2012 Roadster Handling

Heidhurtin

.020 Over
Joined
Feb 25, 2025
Messages
13
Ride
2012 Rocket III
Guys - quick question. My 2012 Roadster has 3" bar risers fitted by a previous owner, Jardine exhaust but otherwise stock, Avon Cobra Chrome's front & rear with plenty of tread. Since I got it I noticed an odd handling quirk; at low speeds it tends to drop into the turn, trying to tighten up and I have to hold it up. On faster sweepers it feels like it wants to straighten up, and I have to hold it down. It's my first RIII so I don't know if this is normal, a "feel" issue caused by the risers, or something else. Having to hold pressure on the bars is starting to annoy me a bit as time goes on and as I swap back & forward from my HD softail.

I love the bike otherwise. Any ideas? (Please say it's an easy fix - I'm handy with a spanner but there are no Triumph dealers near me and I don't have a home workshop to do anything too involved.)
 
I’m assuming you’ve check the tyre pressures are as per the book. An over inflated front tyre wouldn’t help.
Secondly are the fork tops level with the top yoke (triple tree), ie the forks haven’t been dropped through the yokes.
Does your bike have standard rear suspension or aftermarket ones, because having over length ones will also change the way the bike handles.
 
Another quirk of the bike design is the front wheel is offset from the centerline slightly. This was done on purpose to handle the engine's torque reaction. If you let it idle on the side stand and then rev the engine the bike tries to shift to one side from torque reaction. That's due to the longitudinally mounted motor and the crankshaft's mass. When you're leaning the bike over in a corner and you accelerate rapidly it either tries to lift you out of that lean or throw you deeper into it depending on which way you're turning. To limit that problem Triumph offset the front wheel slightly so it's less pronounced than if it was perfectly centered. Your Harley's crank shaft is running perpendicular to the direction of travel, so spinning up the motor has no torque reaction effect on the chassis, if the engine were mounted like a Moto Guzzi then you can get the chassis to move side to side when revving the engine.
 
Maybe too obvious, but even though good tread on tires you could have a bad front tire and/or out of balance. While riding if you take your hands off the bars (careful, of course) does it shake and shimmy? Hold straight? Good advice above on the front suspension to check out too. Dropped forks (or smaller front, larger rear tire diameter than stock) will make the bike want to drop in faster in turns. Once you've figured this out you may want to look into a larger rear tire (Exedra Max) for that effect- intentionally.
 
Thanks all - the main takeaway is that it's not normal or that the risers are making it feel odd.

I'll check out the other good points raised tomorrow - even the one from a former tanky. As a retired sapper I usually treat such species with contempt.....
 
Riding today and thinking “what else.” Forks could be twisted. You might undo pinch bolts and bounce front end up and down a few times then torque back down. Or better, also loosen bottom triple tree clamps first Consult manual for sequence. First guess though is bad tire
 
Sounds like a tire profile issue, my K1200GT did that when I first got it, changed tires and it disappeared
 
while driving 70 to 135 my 07 will work fine however if i turn loose of the bars 30 to 50 while coasting sometimes it tries to do a tank slap so i try not to do that.
 
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