2012 Roadster Handling

Heidhurtin said:

Bunny - spent my formative years in EOD, so trying desperately to avoid any form of Kaboom!

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brilliant comeback .

Anyway I just went outside and photographed my fork tops.I don’t recall seeing the O rings at the top of the fork, when I had mine out on my previous Rocket. Have you tried tightening the fork caps? Every fork I’ve done that has an O ring in the cap, once tight I’ve never seen it.
I just remembered, I’ve a Triumph Workshop manual in my shed I’ll check in the morning.

Bunny Burrell said:

brilliant comeback .

Anyway I just went outside and photographed my fork tops.I don’t recall seeing the O rings at the top of the fork, when I had mine out on my previous Rocket. Have you tried tightening the fork caps? Every fork I’ve done that has an O ring in the cap, once tight I’ve never seen it.

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The fork caps are only for sealing though, correct? They shouldn't have any effect on the steering or fork performance - granted it may show the forks are a bit too high in the yoke. I'll whip 'em off tomorrow when it's light. Thanks.

Heidhurtin said:

The fork caps are only for sealing though, correct? They shouldn't have any effect on the steering or fork performance - granted it may show the forks are a bit too high in the yoke. I'll whip 'em off tomorrow when it's light. Thanks.

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Wait out!

Let me check my workshop manual first.

Heidhurtin said:

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.)

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I'm not sure what my opinion is worth here, but what you're describing sounds like my bike too, which I assumed was normal. My 2012 Roadster is the only rocket I've ever owned or ridden, and while I've got decades of riding on trail-bikes my road bike experiences is fairly limited. The bike handling the way it does makes sense to me, it is a balance between a massively heavy bike and enormous torque. If the bike didn't fall over so hard it would be impossible to get it over, and if the torque didn't force it up so hard the bike wouldn't come up again. The weight makes the bike fall, the torque makes it stand up. At slow speeds I use torque to keep the bike upright, at high speeds the torque stands the bike up again in the corners. I'm a decent sized bloke (6'2 and 100kgs) and I really have to force the bike over when cornering and accelerating at the same time, try as I might I can't get the bike over far enough to scrape the pegs at speed . I also ride a street triple RS and when I come back to the rocket it feels like the rocket is trying to suicide itself into the ground every time I turn until I get used to it again.

I guess the best solution if possible would be to compare the ride to another bike. But I will be watching this thread to see the end result as now I'm interested as to what is "normal" for a rocket.

if you have never dragged the pegs then you never hit a corner to fast.
i hit a corner to fast and forced it down on to the frame i was able to wiggle the front forks (real pucker moment and ooh **** ) but it came back up and i never crossed the double yellow lines.
i would rather slide into the guard rails than drive into the on coming traffic.

TURBO200R4 said:

if you have never dragged the pegs then you never hit a corner to fast.
i hit a corner to fast and forced it down on to the frame i was able to wiggle the front forks (real pucker moment and ooh **** ) but it came back up and i never crossed the double yellow lines.
i would rather slide into the guard rails than drive into the on coming traffic.

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The roads where I lived are revoltingly straight and flat, it's a 2 hour ride to find a hill or corner