A new bike on the block
The Spyder is rapidly gaining popularity since its release in 2007
Living the dream: Mark Adams, an adventurer and motorsports enthusiast, has put thousands of kilometres on his BRP Can-Am Spyder Roadster. —photo courtesy of Mark Adams
Mark Adams—or as his friends call him, Spyder Man—can remember the exact day that he became a motorcycle enthusiast.
“It started February 17, 2000,” said Adams. “I know the exact day because it was the day that I bought my first motorcycle. I had just got my income tax refund back and I had enough money and I always wanted a bike, so I bought a bike—an old ’79 CB-750 Honda street bike.”
The story behind the passion
Adams is a retiree from the military and said that he spent a lot of his free time at Courtenay Motorsports—a Yamaha, Honda and Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) dealership on Vancouver Island. This is where Adams discovered the Spyder. He said the company was sending some employees to San Diego for the unveiling of a new product and he was invited to go along.
“When I saw the Spyder I knew that it was something that I was going to enjoy,” said Adams. “Even before I rode it I had made up my mind that I was going to buy it. The next day I rode it and 284 days later I got my own—I was probably the first person in Western Canada to put a deposit on one.”
A product of BRP, the Can-Am Spyder is a three-wheeled motorcycle with two wheels in the front and one in the back. It also has a belt drive and a V-twin engine and is the only vehicle that BRP has manufactured to be an on-road vehicle.
Adams swears by the Spyder; in fact, it is the reason that Adams was offered a job at Courtenay Motorsports. He has been a salesperson there for two years now and has helped sell 13 other Spyders to interested customers.
“If you are an owner, you are automatically a salesperson for these things,” said Adams. “I would go for coffee in the morning and I would spend it literally talking to people about the Spyder. I have probably put 3,500 people on the seat of my Spyder in the year and a half that I have had it.”
Adams enjoys riding his Spyder so much that he moved farther away from work in order to have a longer commute each day.
“I come to town every single day and sometimes twice,” said Adams. “I moved 29.2 kilometres away from my work-place. I used to live 5.5 kilometres (away) but I needed a decent ride to work, so I moved farther out of town. I put 60 kilometres a day on my Spyder, minimum.”
Forums and contests
To date, Adams has ridden a total of 35,000 kilometres on his Spyder and has taken various trips around B.C. and beyond, including a six-day, 3,400-kilometre trip to Drumheller, Alberta, with his son, Ross. In fact, BRP has a promotional competition called Spyder Pins running on its website as well as the Can-Am Spyder blog that encourages people to put as many kilometres on their Spyder as they can. Adams said there is a fellow in the U.S. that he is competing with for the 100,000-kilometre pin.
“The first 5,000 kilometres or miles gets you the first pin; the second pin is at 25,000,” said Adams. “It doesn’t matter whether it is miles or kilometres. There is a guy in the States, and he and I have been having this good-natured contest back and forth—he has to earn his in miles and I have to earn mine in kilometres, but we both did it at about the same time. But the 100,000-kilometre pin I will probably get before him.”
Adams estimates that there are 10,000 Spyders on the road in North America. To celebrate these machines, BRP is hosting the second Spyder Homecoming Owner Event at Universal Studios, Los Angeles, on June 27. Adams said he will be in attendance and he plans to drive his Spyder for the entire 2,300-kilometre journey.
“I will be down there for three days,” said Adams. “On the trip home I fully intend to explore the California-Oregon-Washington coast road…In the Spyder it will be a hoot.”
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