Demo days / test rides are an established tool in any motorcycle company’s marketing handbook. It’s a great way to allow people the opportunity to test ride a bike in a (typically) low pressure sales environment. I’ve been to good demo days and bad ones and having recently attended a particularly bad one, I thought I would share the experience and my thoughts on how it went wrong.

This past month I’ve been on 2 test rides, one for Ducati and one for BRP Can-Am. The Ducati one was pretty good, the Can-Am was pretty bad. Now, I know that comparing Ducati and Can-Am is comparing an Italian super model with a French Canadian lumberjack, but both companies make exceptional products in their respective markets and I think it’s fair game to discuss them together when it comes to their demo rides.

Full disclosure: Yes, I do own a Ducati (an ‘06 749). No, I do not own a BRP Can-Am product (but would gladly take one of their ATV’s, Ski-Doo’s or Sea-Doo’s in a heartbeat).

The Test Machines: Ducati Hypermotard 796 and 1100 / Can-Am Spyder RS.

As you would expect at any test ride, there was some paperwork to fill out upon arrival. Can-Am had a fair bit more to fill out than the average demo day, but I understand they are just doing what they feel is necessary in order to cover themselves, so not a big deal. After that was taken care of there was a bit of time to wait until the test ride, so Alex and I had a poke around a couple of the machines that were sitting there. The Spyder roadster, if you’re not yet familiar with it, is essentially a 3-wheel motorcycle with a single rear wheel and two up front. It’s available as either a touring or sport version and both are powered by a Rotax v-twin 998cc engine. We chatted for a while with one of the staff who was very friendly and knowledgeable and he ran us through some of the features of the touring model.

Finally, it was time for us to get on with the test ride. Sort of. We first had to sit through about 10 minutes of promotional videos about the Spyder, which no one was actually paying much attention to. This was mistake #1. It’s all fine and good if you want to have some promo videos looping while people are waiting around for their ride and can watch at their leisure if they want to, but I don’t need to be sold on something that I am already aware of and am in fact actually standing in front of with helmet in hand eager to ride for myself! Next we had to do a lap around the cones in the parking lot to confirm that we could actually pilot the Spyder and initial a final piece of paperwork to indicate I was ready to ride.

We found our machines, I managed to snag the only manual transmission RS they had available (the others use a semi-automatic paddle shift system). Then came the customary chat from the lead test rider, telling us essentially not to have any “real” fun while we’re out on the road. I shrug it off, assuming it’s just what he’s been told to say and once we get out on the road we can let loose a bit. Contrast this to Ducati’s “some of our motorcycles lend themselves to having the front wheel lofted, so if it should happen we ask that you don’t hold the wheelie for too long”. As we set off from the parking lot of Ontario Place, which is downtown Toronto along Lakeshore Ave, I twisted the throttle of the Spyder and the Rotax engine revved nicely, sounded great and had enough power that I could feel that grin of “this is going to fun” starting to form. We turned onto Lakeshore Ave heading west and I started wondering what route we were going to be led through. We kept going west, amongst the mid-day traffic traveling at the speed limit of 60kmh and then continued until we were nearly where Lakeshore merges onto the highway. Then, oddly I thought, we turned around and started going east back in the direction we had just come from. At this point I had only managed to get the Spyder up to 68kmh and even that was only for a brief moment. I’m starting to wonder if this was all they had planned for the demo ride, but figured that I was being silly and it must be that we had just done a quick warm up and that we’d soon be finding a couple corners and some higher speeds to really see what this thing can do (I forgot to mention something else about this section of Lakeshore, in addition to the heavily Police patrolled 60kmh speed limit and constant traffic, it is completely straight!). I was wrong. Sadly, we rode straight back to the parking lot we had started from and the “test ride” was over. After parking the Spyder, I turned to Alex and we both had the same comical / bewildered look on our faces and we both knew what each other were thinking… that’s it? For real? Apparently so.

Now, I do realize that I’m maybe not the Spyder’s target demographic, but I fail to see how anyone can get an impression of what this machine is like to ride in such a short period of time along a route that has absolutely nothing to it other than straight lines and lanes full of traffic. Even if you’re not looking to buy one of these to go out and get it sideways through twisty roads, I have to imagine you do want to do more than travel at slow speeds in a straight line otherwise you would be looking for a new minivan instead. If I had loved it would I have bought one? Maybe not, but I would have at least been happy to share my enthusiasm for it with other people and encourage them to try one for themselves. As it is, I came away with absolutely no impression of the Sypder, just a feeling that I had wasted part of my day watching promotional videos for something that looks like it would be a real blast to ride. If you’re wondering if there were some better roads in the area we could have tested on, the answer is definitely. While I know it’s challenging doing this sort of thing downtown Toronto, it just so happens that across the road from the parking lot we were in is the road circuit (all of it public roads) for the Toronto Indy – yes, that’s right, a race course. After the ride we were asked to fill out a feedback form, as you can imagine the scores were pretty low.

So, how was the Ducati ride different? While it wasn’t held in Toronto, they still faced some of the same challenges of stop lights, straight roads and traffic. The difference was that the Ducati folks had clearly mapped out the best, most diverse route that they could. It went just out of town, along some roads with a few twisty bits and there were enough opportunities to open the throttle and ignore the posted speed limit (not that I would ever speed of course). I got a good sense of the bikes and was able to form enough of an opinion to say what I liked and disliked. There was no feedback form to fill out (which is how it should be, I came to ride not be a focus group), but if there had been the marks for Ducati would have been pretty good.

Overall, I have to say that I was really surprised and let down by the Spyder demo day. They are clearly putting a huge marketing effort into this thing as I’ve seen the commercials, billboards and other ads fairly often. They are making a point of saying they are defining a new category of motor vehicle, but aren’t giving anyone a fair chance at discovering what this new category feels like to ride. Maybe there will be enough Ski-Doo or Sea-Doo owning converts that will throw a leg over a Spyder confident it’s the road going version of what they already love, but is that going to be enough? When you look at it for what it is, a test ride is like the last stop of your marketing plan. People watch your commercials, read your print ads and are enticed enough to take the time to go ride what you’re selling. So, it should be the strongest part of the plan because you either impress someone enough to keep them interested or you make it easy for them to start being influenced by a different product.

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