Spyder Ride

[OX-34]

I recently bought a 2010 Can-Am Spyder RT for TigerBill and I to ride on the 20th Anniversary 50CC in August. After mucking about with a few mods we took it for a two-up ride. I didn't like the handling and doubted that back to back 20 hour days for a 50CC/100CCC would be much fun.

So I bought a Goldwing instead and we rode that to the IBA Muster in Naracoorte with no problems. Its a Goldwing...

During a subsequent ride we discovered that the rear shock was shot. Bleeding oil shot. I had stupidly blamed the 3 wheeler for having weird ride characteristics when the poor thing had a blown rear end. A new shock was fitted this week. The steering is still weird, but with no more boinga boinga.

I thought I might as well take it for a day ride:

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/ec51-18363c0-9191/view

 

[Roadbandit]

The Spyder is a weird looking bike, with weird characteristics (as you've found) thats weirdly interesting to ride. Enjoy!

 

[OX-34]

 

[HACKLE]

Trying times no doubt. Looks like it's in limp home mode. Oh how we love 100 mph tape, the ultimate motorcyclists friend.

 

[OX-34]

Plus a half dozen zippy ties filling the lumen

 

[Skidoo]

Following repair she will feel brand new and hopefully ride as well for you guys.
Nice repair job.

 

[OX-34]

The roads out here are terrible but with the new rear shock on the Spyder I'm having a ball. Warm and dry and not much traffic

 

[Biggles]

There are late model Spyders with fancy suspensions that I've been told handle better.
I still can't cope with a machine that masquerades as a motorcycle with front wheels that don't lean in corners.

 

[OX-34]

TigerBill and I fitted a sportier/fancy sway bar that helped.
Handling is fine now. The weird steering becomes second nature soon enough.

After 63 two wheelers I can't say I'm a convert with just this Can-Am, but I'm adaptable and enjoyed the different experience.

 

[tj189]

Great welding job Peter,

 

[Shawn K]

The Spyder is a weird looking bike, with weird characteristics (as you've found) thats weirdly interesting to ride. Enjoy!

The very first year that they hit the market, I remember the collective motorsports press scratching their heads and wondering, "What the heck is it? What do we do with it?"

Being from Michigan originally, I looked at it and immediately realized, "It's a snowmobile with wheels." Made perfect sense to me - I'd wondered ever since I was a kid why no one ever bothered to put wheels on a snowmobile and ride it in the summer.

I'd jump on a Spyder in a skinny minute and ride the hell out of it, if one were ever presented to me.

Servicing it, though? Noooo thanks. They are a certifiable Pain In The Arse to do any kind of service work to. They make my Gold Wing look positively simple in comparison.

 

[Shawn K]

There are late model Spyders with fancy suspensions that I've been told handle better.
I still can't cope with a machine that masquerades as a motorcycle with front wheels that don't lean in corners.

It's only because you've never ridden a snowmobile, Biggles. If you and Algy had spent a winter in Canada, it would make more sense.

 

[Fatman]

That tape must be as strong as the Blues Brothers glue on the accelerator pedal... "Strong Stuff"!

 

[Gatey]

Well done on the fix. Lots of people would have called roadside assist.

 

[OX-34]

Thanks for your PM input too, Gatey.

I posted those pics via phone from the side of the road yesterday, hence the duplicates as I had never done that before. Under a tree near Molong.

Initially a few cut zippy ties poked into the hole to stop fracture translocation with the tape to stop the ends bouncing apart. On the road the Spyder rider gets full view of the bits and I could it still flexed a bit when I hit any of the million potholes and dodgy repairs out there. So I stopped in Wellington and placed a few Allen keys along the long axis across the fractureand taped and zippy tied them in place.

It worked fine and does not angulate but there is still some rotation as the fractured part lies at 45 degrees to the vertical and the mass of the mudguard is outboard of the stays. Maybe 10mm of movement at the guard, well clear of the tyre.

Riding along I had the thought that I had about $10K worth of Ilizarov* external fixator bit in my storage unit that burned down a year ago . That would have worked a treat .

The broken one is the right front side of the trike, the other pic iof the left side is for comparison.










* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilizarov_apparatus

 

[tabledrain]

Roadside repairs....ingenuity...duct tape.. aakhhhh.. some of my favourite words.
Well done Pete...

 

[Biggles]

"to stop fracture translocation" and "does not angulate but there is still some rotation as the fractured part lies at 45 degrees to the vertical". The finest surgery performed outside an operating theatre!

 

[Ed.]

While tubeless tyres have made most puncture repairs much easier, they have meant that carrying tyre levers - which would have been perfect for this repair- is much less likely.

Good job though. At first I thought it was one of the suspension linkages and I was super impressed. But the latter photos look like a mud guard mount or similar, is that correct?

 

[OX-34]

..... and I was super impressed. But the latter photos look like a mud guard mount or similar, is that correct?

Yes Ed, it is a much less impressive fix of the mudguard mount.

 

[Tele]

Best wishes to both you and Tiger Bill for your adventures on this beast. Not my cup of tea, but I see plenty of them cruising the foreshore down here at Warners Bay. Each to their own. Great work on the running repairs. Those cable ties look a simple bit of kit, but I always find myself thinking what a damn clever invention they are. Given all the technology out there, when you need a cable tie there is not much else that can quite do the job.