Becoming an adult comes with a bunch of expectations that you never thought about when you were younger. Adults are supposed to be serious, professional, and proper. You check your silly past at the door, put on a suit, and work your way through life. But it doesn’t always have to be that way. You have the choice to never grow up, and the vehicle that can take you there is the 2024 Can-Am Ryker Rally. This little three-wheeler is so fun to ride and embraces childish shenanigans so much that even if you’re 50, you’re going to feel like 15 again.
I spent a few weeks with a 2024 Can-Am Ryker Rally as part of my expansive fleet. As always, I treated the Ryker like I do every other press vehicle and I rode it as my primary form of transportation for the whole loan. I rode the Ryker regardless if it was hot, cold, dry, or wet outside. I used the Ryker as my grocery getter, my road tripper, and briefly as an off-roader.
The little three-wheeler was so fun that I always looked forward to riding it. Can-Am’s three-wheelers are currently Canada’s greatest contributions to modern motorcycling and while these vehicles are sometimes the butt of jokes, I don’t think they deserve it.
Mission Possible
Last year, I got to test the Can-Am Spyder F3-T, BRP’s signature big tourer three-wheeler. I spent three weeks with that Spyder and learned why Can-Am’s three-wheelers have such a strong fanbase. I rode that Spyder to Detroit and back to my home outside of Chicago and it felt like I was commanding a roofless Cadillac. Can-Am mastered comfort better than even giants like Honda and Harley-Davidson. The Spyder eats up hundreds of miles at a time while you feel like you’re sitting on a throne. The person in the Lincoln you passed on the highway doesn’t feel as comfortable as you do. The Spyder F3-T even had enough storage for a weekend trip for two, plus a jammin’ stereo system.
I liked the Spyder so much that I wanted to add it to my fleet for good. Unfortunately, that’s where my compliments ended. As of publishing, the Spyder F3 costs $22,099 to start. Sure, you get a whole lot of trike for the price, but that’s still money that would get you a decent car or a really nice motorcycle. The Spyder drew quite a lot of people during my loan period and most of them looked like they were stung by a bee when I mouthed the price. Truth be told, if you plopped 22 large into my hands today I’m going to buy an Indian FTR and another Smart Fortwo.
Thankfully, BRP had an ace up its sleeve for over a decade.
In the 1970s, the name Can-Am meant motocross bikes that produced mountains of power, laying waste to anything in their path. These motorcycles rode on power from Rotax of Austria and it took years for the competition to come close. During that period, Can-Am riders took win after win, to the point of Can-Am even taking an AMA 250cc National Motocross Championship sweep in 1974.
Unfortunately, competition from Japan eventually caught up and Can-Am’s motorcycles began losing their edge. Bombardier ceased factory racing efforts after 1981. England kept the Can-Am name alive for a handful more years until the last bike was built in 1987. You can read more about BRP’s motorcycle history by clicking my retrospective here. What matters is that BRP’s Can-Am has announced its first-ever two-wheel motorcycles in nearly 40 years. I’m going to be able to ride these motorcycles in the near future, but it’s worth pointing out that BRP has taken a wild ride to get there.
First came the Spyder, from my review:
BRP doesn’t say much about the development path that led to the Spyder. According to BRP, the first sketches for what would become the Spyder were drawn in 1996.
It then took until 2007 for BRP to make the Spyder a reality. Back then, BRP called the Spyder “half motorcycle, half convertible sports car.” Since then, BRP’s classification for the cycle has varied. At times, BRP calls them “roadsters,” “3-wheel motorcycles,” or “3-wheel vehicles.” From the very beginning, the Spyder has been about balancing performance and comfort with some of the best hits of motorcycle riding.
What is not often reported is that BRP had another three-wheeler in the works immediately after the launch of the Spyder. Development on what would become the Ryker started in 2008 and its design brief was “something simple, minimal and with style that would be fun to ride and extremely accessible.” In other words, where the Spyder was a grown-up ride, the Ryker was always supposed to be the rowdy younger sibling.
In a story with Engineer Live, BRP admits that 2008 was the wrong time for the Ryker. Ignoring the global financial crisis, BRP said its teams had a lot to learn before the vehicle could have been made a reality. Still, BRP’s engineering team pulled it together. Reportedly, 14 patents were generated just to create the prototype alone and the BRP team discovered new things to fix with every iteration.
