A General Question About our Rocket 3's

[ROCKETOUR]

Hey all, this question goes out to all R3 owners, regardless of which version you have.
I'm concerned that EVERYONE has had issues with their bike. Some only minor, some HORRIBLE! Listed failuires that I've read about include: Clutch, transmission, TPS, ignition switch, differential, brake, cam chain, guages, bearings, springs and I'm sure a few more that I failed to mention. So what the HELL is up with this?
Do we own paper gorillas? Are these typical British quirks? Or are these NEVER ENDING problems? I not a newbie to motorcycles 35 years riding (3 years dirt, 9 years roadracing) and a lot of street miles. I know that there is a "working the bugs out" phase of any bike. But, When I hear people saying their cam chain is done at 40K or their trani exploded at 20K? Should we be collectively concerned about the long term reliability of our babies. The bike has most of what I'm wanting in a bike. The one thing I'm still hoping
for is LONG TERM RELIABILITY.
Over the years I've learned that sombody will always have a faster, cooler, better handling, faster stopping, better wheeling, nicer painted, quicker bike than mine.
I'm ok with that. But, if I decide to tak a couple of weeks off and head to the Rockies or Grand Canyon or anywhere else on this continent, I want to have confidence that I won't be stranded on the side of the highway 5 states from home! So, some opinions. Do these bikes have any long term reliability potential? Or are we always going to be chasing the NEXT problem?

 

[Tripps]

I have a 2010 R3T, 21,000 miles with no problems at all yet. I rode 4000 miles to Key West and back last fall, no problems, utterly reliable. And I do thrash it a bit.

 

[BigAl52]

I think the overall reliability looks a lot worse than it is because nearly everyone thats had a hiccup with their R3 has put it on the site. A lot of the problems have been fixed either with model changes or recalls and some can be eleviated by 'extra maintenance' such as greasing the diff everytime you change a rear tyre.
You probably already know that anyway but just thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in.
Mines an Nov '07 first registered Jan '09, it's had the ignition fixed by recall but I haven't had any major issues at all. I don't ride as much as I would like but when I do I get the cobwebs out (me and the bike).

 

[Ugarte]

93 thousand miles on my 05 with no major problems. I did have to fix the ignition switch at 65k and the oil tank O rings blew out about the same time. Both were easy repairs I did myself. The cam chain has been noisy off and on but still hangs in there. Tranny has been perfect, not once has it ever popped out of any gear. Still have the original throttle position sensors.

 

[scot in exile]

2005 with 60000 miles had to replace the ignition switch when the bike was three years out off warranty which Triumph supplied to me at no charge.
My front tyre lost 2ibs of pressure once but that was covered under a recall

Stick with the 2004-2008 model years the later ones have a terrible reliability record.

 

[warp9.9]

rst you must consider the sources and their knowledge of the bike. and of course how exagerated some of the problems might be. I give you a couple for instances like the clutch I consider myself fairly knowlegable about the Triumph clutch both in how to change/set up correctly and how to realy fruck one or two up. Most clutch problems are do to improper adjustment by both the Triumph dealers and their technician and the owner/operators. I always check the free play of clutches when in dealerships whenther new or used Rockets and can say most of the clutches I find in the dealers are set with know free play. The book states 2-3mm at the clutch lever and even shows you a good diagram. Now I also check these out at group rides when looking at all the different variety's of Rockets do to the owner taste and the go your own way motto. I am pleased to say that over the years I am no starting to find more of them adjusted correctly. But I often hear I will just take some of the slack/free play out to get rid of the rattle of the lifter piece. which can be a anoying thing but is not dtremental to the clutch until they do this next thing you read is broken lifter shaft or lifter piece, or the famous clutch slippage from incorrect adjustment. Go figure

