Anyone ever bend a rear axel?

That might actually strengthen your claim with Triumph? Dealer sloppy and no longer handling Triumphs. Worth a shot at least?

After looking over everything the dealer made numerous mistakes. I had the oil changed at 7K miles (it was also changed at around 1K for its first service), rear diff fluid replaced, and the splines on the wheel/final drive relubed. Bike has about 12K on it

Well the final drive drain plug apparently isn't the factory one (its a allen head machine screw with a o-ring), I found that out because I tried to order a new one with a new oring (the oring looked a bit worse for wear) and the only dealer within 1.5 hours looked at me like I was crazy. They showed parts breakdown a bolt and no oring. The threads look a bit stripped on the final drive but it holds tight enough not to leak so I will have to hope it stays that way.

After looking at the final drive I don't think they relubed it since it has a slight brown moly dust look to it on the internal splines, and the dealers moly that they used on other things was grey (just like the stuff I bought).

The oil filter used wasn't a triumph filter (might be normal?)

The torque that some things were at were too low. The nuts on splined final drive bearing (attached to the wheel) were around 20 ftlbs of torque to remove (aka very easy). One of the exhaust clamp bolts was broken, the right side exhaust heatshield had a broken weld on a tab that holds it on. The front axel had threadlocker on the threads and was very tough to get off, etc.

The dealer no longer sells triumph and the only reason I was given was because triumphs cost too much money to sell based on how many the dealer sold. I only took the bike in for the two times and now that its been out of warranty and I have a bit more time I am going to work on it myself. I have been pretty bummed since I have only put 300 miles on the bike this year because I have been so busy. Now that I have some free time Its been hard since I can't ride it. Hopefully I will get this sorted out soon.

Also on a side note: I bought my rocket at the only dealer within 2 hours. There was a new dealer opening up that I went to (I wont name names) and I went there to see if I could test drive a rocket to see if I wanted it. They were doing demo days and I wanted to take a rocket out on my own, which the dealer/triumph factory wouldn't let me. I said I don't feel safe riding with other people I have never ridden with before, and was told "Well you will have to go to a real triumph dealer then". Confused by that statement considering the dealer had a triumph sign and triumph bikes, I took my buisness elsewhere. That dealer has since moved and seems to be a bit better overall, but I dont think they will be able to pull any strings for me on getting warranty repairs. Even more so since the dealer I bought my bike from is no longer a dealer and possibly for good reason.

Rocket Scientist said:

I cut back on fiber, helped mine

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yes but the smell ingers on

I have two sets of rims - One set has a warped rear rotor. But as it's my emergency set (it can take forever to get a tyre here) I can live with it. Even so I'm half considering a new rear rotor - probably EBC.

@Oldschool I'm curious what you found when you hooked it up to a dial caliper...Was the rim running true? If not, was the rotor running out by about the same amount that the rim was?

My $0.02 is to change the bearings. They are probably the easiest part I can think of to cause what you are describing. Not that expensive and pretty good chance of correcting the problem

I had just enough time to setup the dial indicator on the rim, it had around 6 to 7 thousandths run out on the lip. Considering the rim lip wasn't really clean I am sure its much better than that, so I think the rim is ok.

After looking at it in the daylight I can see the brake rotor is just touching the caliper bracket on the inside facing side (near the front). I didn't notice this before for some reason. Also as I spun the the wheel today the rotor didn't seem to wobble, it was consistently off toward the middle of the bike. I will be taking the caliper bracket off, detaching the wheel drive spline from the hub, and spinning it on the axel to check where the rotor is at. Something is definately wonky.

I know the caliper bracket is non adjustable, so if it hits the rotor and the rotor is straight as a arrow, clearly that means either I A) have a bent brake caliper bracket (highly unlikely) or B) the wheel/rotor/axel assembly is cocked and not square to the swingarm. I did take the final drive off to lube the splines but I went through and made sure the axel pipe was lined up as the shop manual suggested. The tire definately looks plumb/square to the swingarm. I am thinking it must be a warped rear rotor. Suprizing since it had half the factory pad left at 12K miles. I wonder if the EBC rotor is any decent?

I already have a set of bearings and seals I picked up so I will go ahead and replace the bearings just in case. I just have to find my blind bearing puller and use my buddies shop press to take care of the bearing swap. I am hoping for the best at this point...

Grease the calliper slide pins. The rear has pistons on one side only so the calliper has to slide in out to compensate.
Any dirt or corrosion and they very quickly stop sliding. It's NOT an R3 specific issue. I spend most Thursdays in a Bike Work-Shop - Seen so many of these issues it's really unfunny.

Oldschool said:

Also on a side note: I bought my rocket at the only dealer within 2 hours. There was a new dealer opening up that I went to (I wont name names) and I went there to see if I could test drive a rocket to see if I wanted it. They were doing demo days and I wanted to take a rocket out on my own, which the dealer/triumph factory wouldn't let me. I said I don't feel safe riding with other people I have never ridden with before, and was told "Well you will have to go to a real triumph dealer then". Confused by that statement considering the dealer had a triumph sign and triumph bikes, I took my buisness elsewhere. That dealer has since moved and seems to be a bit better overall, but I dont think they will be able to pull any strings for me on getting warranty repairs. Even more so since the dealer I bought my bike from is no longer a dealer and possibly for good reason.

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I see that you are in Milwaukee - tis an HD CONSPIRACY!!!

barbagris said:

Grease the calliper slide pins. The rear has pistons on one side only so the calliper has to slide in out to compensate.
Any dirt or corrosion and they very quickly stop sliding. It's NOT an R3 specific issue. I spend most Thursdays in a Bike Work-Shop - Seen so many of these issues it's really unfunny.

Click to expand...

The rotor is hitting the caliper mounting bracket which is bolted through the axel and can't be adjusted in any way to control rotor clearance. The calipers themselves slide fine and were greased when I put the pads on them.

I am definately thinking the rotor is warped at this point however I will be checking everything out along with replacing the bearings.


I see that you are in Milwaukee - tis an HD CONSPIRACY!!!
It might just be... If harley built the rocket I would own a harley. Then again maybe I wouldn't since it would cost 50K dollars because it would be above all their current bikes. I like harley in the fact I can get all the parts and fix anything thats wrong with it. Trying to get parts for the rocket is a joke around here, nothing is in stock and ordering can take a while.