For example, one of the greatest features of the Can-Am Ryker is its tool-free adjustable foot pegs and adjustable brake lever. The pegs and the brake pedal take no effort at all to flip up and push or pull down a track. BRP says this is because early on, engineers discovered that adding pads to the peg system made it easier to adjust.
The Ryker was also designed in two specific modules. The lower portion of the three-wheeler is BRP’s Y-architecture, which features stiff steel tubing that makes up the backbone of the trike. The structure houses a Rotax ACE engine with two different displacements and tunes. No matter your choice of engine, power reaches the sole rear wheel through a modified version of the CVT BRP uses in its other products.
On top of it is the body, which is composite and features the vehicle’s controls, but also another innovative tool-less handlebar adjustment system. All of this led to a long gestation period, one which didn’t see the Ryker hitting the road until 2019. But when it did, Can-Am accomplished its mission to make a fun and more affordable three-wheeler.
Half The Price, Just As Fun
If the Spyder is a responsible adult with a desk job, the Ryker is a college student who just downed an energy drink. It kicked down the door and told the Spyder to step aside because it wanted to put on a smoke show. And, as I wrote earlier this year, the Ryker does it for about half of the price:
The Ryker starts at $9,599, or $11,299 minimum for one with the best engine available. The folks of BRP have loaned me the top-of-the-line 2024 Ryker Rally, which starts at $14,599 and is designed around playing in the dirt. I have it for the next few weeks and will be telling you all about it.
For half the price of a Spyder, you aren’t getting half the bike. The Spyder’s Rotax 1330cc ACE inline-triple engine is making 115 HP and 96 lb-ft of torque and moves a 948-pound mass of bike. Yet, the Ryker’s better engine, a Rotax 900cc ACE inline-triple engine, is making 82 HP and 58.3 lb-ft of torque but moves just 616 pounds. In addition to this, Can-Am has tuned the Ryker to be an absolute hooligan. The machine not just allows, but practically taunts you with its ability to drift and lay down epic burnouts.
There’s also a smaller Rotax 600cc ACE with 50 HP and 36.7 lb-ft of torque on tap. But as I said, the one you want is the 900.
Everything about the Ryker is alternative. You’ll swing a leg over the solo seat, adjust the pegs, adjust the handlebar, and then connect the ball and socket key. Now it’s time to start it up and you do that by rolling the throttle forward, listening for the beep, and then hitting the start button. Now you fold the parking brake lever down, make sure the gear lever is in the forward position, and hold on.
The Ryker offers a few driving modes, including an Eco mode that dulls the vehicle’s throttle, a standard mode, and when properly equipped, the Rally mode. Eco mode is great for just slowly putting around town, but the one you’re going to want to hit right out of the gate is Rally mode. This mode turns off traction control, dulls down stability control, and lets you enjoy every pony ahead of your seat.
Cranking the throttle in Rally mode is a hilariously dramatic experience. First, that CVT hits off idle with a loud and noticeable clunk. Then the rear tire lights right up. What happens next is up to you. If you stay on the throttle, you’ll lay down a faint black stripe as you rocket through an intersection. Shift your hips and turn the bars and you’ll drift through the intersection. Press that brake pedal and now that Kenda all-terrain tire in the rear will start converting itself into a cloud of smoke.
The delightful thing is that the Ryker does not try to stop that rear wheel from doing its burnout. I’m sure the Ryker will happily let you run it down to the wear bars if you dared. However, it will rein you in if the vehicle’s systems determine that your drifting is a threat to keeping all three wheels on the ground. The Ryker will let you get one of the front wheels in the air, then the stability control system will put it back on the ground. Sometimes stability systems are seen as intrusive, but I think the Ryker’s backs off just enough to let you have fun without letting you kill yourself. Personally, I’d love to see an option to kill all systems, but I get why it’s there.
All of this translates to a ballet of mischief. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself peeling out at green lights, drifting around abandoned parking lots, and jumping off of railroad tracks. The Ryker practically taunts you to do things a normal rider would never do on a regular motorcycle. Do a drift on your streetbike and you might find yourself in the hospital, but three wheels add a layer of redundancy.
Doing this stuff never gets old, either. I always got a giggle out of hearing the sound of squealing rubber behind my helmet and I loved trying to see just how big of drifts I could pull off.
The fun was only amplified in low-traction situations, too. I took the Ryker Rally drifting in the rain and the stability control system was powerless to stop me. I did donuts around light poles in abandoned parking lots and drifts that made me look ripped straight out of a Fast Saga movie.
