Hello Mel, You know some of my thoughts already about the electronics package from my report. Rider aids are a double edged sword I think. On one hand, the ability to prevent rear wheel spin0outs when the rider did not expect seems to be a good thing. But why did the tire spin-out? Is it because the road conditions were slicker for some reason; i.e. sand on the road, wet road, icy spot? If of us should be able to recognize these situations and adjust our rider style for the situation. The rider aids may remove that element of the experience for some. That's just one idea and something I look at for human factors at work.
As far as reliability goes, MIG above has the best answer, get the warranty as it not going to be "IF" but "WHEN" the malfunction occurs. If I only look at the electrical issues I have gad on 71K miles of R3T life, I must be cautious on any bike with even more electrical items to go wrong.
@barbagris nailed it with water intrusion; my biggest beef with a motorcycle company from the UK. Almost all of the issues I have had are from water intrusion. The first big issue was when the buttons on the left grip stopped working. Triumph replaced the assembly due to corrosion inside. That was within the first year. The problem returned but I was on to it now and was able to disassemble the left grip and clean it up. I then applied dielectric grease to protect the exposed parts that get wet often.
I have had three fog lights go bad within the first six months. Two housings were replaced by Triumph because of it. The lights do not last as long as I would expect but at least they are easy to swap.
After replacing the second tail light, the light would not illuminate. I took the bike in and they replaced the entire assembly again due to corrosion from water intrusion. Later, the rear tire ate the brake wire and that had to be replace, this time not due to water but a poor design.
Electricity is obviously important to run the bike. On mine, I am on my fifth battery. I doubled the negative wire due to a design deficiency. If the wires work themselves lose, then when starting throughs a code in the computer. Sure tightening the cable again fixes the tron flow, but the bike has to go through a three start cycle to clear the code. That code is also associated with the GPS and I can no longer see the neutral light. That same GPS was replaced three time within the first two years too due to failing.
The Speed sensor under the engine also failed on me. DEcosse figured it out by my description of no Speedometer or blinker. That was a totally odd thing for me to understand how am engine speed sensor failure would disable the speedometer and blinkers!
My Kickstand safety switch has failed too, this one is a combination of use and water.
At least the fueling portion of the electronics has never failed me. My fueling issues were due to mechanical failures of the Teflon washers in the injector linkage.
And the ABS has never let me down and I have used it several times now.
So, looking at all the additional item Triumph has added to the 2020 models, I am Leary to accept them at face value. I do not care to have the traction control as I do not understand why it is needed. If it is raining, I slow my roll automatically and do not gas it in the curves.
I do want the cruise control and heated grips but have lived without them on my bikes for over 38 years now. I have bought a set of heated grips for my bike now but have not put them on yet.
The digital speedometer of tach look nice and are easy to read but I worry they are another electronic piece that will fail at a higher rate than the needle I have now. Which by the way is easy to read when I look at it too. Straight up is 85mph, easy.
With all that said, (comma, indicating pause and thought is sentence structure) I thoroughly enjoyed riding the 2020 bikes especially the GT. And yes I can see myself owning one despite my objections to the electronics. I learned from the first purchase that having the extended warranty is the way to go to handle these issues. Will I use the nanny controls, sure they are on the bike and you must use them even if it is set to the rider mode, it is still electronically required to use. The extra cost of the technology is a whole other point of contention. I wished they had the basic bike for riders like me, and the techno bike for those who want that...
