I had an itch to ryde because I have been busy looking for work and not doing any long rydes as everything has been under a 200 mile range. So I packed up and decided to pre run the first 500 miles of a ryde that I am putting together called the “Border to Border Ryde”.

 This ryde will start in San Diego and run up I-5 to Vancouver, BC, Ca. for a one way ryde of 1,408 miles on the Can Am Spyder RT-S the event is posted on SpyderRyder.com

 (http://spyder.brp.com/en-US/Share/GeoLoc#lat=32.805167597048346&lng=-116.93092346191406&zoom=12&tabId=events_share/events)

Or at the West Coast Spyder events page

http://www.westcoastspyder.com/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detail&evid=13&Itemid=46&year=2010&month=05&day=27&uid=7dbc16649533d0de24010e26f89b90bb

I started the pre-run at 6am from my house and packed for rain and cold weather with just a WCS logo windbreaker if it should get hot.

While the Midwest and the East coast both have been hit with rain, snow and very cold weather,  So. Cal. has never stopped being ryding season except for the week of rain storms that we recently had in San Diego.

I decided to wear my Gerbing heated jacket and gloves  so I would only need one jacket that would take care of the cold and regular jacket needs. It was 46 degrees when I left and only climbed up to a high of 66 degrees at the very end of the 500 miles.

I went thru that slow LA traffic and found that the RT’s fan would turn on and did its job in traffic by keeping the engine cool. Then the climb over the Grapevine where from the freeway you can see Jet World Power Sports in Castaic, California and I was able to count the active Spyder Ryders at this dealership.

Then I dropped down the grapevine and onto the valley floor heading towards Bakersfield and found that you need to time your gas stops so you don’t get caught in the middle of the 35 – 50 miles with no gas stations.  Now that the road was a flat ryde, I was able to play with the Cruise Control and found it to be easy to operate with a gloved hand.

 The Cruise Control maintained the set speed very well, going down grade it never exceeded more that 2 mph above the set speed and going upgrade it never lost more than one mph below the set speed.

 I found the cruise control as good if not better than my auto cruise control.Going thru the surrounding orchards the windshield became my protection from the oncoming bees and other flying critters that tried to pepper me on my pre run.

 I got as far Tracy Ca. for the pre run and decided to drop in on a fellow Spyder Ryde that had just a couple of weeks ago received one of the first Orbital Blue RT-S delivered in Ca.Since we have been talking on the phone with him about the RT and the many questions he had about his RT I thought what a great opportunity to ryde and compare the Production RT to what I am ryding a –dealer pre production RT.

It has been very interesting to live through the evolution of the RT-S from useable preproduction to the final delivered production RT.

There has been a lot of changes along the way that the delivered Production RT owner just won’t see or know about – But I know and at the end of the RT5 program I just may write about the changes and the evolution of the Can Am Spyder RT-S

To be continued Read more about the Can Am Spyder Roadster RT at westcoastspyder.com

Remember” It’s about the Ryde - Not your Destination”