That's a car payment - which would be fine if you plan on using your Spyder as your only vehicle. Assuming you finance it through BRP (at a 6% APR), you're looking at a monthly payment of $289.97. The Can-Am website allows you to "build" your Spyder and gives you the price as well as the projected payments. The cheapest model, a base RS, starts at $14,999. Dollar-wise, there's no "entry-level" Spyder. Part of the problem - maybe the biggest - is BRP's pricing. This speaks to a larger problem that Bombardier Recreational Products faces - while sales have presumably been good enough to keep Spyders rolling off assembly lines for going on eight years now, there still doesn't seem to be a whole lot of widespread interest in the Spyder, among riders and non-riders alike. A couple of the riders grabbed literature and business cards on the way out.īut the low number of test riders was a bit of a surprise to me, and I'd guess a disappointment to the Can-Am team. I’ll get to why that matters in a second.) Whatever preconceived notions they might have had about the Spyder, they all clearly enjoyed their time on the trike. There were five other riders in my test ride group, and based on what I overheard they represented a mixed bag of experience two veteran riders, two with a year or so of experience, and one who’d never thrown a leg over a bike. It gives you the same wind-in-your-face experience as a motorcycle but with a vastly shorter learning curve – and a much lower risk factor. I also have wide feet, and found myself fighting for foot space on the right peg.īut the adjustment period was relatively short – and when my test ride was over I found myself enamored with the Spyder. And just using my right foot to brake took some getting used to as well I found the brake pedal to be a bit touchy, causing some jerky stops. Keeping myself on the Spyder through corners took a bit of concentration. There’s no question that the Can-Am Spyder is a stable beast – the two front wheels and all that weight keep the trike (yes, trike - "three wheels", literally etymologists will back me on this) on the road through corners. Even going into turns at 40 mph, I felt gravity’s grip – the G’s yank you away from the direction you’re steering, as they do when you’re driving a car. My test ride - on the new Spyder F3 model - took me down surface streets and onto the 15 freeway there wasn’t much opportunity to fully explore the Spyder’s high-speed capabilities, as my ride took place right during San Diego’s rush hour. The sensation going through turns is that of being pulled, and holding on tight – sometimes, it seemed, for dear life. A motorcycle moves with you, and you with it you lean into turns, your hands and feet are both in play when you brake, and you feel the engine right underneath you. Even with my admittedly limited motorcycle riding experience, I immediately felt what I can only describe as a lack of oneness with the Spyder. I use the term “operating” because that’s what it felt like. Still, operating the Spyder really isn’t like riding a bike. It is, in the fact that just like on a bike, there are quite a few more ways you can be injured or killed riding a Spyder than there are if you’re in a car. It isn’t, in the fact that it steers very much like the snowmobiles and quads I used to ride as a teenager. “Riding the Can-Am Spyder,” warned both the pre-ride instructional video and the Can-Am rep, “is NOT like riding a motorcycle.” Well, it is and it isn’t. Motorcycles could be an option as we’ve done in the past.READ MORE: Tire Roasting Roadster: The 2015 Can-Am Spyder F3 A spokesperson for BRP, Sylvain Morissette explained: “We are in an ongoing process of evaluating the market, looking at different possibilities, trends. The potentially game changing concept was first reported by the Montreal Gazette, who mentioned that BRP were currently evaluating the potential of a transition into the two wheeled department. The idea seemed to fizzle out, however, but now it seems like the two wheeled flame has been re-ignited. Back when the company was known as Bombardier, they built and sold some respectable two stroke 175cc motocross machines that were met with positive reviews. They’ve done it before, but that was back in the 1970s. Will BRP Enter The Two-Wheeled Motorcycle Arena?Īccording to a recent report from Canada, it seems like Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP for short), the owners of Can-Am, are considering making a move into the two wheeled motorcycle department in the form or a BRP motorcycle.
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