A friend of mine told me about a demo day at Coleman Powersports to try out the 3-wheeled BRP Can-Am Spyder. For those that don’t know what it is, a picture tells all:

The Can-Am Spyder is like a mixture of a motorcycle, quad, and car…all in one. There is really nothing like it out there. The two wheels are in the front, allowing you to turn it without having to lean your body like a motorcycle. With a variety of stabilizers and traction controls and then some, it keeps the vehicle planted on the ground and giving it a surprising amount of traction. You could even consider it an all-weather motorcycle, as there are no traction issues with a wet road.

For the demo day, BRP brought over a bunch of the Spyders:

After taking a short survey and watching a video, they took us out onto a small course setup with cones. They showed us the basics of using the Spyder, and we took it out for a couple laps to get the hang of it. There is only a brake on the right foot, and the clutch works the same way as a regular motorcycle. There is an optional automatic option which is about $1,500. There is also a reverse functionality that you obviously won’t find on a motorcycle. If you can ride a motorcycle, you’ll get the hang of this right away…it’s very easy to ride. Here’s a shot of me going through the course:

After going through the coned course, we took it out on the open road, driving it around for a few miles. It was a real blast, and I actually enjoyed riding it a lot more than I thought I would. Taking corners were fun as you could really feel it compensating the weight differential. It’s fairly quick as well…faster than I thought it would be. There is a 110mph limiter, so you can definitely get it up there if you wanted to.

The company who makes the Spyder is the same company behind Sea-Doo, the popular maker of jet skis. The Spyder MSRP’s for $15,499, but they may actually be going for higher as the ones I see on eBay are mostly going for closer to $20,000. Prior to the test drive I would have never thought that I would actually want one. While I wouldn’t personally spend $15,000 on one…if I had a bunch of expendable income, I wouldn’t mind having a few of these to have some fun with friends. If you’re just interested in getting into motorcycles, but may not be ready or comfortable getting on two wheels…check this out at your local dealer, it just may be for you.