the entire story. Personally I would have added one more for an option and would have selected it instead...

"Had issues, and after repairs has been perfect" or something like that.

Ours now runs/performs so nicely it is hard to believe this is even the same Spyder. Our Service department is fantastic, and the dealer itself made the trip from "VERY upset" to "Very Happy" an easy one.

These are such a pleasure to ryde on in is hard to explain. hyea:nojoke:yes::bowdown::firstplace:

 

[Bob Denman]

I'm glad to hear that you've got everything working as intended now! :2thumbs:

 

[musicarcade]

:agree:
I have over 14k miles on my :spyder: now and in 2010 it spent 6 MONTHS (yes, SIX) in the shop for basically 3 issues; DPS - this was the majority - 3 months January thru March. During that time I believe anything that has 3 letters involved w/ steering was replaced or repaired - DPS, GPS SAS, etc.
DESS - in shop from june thru July, 2 weeks in Sept. for Paddle shifter issue, 3.5 in November just for my 12K (actually 14K service)

Everyone that I work with thinks my :spyder: is a lemon, except me! I've always felt that there's a great Spyder in there trying to "get right".

(Knock on wood...) It has been running great since September.
The 3.5 weeks in November was service Dept. issues...:gaah:

I hope the service network increases and improves in 2011 as I am planning a cross country trip myself.:doorag:

 

[Boriken]

2009 GS/RS SM5 :spyder2: Phantom, 4,200 miles of flawless ryding. Other than oil changes and DPS recall it has been in the shop a total one half hour to reset self induced failure codes. Love my :spyder2: :yes::yes::yes:. Will not ride anything else.

 

[Bob Denman]

:clap: :2thumbs::agree:

 

[patIreland]

no problems just keeps getting better changed rear tire myself @12,000 miles no problem.my nearest dealer is about 400 miles away + a ferry trip across the irish sea :2thumbs:

 

[Raptor]

I voted "Eh, a few but don't they all?"

The RS-S had 3 bouts of no-start issues. One was 65 miles fro home. Turned out to be a gear position issue. One was at home and the dealer actually came to the house and repaired it. I was pretty impressed by that! The third was at a gas station. But I was able to fix that one myself also (blown fuse). Had a bad clutch and a DPS issue as well. But that was early on and she has been great since.

14 has been very good. Almost lost my cowl on the freeway because the cheezy rubbers that secure it just snapped. Fixed that one myself thanks to a fellow Spyderlover's post showing a better way to secure it. License plate lens fell off so I had to get another one. Other little fit and finish issues but all have been resolved. Mechanically it's been very good. :2thumbs:

At this point both Spyders are running great and we are enjoying them very much.

 

[Frig]

My 08' Spyder has almost 12,000 miles and no problems. Just dealer issues. Not looking forward to the 12,000 mi service and steering recall. I just know they will screw something up and take 3 weeks to fix it just like the 6,000 mi service. But the bike is awesome!!!!!!

 

[Lunar Rover]

I know vehicle forums tend to give false impressions of product unreliability, simply because many more people log in to ask questions about issues than shouting praise... the "no news is good news" syndrome that often leaves forums a bit one-sided.

With that in mind, what would you tell a prospective Spyder owner? Overall, how reliable are these machines?

~SM

I would say that the fun and joy far outweighs any potential issues you may run into. My wife and I have been happy Spyder owners since February 2008 and after 30,000 miles we've only had one issue that we didn't bring upon ourselves which was the failure of the DESS, the Digitally Encoded Security System. Our DESS failed causing the system to think we were trying to start the Spyder with a different key which in a manner of speaking is exactly what it's supposed to do except in our case we had the right key.

As for problems brought upon ourselves, here's our worst example:

Battery: When we bought our (first) Spyder we were still new to the whole motorcycle thing and didn't realize that they DO NOT have alternators to charge the battery. If you didn't know, MC's have a device called a magneto that depends on RPMs to work. If you upshift to higher gears too soon to optimize MPG you're going to pay the price with a new battery sooner than normal because higher RPM (above 4500 I believe) is what charges the battery.

We've had no other debilitating problems that wouldn't come up with any other vehicle and we now have two Spyder's to show for it. We have a combined nearly 36,000 miles and the first one has been in 16 states while the second one has been in 3.

The last thing I'd like to talk about is the DPS, Dynamic Power Steering. This has been a problem with some Spyder's but not all. Regardless, the manufacturer has tirelessly worked since the first reports of problems to fix it properly and they've done it. Furthermore, they've recalled every unit regardless of warranty status to have them fixed on their dollar.

It's been a wonderful ride so far and I wouldn't change any of it.

Good luck!

:spyder2: