What Canada is teaching me about Spyder design

[Bob Denman]

Damn autocorrect!

That guy "Otto Czech": gets a lot of us into trouble! :banghead:

 

[UtahPete]

No surprise...lots of Spyders in Quebec!

I'd estimate over a third of the vehicles we encounter are motorcycles and probably close to half of those are Spyders. Great to see!

 

[bcer960]

We're towing our Scamp with the Xterra through Canada (1800 miles so far) and the roads are 'interesting. This is what I have deduced thus far.....

1. The Can-Am engineers don't know about drive belt vibration because that starts at 65 mph and the top legal speed here is 100 kph (60 mph) on the superhighways only, of which they seem to have only 3 of about 100 km each around the three major cities of Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec. All the rest are 55 mph or less, including the 2 lane, no median, no shoulder trans-Canadian highway 17 ...... all the way through Ontario nojoke
2. Spyders aren't aligned at the factory because that would be a waste of money. Except for the above-mentioned 300 km of superhighway, all the other roads are basically secondary farm roads that apparently are left to the locals for maintenance. Farm tractors towing combines and the occasional logging trucks have no problem with the off-camber, pitching, rutted, pot-holed roads apparently so there's little incentive to fix them. Besides, they're only good for driving on 3 months of summer; after that they're turned over to snowmobiles and dog sled teams I think. So, back to my point, laser alignment isn't really necessary for riding most Canadian roads, particularly at the average top speed of 40 mph, and if you go any faster you'll wreck the alignment anyway.
3. Spyders have great brakes because, whenever you get on a good head of speed (90kph) you will inevitably have to very quickly scrub that speed for; a. A 4 way stop in the middle of a corn-field, b. A work crew in the middle of nowhere that has shut down one of the only 2 lanes for road repairs or c. A section of road that has been torn down to the road base with a sharp 4" transition from pavement to gravel and back again with little to no warning.
4. Spyders have long travel front suspensions for when they get launched off a particularly nasty frost heave, and sticky front tires for when they land again on the aforementioned rutted, off-camber road.
5. 9000 miles on a Kenda rear tire is actually not bad, considering that in the 3 months of riding season you really can't get very far in Canada anyway.

Joking aside, we love it here in Quebec, although we have had to drastically reassess how far we can realistically travel in a day! This ain't the American Southwest, for sure :thumbup:

Well being from the other side of Canada, I found this to be quite amusing, truthful.... but amusing. Although I get a 6 month riding season......

 

[jaherbst]

Canadian bacon is an american thing.

Not nessacerily (sic) so. They have a special breed of pig there called the "Canadian Pig". It is huge and can jump tall buildings. You can slice bacon off of it and it will

regrow the "Canadian Bacon" in several days. This is one phenomenal pig.

​I am sending one to Bob for his Birthday.

Jack

 

[easysuper]

We're towing our Scamp with the Xterra through Canada (1800 miles so far) and the roads are 'interesting. This is what I have deduced thus far.....

1. The Can-Am engineers don't know about drive belt vibration because that starts at 65 mph and the top legal speed here is 100 kph (60 mph) on the superhighways only, of which they seem to have only 3 of about 100 km each around the three major cities of Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec. All the rest are 55 mph or less, including the 2 lane, no median, no shoulder trans-Canadian highway 17 ...... all the way through Ontario nojoke
2. Spyders aren't aligned at the factory because that would be a waste of money. Except for the above-mentioned 300 km of superhighway, all the other roads are basically secondary farm roads that apparently are left to the locals for maintenance. Farm tractors towing combines and the occasional logging trucks have no problem with the off-camber, pitching, rutted, pot-holed roads apparently so there's little incentive to fix them. Besides, they're only good for driving on 3 months of summer; after that they're turned over to snowmobiles and dog sled teams I think. So, back to my point, laser alignment isn't really necessary for riding most Canadian roads, particularly at the average top speed of 40 mph, and if you go any faster you'll wreck the alignment anyway.
3. Spyders have great brakes because, whenever you get on a good head of speed (90kph) you will inevitably have to very quickly scrub that speed for; a. A 4 way stop in the middle of a corn-field, b. A work crew in the middle of nowhere that has shut down one of the only 2 lanes for road repairs or c. A section of road that has been torn down to the road base with a sharp 4" transition from pavement to gravel and back again with little to no warning.
4. Spyders have long travel front suspensions for when they get launched off a particularly nasty frost heave, and sticky front tires for when they land again on the aforementioned rutted, off-camber road.
5. 9000 miles on a Kenda rear tire is actually not bad, considering that in the 3 months of riding season you really can't get very far in Canada anyway.

Joking aside, we love it here in Quebec, although we have had to drastically reassess how far we can realistically travel in a day! This ain't the American Southwest, for sure :thumbup:

Guess that rules out our little camper for a cross country trip thru Canada. Think We'll just stick with the Spyders and pop up tent trailer !

 

[Road-Kill]

Canadian Bacon

I hate Canada.
They sell gas by the liter.....who does that?
Their money looks fake.
They're unusually friendly.....like in the USA just before they rob you.
Their hotels have french speaking only channels....a clear sign of trouble.
They're signs are in kilometers which screams ....ACCIDENTS.
We should have won the war of 2012!........or was it 1812?

 

[bcer960]

They sell gas by the liter.....who does that? The rest of the world

Their money looks fake. Who's doesn't

They're unusually friendly.....like in the USA just before they rob you.

Their hotels have french speaking only channels....a clear sign of trouble. Your's have Spanish

They're signs are in kilometers which screams ....ACCIDENTS. Only mileage and speed signs, the rest are English, just like yours. (Edit (well on except Quebec))

We should have won the war of 2012!........or was it 1812? Well, in 1812, you weren't fighting Canada, you were fighting England.


And, yes, this is all in fun.....:cheers:

 

[Netminder]

I think the original post was a pretty accurate description of our roads!!nojoke Scenery is amazing though. Enjoy your trip!:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[ARtraveler]

I have to agree with what has been said about the roads in Canada.

Two trips of note.

1997: Sault Ste Marie MI to Nova Scotia and back. That was a honeymoon trip. Fond memories but we parted in 2010.

2001: North Dakota border checkpoint to Anchorage AK--(via the Alcan Highway). When we moved from WI to AK.

Guess I can say we covered Canada from East to West.

Asked a policeman for directions in Quebec to get into the "Old City." He claimed he did not know a word of English. Only French. We were left to our own devices that time. :roflblack::roflblack:

 

[UtahPete]

Guess that rules out our little camper for a cross country trip thru Canada. Think We'll just stick with the Spyders and pop up tent trailer !

That would be a lot cheaper on fuel and way more fun. It's easy to boondock out here. nojoke

 

[Netminder]

I have to agree with what has been said about the roads in Canada.

Two trips of note.

1997: Sault Ste Marie MI to Nova Scotia and back. That was a honeymoon trip. Fond memories but we parted in 2010.

2001: North Dakota border checkpoint to Anchorage AK--(via the Alcan Highway). When we moved from WI to AK.

Guess I can say we covered Canada from East to West.

Asked a policeman for directions in Quebec to get into the "Old City." He claimed he did not know a word of English. Only French. We were left to our own devices that time. :roflblack::roflblack:

Does not surprise me Akspyderman the cops in Quebec, do not try to hard to speak English. Which in my opinion they should!