Do they make a wooshing sound?
Even the lower end 600cc sport bikes will shatter that 0-60 time of 4 seconds.
A bit of a tangent, but we were on a long drive today and saw a lot of riders out for some air.
What strikes me about the taste in bikes around here is that most are bigger than the first few cars I owned. One popped the lid on their center cargo box and I know it was bigger than the trunk on most sports cars.
I can’t really figure out the appeal of such massive bikes. By the time you’re up to that kind of weight, cushiness and cargo capacity… wouldn’t something like a Miata make a lot more sense all around? Things like the model under discussion, even more so…
It depends on where people fine the appeal of motorcycle riding - not everyone wants some quick nimble rocket, and there’s a broad spectrum of types of bikes. There’s still a large gap between the touring bike and a 2-seat roadster, and the Can Am mentioned helps fill that gap. Even bikes that are comparatively slow offer performance well ahead of a Miata, and you can get a lot of bike for what the Mazda goes for.
But on a Can Am you do it without having to fold yourself up. 
You may be onto something there. I’ve got a 1970s Honda that had perfectly acceptable performance for its time and it’s pretty much a chair on two wheels - leg angle is 90-degree, no lean to reach the handle bars.
I’ve also got a 6 year old Honda CBR600, with a 73-degree leg angle and 42-degree lean, because the bike companies decided if you like something fast and agile you want to perch on the bike like… some perchy thing. There are bikes less extreme - after all, I knew the RR stood for Race Replica - but not a lot less.
I can see the appeal of something with similar performance but more comfort like the Can Am, even though I’d prefer 2 wheels.
I was in the motorcycle business for many years, and got out before these things came into the market. When I first heard about them, I thought they were a classic example of a “Solution in search of a problem”…
…but with my limited knowledge of the snowmobile market, and the company behind “Can-Am”, this makes perfect sense. This actually occurred to me a few years ago, but I concur.
Sadly, it seems to have spilled over to “other markets” (meaning ‘people who have no business on the roads outside of a fucking cage, if even that’)
In case you haven’t guessed, I don’t like them. But, that said, I wish I was selling them.
Not really. The MSRP of a good touring bike like a Goldwing and a Miata are virtually the same, around $21k. It looks like with the Can AM, they start at $17k, but there’s sub-models that are well into and past Miata money. I’m not sure exactly what the difference between the $17k Can Am and the $28k one is, though.
Of course, the Miata also gets better gas mileage and is going to be overall much cheaper to run.
On their respective sites, I’m seeing the base Goldwing F6B at $20k and the base MX-5 at $23,720. Not as big a gap as I thought, but not the same either; the Honda is listed at 34mpg while Miata’s hwy rating is 28. And Honda has cheaper cruisers/tourers - the Interstate is $13k and gets 46mpg. I don’t think there’s a cheaper new option for a roadster like the Miata.
could you justify this statement a bit? If you get hit on one of these you have no seat belt no airbag, no side impact protection, and you will get thrown to the ground. Just like a motorcycle. How do you figure you are about 50% less dangerous?
Ah, my internet thinks I’m in Canada sometimes so maybe the MSRP on the M-aaa-zda was in Canadollars or something. But, yeah, price wise they’re in the same ballpark. With fuel mileage, keep in mind there isn’t an EPA test for motorcycles so they can claim whatever they want and those claims are notoriously optimistic. From the folks I know with (albiet older) Goldwings and similar, basically low 30’s high 20’s on the interstate seems to be realistic, which you should be able to beat with a Miata pretty easily. I suspect a big touring bike would beat the Miata on lower speed roads, but at interstate speeds the car’s aerodynamics win out. The Can Am seems to be even worse-- they don’t even appear to make a specific claim, but googling the enthusiast forums suggests probably mid-20’s or so on average.
(And, yes, IMHO a smaller bike like the Interstate yields way more fun per dollar than a bloated touring bike, a trike or a roadster)
Yeah… many of my reservations about the CanAm are being confirmed here.
