Wow...a lot of information that isn't exactly accurate.
The 2011 RS-S comes with
both Manual and Semi-auto transmission...not just the latter.
If the 2009 is brand new off the showroom floor why not go ahead and sae the extra 7 G's? It's an asset and you can always change your mind down the road. I bought a 2009 brand new this year have over 10,000 miles on it and had just one problem with it and it was mostly my fault for not paying attention to the bike. (I wore out a tire at 8,000 miles due to an alignment problem. Didn't know any better, lesson learned)
Buying the repair manual...great idea. Even if you do not perform all the work, at least it shows you some things you can do that are simple (like changing oil) that will save you the cost of the manual the first time you do something yourself.
The recalls - sure there are some but going in for the 600 mile service (highly recommended) and haing the BUDS hooked up to the machine takes care of most of them. The DPS recall is a little more involved but I got my notice, have not had a knee jerk reaction to that and scrambled to get my spyder in the shop because of one thing...not haing any current problems with the steering. I'll have it done when I take it in for the 12,000 mile service but there's no rush on my part.
The Spyder is like any other machine...best insurance policy you have is proper maintenance of all the fluids. It pays dividends to be able to do as much of the work yourself. Besides, it's not rocket science.
Buy the machine you want and get out there and RYDE!!