Taking the Ryker Rally off-road was also a bit interesting. Here’s a bit from my earlier article:
The Can-Am Ryker Rally is the Ryker, but dolled up in off-road gear. It sports a brush guard up front, structural bark busters, an aluminum skid plate, turbine-style wheels, and all-terrain tires. The suspension is upgraded with KYB HPG shocks with remote reservoirs, adjustable damping, and longer travel than the Ryker’s other suspension options.
All of this sounds good, but the implementation is a bit weird. See, the brush guard is mostly plastic, so it’s not going to do much if you actually run your Ryker into something. The skid plate is also a sizeable and seemingly sturdy protective piece, but it’s located behind the Ryker’s nose, which is once again a big piece of plastic. So, if you take the Ryker on a hardcore off-roading trip you are liable to rip its face off, but I guess everything behind the face will be protected. It’s an odd choice and I’d love to see the protection pumped up here.
Until then, I’d say the Ryker is great for dirt and other surfaces where you aren’t going to be expected to travel through huge dips or through tall obstacles. Keep it on dirt and it’s a total blast. The all-terrain tires provide more than enough traction when you need it, but break out of the way when you want to whip up big rooster tails and just get the machine dirty.
A few years ago I even rode a Ryker out onto a California beach where it competently played in the sand like a big ATV. To be clear, the Ryker is not nearly capable enough to replace your ATV, but the machine is not scared of leaving pavement. Certainly, it’s far better when the going gets dirty than the Spyder, which felt like a fish out of water off-road.
Through all of this, I was amazed that BRP managed to keep the fun factor extremely high despite the lower price. Riding a Ryker does not feel like being penalized for not being able to afford a Spyder.
It appears I’m not alone in that assessment. Can-Am says that nearly half of Ryker riders are women and the little three-wheelers have made great impressions in communities of color. Go to any major city and you’ll find Ryker clubs and their riders will have their machines decked out in insane graphics, big wheels, big speakers, and big lights. The Ryker is as much of an extension of a rider’s personality as any Harley is.
Touring
What I’ve described thus far is what you could do around where you live. The Ryker is a beast at cranking local fun up to 11. But what if you want to go the distance?
Back in 2021, I rode an earlier Ryker Rally from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I called that 600-mile trip down the Pacific Coast Highway a “punishing” ride. Much of it was due to the fact that my review unit wasn’t really the ideal unit for the trip. It had a standard seat, no cruise control, no windscreen, and lackluster storage. The engine also vibrates a lot, which transmits straight through the handlebar. 150 miles was about all I could do in a day before my hands got numb and my tush felt like someone hit it with a sledgehammer.
I’m happy to report that conditions have improved with the newer Ryker Rally models. One day, I took the 2024 Can-Am Ryker Rally on an over 300-mile day trip. I was first pleased about the inclusion of cruise control from stock. Cruise control was an option in the past but now it’s standard as it should be. That alone helped lower fatigue. The Rotax still transmitted a lot of vibes through the bar, but now I didn’t have to grip them for the whole ride. Ideally, someone touring on a Ryker might want to invest in Grip Puppies, thicker gloves, or something along those lines.
The seat also feels improved, but still leaves some to be desired. On this ride, I started feeling pain around the 200-mile mark and it never got better. It wasn’t as bad as the Indian Challenger, which made me feel like I broke my butt, but it still got plenty uncomfortable. I took more 200-mile-plus rides on the Ryker and sadly things never improved.
It seems like some bike manufacturers are trading comfort for looks. The Ryker Rally’s seat looks so cool, but I’d rather have the cushy throne found on the Spyder. Thankfully, seats are something that you can change yourself. This seat may also work well for you! Motorcycle seat comfort is a personal thing and some body types work better with some seats than others.
The handling of a Ryker is as predictable as a basic front-wheel-drive car. Turning is unlike a motorcycle. To corner a Ryker you just turn the bars and hold on. There is no counter-steering and no leaning. However, if you want to go around that curve with alacrity, I recommend shifting your body into the turn and kicking out a little with your feet, not too unlike how you’d ride a trail snowmobile. Do that and you’ll be able to keep up with some motorcycles in your travels and have loads of fun doing it. You can even configure the bar and pegs to put you into a sporty position to really get into the zone.
BRP has engineered a lot of understeer into the Ryker. So, if you get a bit too overzealous with the bars the front tires will slowly, but predictably begin to give out. The stability control system will then slow you down and try to keep you on course. The understeer is most noticeable if you crank over the bar while low-speed maneuvering. The Ryker will plow forward like, well, a snowmobile.