I do like the look of them and I appreciate that they are more stable than a traditional road bike and arguably safer in certain road conditions and situations. But then I look to small roadsters, like the Miata and think that the CanAm still falls short on the ‘live with daily’ utility scale. I spent two weeks behind the wheel of a Miata and though the fun quotient was high, I didn’t feel particularly safe in traffic with large SUV’s hulking over me, at least I didn’t have to deal with helmets and riding gear and being exposed to inclement weather.
Still, given the opportunity, I’d jump at the chance to drive one.
Well, I’m Spiff, and I bloody well know what I’m talking about!
In a later post you clarify that the Spyder rider can lean in a curve, but that the trike doesn’t:
[QUOTE=catflea12]
… on a 2-wheeler both you and the bike lean in corners, on a Can Am only the driver leans.
[/QUOTE]
BRP, the manufacturer, disagrees with you on the whole driver leaning bit:
From: http://www.spyder.brp.com/canam-roadster-faq#faq12
Although I’ve never been on a Spyder, I know about the physics of trikes. On a trike like the Spyder, you only lean to counter the centrifugal force that’s acting on your body. So if you do lean – and the manufacturer says you don’t/shouldn’t – you lean against the trike, not with it. Here’s what I mean.
To turn left at any speed above about 10 mph on a two-wheeler, you press the left handlebar forward, you lean your body left, and the MC leans left and off you go into your turn. Body and machine in unison.
On a trike like the Spyder, to turn left you turn the handlebars to the left (no counter steering) just as if you were steering a car, and when you do so, your upright body – just like in a car – wants to go to the right (centrifugal force). So if you lean left, you are only doing so to counter the forces your machine is putting on you. Not a lot of fun, IMHO, and that takes away 90% of the fun of riding a motorcycle, where your body position and lean controls where the MC goes.
I classify that as only 10% of the fun. Your mileage obviously varies, and maybe you’d get a higher percentage of fun out of riding such a machine. But I won’t disparage you for whatever value of “fun” you choose.
Missed the edit window to add this: Capsule Review: Can-Am Spyder | The Truth About Cars
The author sums it all up very nicely, and the comments are good, too.
I’ll qualify the following by saying I’ve never ridden a Can-Am. I have ridden the heck out of various motorcycles over the years though!
I have a friend/riding buddy (Skip) who is about 20 years older than me. That puts him around 70. He and I, up until about 5 years ago, terrorized many a small town in the south during our twice annually week long rides. Me on whatever I had at the time (Kawa, Honda, BMW. whatever) and he on one his series of Harleys.
When Skip crashed at age 65, he suffered numerous injuries, the most serious of which was a broken hip. A guy pulled out in front of him when he was riding his HD, and he was thrown over the offending car after t-boning it in the side.
Skip knew he would never ride again, but thought the Can-Am might be a good alternative. Luckily he found somewhere he could rent on for a week before deciding to buy. Absolutely hated it, and, based on his reasoning, I think I would to. He described it as 100% the risk of motorcycling, with 10% of the fun.
I have a hard time understanding the appeal to these, really. They don’t get better mpg, they don’t accelerate better, they most certainly do not out corner real motorcycles, or even cars for that matter. Plus you still have the same exposure to the elements and lack of protection as if you were riding a motorcycle.
Seems like all the risk and downsides, with few upsides.
BTW, Skip bought a Corvette convertible.
Great minds think alike!
Probably a better idea to go with this if worried about safety? http://www.eliomotors.com/ Of course, this has become more of a car than motorcycle but appears to me the idea started with the Can-Am spyders.
I just love how some one who’s never even driven a Can Spyder just knows all about them
If you look at all, you’ll see that they don’t sell 3-wheel ATVs anymore. They’re all 4-wheel now, called 'quads.
The ‘standard’ trike w/ 1 wheel in front has a MAJOR flaw - if you encounter any panic situation at any speed, your natural instinct is to brake and turn to avoid the cause of panic. Braking and turning on a trike literally throws the driver and passenger off as the trike falls over.
The 2 front wheels of the can-am are greatly more stable in such panic situations.