Tips and Tricks

Spyder tyre alternatives

People often ask me what options they have other than genuine tyres. Understand that I am not promoting the use of aftermarket tyres - that is something you have to decide for yourself. Until recently I was not aware of any real alternatives for the front while several people had found their own alternatives for the rear, Remember its not just a matter of finding something that fits. The construction of the tyre, wall thickness, stiffness etc all play a part in the performance and therfore the handling and safety.

Recomendations for front

GT Radial 165/65R14 "Campiro Eco", Kenda Komets KR23 have all been fitted by owners with favourable reports.

Mark from Melbourne reports "Donellan's Tyres had a special on Kingstan (which I understand may be a Hankook brand) at $77.50 each fitted and balanced.  Put simply, they are great. The biggest improvement is that the Kendas would pick up on a pavement seam, even a very small one, and cause the Spyder to shift slightly, but quite strongly, 50 or 100 mm as you ran along the seam. The Kingstans ignore the same pavement condition totally."

Recomendations for rear tyre

I know at least one person in Australia has fitted a Nexen 225/50 x 15 rear tyre and was pretty happy with it. Others have fitted Toyo Proxes T1R (35 psi seemed best for this one). You should be able to order them via your local tyre retailer.
Again Mark reports "I replaced the rear Kenda with the same size (and it is very important not to alter the size) Hankook. It has a better (softer) compound and, in practice, it provides slightly better grip in the wet or on damp roads, and it recovers traction much better and more smoothly than the Kenda, that would basically just "smoke" until you really turned down the volume.

Dreading replacing a tail light globe?

These are almost impossible to get to, especially if you have the BRP rack fitted, and a failure can cause "limp home" mode. Thanks to a post on Spyderryders.com a simple modification may solve the problem.

Adjustments to Hindle exhaust to take out the "bark"

Hi Martin,
Forwarded are some pics of the baffle i made to take the 'bark' out of the Hindle exhaust. It fits between the header pipe and the Hindle exhaust - this way it can be removed and modified further without much trouble.
Basically the baffle was made out of acoustic material with 30% flow, made into a cone and tack welded to a flange ring which fits into the Hindle.
The baffle was made 95mm long with the ring (66.5mm O/D and 50mm I/D) at 20mm from larger end of cone. The smaller opening ended up @ 37mm which in area is larger than the exits combined on the original muffler and twice the size of the free flow area at exit end of Hindle. I tried to flare the intake end as large as i could - it ended up larger than the bend pipe of the muffler (about 57mm). 
It has resulted in probably a 10-20% reduction in noise level and it seems to have improved the low to midrange performance - it is running smoother!
I may make a smaller one and see what difference can be achieved. Anyhow, i'm happy with it at the moment!
Cheers Ken