Now one of your other concerns is the tranny exploding well when anyone has a tranny problem it exploded no matter whether it was a detent spring or the dreaded poping out of second gear (which was a issue one some earlier model Rockets but not all of them). MY 06 did (but then I beat the snot out of it) my 05 has never had a issue. Thers has been a few cases where some type of catastrophic event has happend a gear breaking, recently I heard of one being stuck in two gears. Hell Mine locked up but then again It was my fault. Some people think you can speed shift these babies without hurting them well I suppose if you realy are a expert you can otherwise your going to round the dogs off on a gear ot two and then it will not hold in gear or shift correctly. The latest biggest problem has been the detent spring breaking. I cannot tell you why as neither of mine have ever broke one. But there is a pssibility that the company that supplied the springs made an error in manufactureing them. That would be my guess. Is it Triumphs problem well I think yes but they should be after the supplier for all repairs and to take back all springs in stock and supply them with a new batch with closer quality control. Is that going to happen well I doubt it because the truth is only some got by qa and not all are bad. rear differentials well only a couple have failed catastrophicly that I know of one from down shifting at a high speed to engine breal because the poor feller misjudged his breaking distance at the drag strip. Most of the problems are from broken oil drain and fill plugs because people do not want to follow proper torque specifications again you decide whether its the bikes fault or the operator. The splines on the shafts and on the differentiial need to be lubricated and yes it should be added to the manual in the maintenance area not jus tthe areas where you change or are installing the differential. But once this was noticed all Rocket site put out the word and well soem of these people who put the word out go ragged heavily because its not in the manual. Well neither is running a different oil or air cleaner but you can find information aboutit on these sites. Grease your splines whneever you change a tire or every 10 for the dark siders and ever Month for IAN who puts so many miles on his bike it is just amazing. TPS go when they do change them properly and you will have a long time before you have to do it again. They did get into some bad ones but that was a couple years ago and there are still bikes with the originals on them functioning correctly. Cam Chains well it is sad but the real problem lies with the tensioner and the amount it can adjust. This can be increased with a little forthought.

Bearings I do not know what your refering to as not many have lost their wheel bearings and the ones that have I would ask are you properly torqueing the wheels when installing or just going with what you think is good?

All in All I think the Rocket is a reliable beast provided you take care of it and maintain it correctly The only gripe I have with them is it seems their fog light brakets will not hold up for long durations or many durations of high speeds, I think there is room for improvement on them.

2006 Rocket Classic with over 60,000 miles
2005 Rocket standard with over 38,000 miles

 

[technoguppy]

I've got 35,000 km on mine. Change the oil every when it needs to be changed. I run it hard when the open road is in front of me, or some smart ass on a sport bike needs a lesson, but beyond that I wash it, I ride it.

Worst issue I have had is that the dealer put the wrong map in the computer. Ran like hell for a while until I got that sorted out. It needs a little TLC but nothing more than any other high end machine needs.

These forums is they typically only get used by people looking for answers to problems they have. Rarely does someone come on here to say, "Ran 600km today, no issues whatsoever!"

My advice, and I rest assured it may only come from me. The designers know what they are doing and what they have created. Those Captains that tinker with the ECU mappings, change cooling methods, this that the other, are toying with stuff that otherwise shouldn't be toyed with.

I played with mapping my ECU in my Audi, stage 4 turbo, the engine blew up on me after 6 months. Do I think Audi designers had anything to do with it, no. Is it likely I asked a well tuned machine to do more than what it was designed for or didn't take into consideration that changing one thing impacts another? You bet.

All I can say is, mine runs great. Wouldn't change it for anything else.

Safe travels!

 

[rocket3jjd]

Ya never hear about the good ones
The four that have graced my garage over the years have had zero problems other then a lady pulling a left in front of my o5 but that was not its fault
The other three have been flawless and are still running great

 

[peter k]

Done 60'000km in 3 and half years .only once has it been of the road ,the detent spring broke . I ride it nearly every day ,to me that is reliability ..i took the r3 to an experienced mechanic who has been working on them since the first model .i believe it is good for such a person to go over the bike , being that I may have missed some thing with my limited knowledge . After going over the bike and a short ride his verdict was that the bike was one of the better r3, read in to that what you will ,but I'm satisfied with the bike and will buy another r3 when the time comes

 

[keno351]

tacho went hay wire on mine 09 with 14000Ks, been in the dealers 2 days no word as yet