quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
I've owned the Piaggio 250, the 500, a Can-Am, and a Harley Tri Glide Ultra. Wife made me stop riding after the stroke. The MP3 500 was the most fun to ride, but it's very low and slow. I sold it because it must be serviced at a dealer. You can't buy manuals or training. I couldn't even get the damn plastic off. When the local Vespa dealer closed, I sold it. The Can-Am was fun, but the riding position sucked. I had a 30 mile daily commute. The Harley was the best, and the most expensive. Mine was loaded for almost 40k. I was able to plug my helmet in and listen to the radio as I rode. GPS would interrupt with directions, and phone calls came thru. (Siri commands to call out and answer.) It had automatic 911 calling if it overturned or was in an accident. GPS measured fuel consumption and alerted you when gas was low, giving your directions to the nearest station with high grade gas. In short, it was totally awesome fun and luxury on 3 wheels.

The can-am makes a "Ryker" model in 600 and 900 versions. They cost between 8500 and 15000. They are NOT full sized, but have a much better variety of seating positions, IIRC. They also resell pretty well if you decide to trade one for a bigger model.

Hope this helps. There is a great can-am Spyder forum you can find on the web. I deleted the bookmark because looking made me sad. It's a great place to start, and you can browse without joining.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Is it hard to avoid pot holes with the 3 wheels?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Good grief, HRK, I looked at your link and STICKER SHOCK!

I could buy a new truck, nicely equipped, for less than the price of some of those trikes.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Is it hard to avoid pot holes with the 3 wheels?

It's almost impossible.

A friend and I were at a motorcycle shop in AZ a few years ago and a local there offered to "show us some nice roads" so we took him up on it. We were both on Suzuki DR650's while he was riding a Can Am Spyder so off we went following him. He was able to move along pretty well but seemed to be having to work a lot doing so. After stopping for a brief break he insisted I ride the thing and jumped on my DR650. After 30 minutes or so I stopped with the intention of switching back but he said "no keep riding it, I'm having a blast on your little Suzuki". I didn't want to insult him so I rode the thing for another 30 minutes or so. Here's my impression after riding one for an hour or so on 2 lane open highways near Prescott.

Getting on it felt like a wide in the front snowmobile or ATV, once underway I was surprised how light the steering was, power assisted obviously. It didn't seem to track well because I was having to make subtle steering corrections to keep it in the lane. I attributed this to the slight crown in the middle of the lane with the front wheels straddling it while the rear would be just on one side or the other.
While riding through tight curves on a motorcycle is fun and almost effortless taking them on the trike took a lot more effort because centrifugal force wants to fling you off. It's unlike a car where the seat back helps hold you. Some of this can be offset by leaning your body way out toward the inside of the corner but this requires some effort and after going through a series of switchbacks I really wanted off the thing and back on my motorcycle. At a gas station (where we finally switched back) he filled the thing up and it had only got something like 26 mpg. In conversation he mentioned that it is pretty expensive to maintain because you have to remove a lot of stuff every time you do anything to it.

My take on these things, trikes in general, is they give you all the negatives you get with riding a motorcycle without any of the fun. Personally I would FAR prefer a Miata over a Spyder or any trike, could a little sports car be an option for your friend?
Or perhaps a smaller, lighter motorcycle could be easier for her to ride therefore more enjoyable?