review of the BRP Can-Am Spyder

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see the BRP Can-Am Spyder? Snowmobile on wheels. Guess what? That's exactly how it feels.

The Vehicle
998cc Rotax engine. ABS with one brake pedal. It splits 80% front 20% back. 5 speed transmission with mechanical reverse. Other than the one brake pedal the controls are similar to a motorcycle. The sales rep guided me though the gauges and how the vehicle works. he warned me that this is a prototype and could have glitches in the display.

Test Course
I got to test drive on of these bad boys today. after filling out the waiver and a form the sales rep had me drive around same cones int he parking lot.

First he wanted me to drive around the cones and stop at each one, WOW! it stops on a dime. There is plenty of braking power. Then he had me revers into a parking spot. I expected a tighter turning radius, reverse will take getting use to. Interesting design note on how to get into reverse. Like a motorcycle neutral is half way in between 1st and second. To get to reverse you have to be in first, hold the clutch with your left hand, reach to the left side with your right hand and move a lever. I take it they did this so your hand wasn't near the throttle when you do this. To get out of reverse you just shift up into 1st. I would have loved to go in reverse and pop it into 1st :) After doing reverse he had me do some figure eights to get use to the turning. Like I said, it has a bigger turning radius than I expected.

Test Drive
Once I got the feel for the vehicle I realized it is nothing like a motorcycle. It feels like a snowmobile, but smoother since you aren't going over ground. We then proceeded onto the test drive. The sales rep took a motorcycle and I followed him. We went everywhere. We put about 20 miles on the bike. We did everything from highway driving to city driving. Cornering takes some getting use to. I felt like I was fighting the vehicle and it felt tight. I did not like the seating position, it felt like I was leaning forward like on a crotch rocket. Other than that it was a blast. It has plenty of get up and go. The speedo had markings to 210 and the tach redlined at around 10k. The digital display showed speed, oil temp, fuel, and what I think was outside temp. If you have driven a motorcycle the control are easy to get use to.Though having the right foot as my only brake took me about 3 miles to get use to.