Can-Am Spyder

I'm off to ride one on a two hour test ride today. I'll post my thoughts about
it afterwards. Hoping not to try and tip it into the first corner or wheelie
it.

 

Just got back. Pretty unimpressed. You don't countersteer it like a bike so
it feels really wierd. You actually have to do the opposite. Car drivers
would be better off moving to one than bike riders. No right handlebar brake.
Just a footbrake. It was pissing rain so got a chance to give the traction
control a test. It breaks traction easily with the car like tyre on the back.
It wasn't particularly fast for 1000, or even for a 250. Most bikes would
leave it for dead. At the end of the day the only reason you would buy one
would be if your missus absolutely forbade you having a bike. Worst bit was
the 30k price tag.

Fraser

 

It's a fuckin' snowmobile with wheels.

 

Yep. And it rides kinda like a quad bike. Engine note was quite nice.

Fraser

 

wasnt it Nev that said it was all the bad things of a bike and the bad
things of a car rolled into one?

mh

 

wasnt it Nev that said it was all the bad things of a bike and the bad
things of a car rolled into one?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Not a bad description. Everyone selling it winced when I mentioned lane
splitting.

Fraser

 

That's a very good description.

Theo

 

They're a couple of metres wide. Why would you even think about lane
splitting?
Funny you should be critical about the speed/acceleration, when only a
few days ago you were criticizing the current crop of litre sportsbikes
being too fast and/or boring to ride. The Spyder sounds slow and
exciting! Buy one.

Nev..
'08 DL1000K8

 

Nev.. wrote:

Aye, maybe to Fraser the Spyder is too slow and boring, but I thought
the one I tried was quite fast, and positively scary!

The front wheels seem to be affected by road camber, and, drifting down
camber towards a four inch high kerb, while still accelerating quite
hard in fourth wasn't at all boring.
Especially when the steering isn't "intuitive".

regards,
CrazyCam

 

You obviously have poor comprehension skills. What I said was the focus you
need to ride a modern litre sportsbike means you don't have as much fun on them
as something where you can twist the throttle with impunity.

The can-am is waaaaay too wide to lanesplit on. Hence my comment. Their
standard comeback is it is for enjoying on country roads.

Fraser

 

I agree. Off camber corners on the thing while leaning the opposite way to the
way you would on a bike are positively terrifying. It just felt wrong.

Fraser

 

I rode the Aunty Jack's sidecar unit from Sydney to Wollongong in the
80s and hated it. Fucking awful thing. Then another XJ900 sidecar
outfit a couple of years later and still hated it. Lean angles are
wrong.

But in the late 90s a mate gave me access to a Polaris 600 quad. He
had two of them and he was a gun on it. I wasn't going to let him get
away from me so learned to forget anything about it being a motorbike
and not a car either. Had to stand up on the thing and haul it into
corners. We had access to heaps of land up in the highlands of
Tasmania and I got into the mode of leaning out rather than in. Once
I'd done that brain switch, I had a fuckin ball. These things were
capable of 140 km/h and in nasty dirt stuff (not roads, real off-road
shit) were a great adrenalin rush.

But to go back to the Spyder, I still reckon it would be a shit of a
thing on main roads. Get a car dude.

 

Why would you comment on the lanesplitting ability of something way to
wide to lanesplit on? *boggle*

Nev..
'08 DL1000K8