As far as ride quality goes, three-wheelers get a bad rap for having a central wheel that rides through the center of a lane and impedes your ability to dodge potholes. In my experience, having the rear tire ride in the center of the lane has no real impact on your day-to-day riding. Yes, you can find oil and sometimes debris in the center of the road, but it isn’t as big of a deal as it sounds. As far as potholes go, it is true that you’ll have a harder time dodging them. However, single potholes can still be beaten by straddling them in the small gaps between the front and middle wheel positions.
Braking is another part of the Ryker that’s all fun and drama. You get just one pedal, which clamps down on all discs at the same time. Under normal braking, this feels somewhat similar to a car. However, really give the pedal some leg muscle and the brakes start a fight to compete for which one can pull you to a stop the quickest. You never lose control or anything like that, but it adds to the experience of the Ryker being rowdy.
Overall, I’d say the Ryker is a decent touring machine, but if you accept that you’ll need to do some modifications. You’ll want a more comfortable seat and a windshield, plus maybe something to reduce the vibes transmitted to your hands. Then, I think you could take a Ryker anywhere and still feel pretty fresh when you get there. But out of the crate? Your mileage may vary.
Quirks
While I love the Ryker Rally overall, I do have a few notes from my rides about things that could be better.
When you first lay eyes on a Ryker you’ll quickly realize that it’s built a lot like other powersports products and less like a motorcycle. By that, I mean there’s a lot of gray plastic everywhere. Some of this plastic wiggles when you go down the road. Some of the plastic parts also vibrate against each other when you’re riding, too, and you get some plastic rumbling to go with your Akrapovič exhaust note.
This is in contrast to the Can-Am Spyder, which also has a plastic body, but the plastic on that unit feels more like the plastic used for your car’s bumper covers or exterior trim. The plastic on the Ryker feels more like the stuff used in side-by-sides. However, I can forgive the Ryker for this because while it has similar plastic to a side-by-side or a Polaris Slingshot, you aren’t paying $30,000 for the privilege.
Earlier in this piece I also noted how the Ryker’s maw is mostly plastic despite a genuine effort from BRP to add underbody protection. I’m still a bit baffled as to why the front end only looks the part rather than having real metal up there.
We should also talk about fuel economy. I’ll be frank and say it’s bad. In my testing, the Ryker did about 33 mpg to 35 mpg around town, which is a little worse than I expected. Things got thirsty on the highway. Going 70 mph with a headwind? The MPG-guess-o-meter read back an astoundingly low 21 mpg, and I ran out of gas quick enough to suggest it wasn’t lying to me. Traveling the same speed without a headwind returned just 28 mpg. The Ryker has a 5.28-gallon gas tank. Do the math and at 28 mpg you won’t even hit 150 miles per tank.
I think one part of the problem is aerodynamics. The Ryker looks like Batman’s latest ride, but that comes at the expense of being like a brick pushed through wind. You also have three tracks plus all-terrain tires and all the drag associated with that. Finally, the CVT on the Ryker seems to favor letting the Rotax rev to the moon. This is great for hooliganism, but not so much for a highway cruise.
Tons Of Fun
After spending a combined total of seven weeks with a Spyder and two Rykers over the past few years, I still come to one conclusion: These vehicles are cooler than they’re given credit for.
Some people look down on three-wheelers because they’re not “real” motorcycles, cannot lane-split, take up a greater space in a garage, and are still more expensive than some of the cheaper two-wheeled options. And sure, there are valid reasons to pick two wheels over three. If I were a California resident I’d rather cut through traffic on two wheels than bake in traffic on three. If I had limited garage space, and I do, I’d also probably go with a regular motorcycle. The $9,599 starting price is also great, but there are still cheaper options.
However, I still see the appeal and why BRP sells a ton of these things. The 2024 Can-Am Ryker Rally is for the local hooligan who buys cheap tires just to burn them out on a skidpad. The Ryker Rally is for the person who maybe doesn’t have their balance or for the person who simply cannot operate a traditional motorcycle. The Ryker Rally is for the person who doesn’t care about motorcycles but still wants that open-air experience. The Ryker Rally is for the person who is big on customization and wants to stand out in a crowd.
But perhaps most is that the Ryker Rally is for the person who doesn’t want to grow up. Truth be told, all motorcycles and recreational products are like that, but the Ryker Rally does take things up a notch. People spend their entire lives searching for ways to feel younger. Maybe they shouldn’t be looking for a fountain, but two or three wheels to hit the road with.
