Broke down R3T in New Jersey.

[Ridgerunner]

Oh man! I just traded my low milage 07 Harley Street Glide and my low mileage 05 Honda ST1300 in on a new 011 R3 touring last weekend. I have 500 miles on it and just dumped all the fluids and the oil filter today. Will do it again at 1000 miles and then every 5000 after that.

This thread does not inspire confidence in the R3! I had read the bikes had some early on problems, but the owner at Doug Douglas Triumph in San Bernardino, CA told me they had all been addressed by Triumph. Man this don't sound good. I got mine to do long road trips on long lonely roads. This ain't good. I was initially worried about Triumph dealers and the lack of them. But everyone on the Triumph Rat forum said it's a good bike. This ain't good news!

Don't panic yet. Yes it's true that some of us have had some problems. And some of us have had no problems at all. All in all it's a good bike. Give it a chance. I think overall you will be very pleased with it. Hell, give yourself 6 months and you will be wearing a t-shirt that says "harley sucks".

 

[Lester532]

Oh man! I just traded my low milage 07 Harley Street Glide and my low mileage 05 Honda ST1300 in on a new 011 R3 touring last weekend. I have 500 miles on it and just dumped all the fluids and the oil filter today. Will do it again at 1000 miles and then every 5000 after that.

This thread does not inspire confidence in the R3! I had read the bikes had some early on problems, but the owner at Doug Douglas Triumph in San Bernardino, CA told me they had all been addressed by Triumph. Man this don't sound good. I got mine to do long road trips on long lonely roads. This ain't good. I was initially worried about Triumph dealers and the lack of them. But everyone on the Triumph Rat forum said it's a good bike. This ain't good news!

Everyone posts when something goes wrong. It's bad luck to brag about not having any problems.

 

[dandiego]

Everyone posts when something goes wrong. It's bad luck to brag about not having any problems.

I agree about it being bad voodoo to brag about never having problems with your bike!

I've posted an awful lot of the good stuff (multi-day rides). I had to finally start posting about my FOUR major breakdowns and the lack of Triumph support.

Hey, I was loving it when my bike ran. But it is no fun at all when you break down twice in two days thousands of miles from home. And then Triumph doesn't step up and help. Actuall, quite the opposite. While my bike is under warranty, they're arguing with me.


I have had my bike serviced, at every interval, at authorized Triumph dealers. And the many occasions of warranty work, too. There comes a time when enough is enough, right?


I can't honestly tell a fellow or potential R3 rider that it's all peaches and cream.


Cause it ain't...

 

[muleskinner]

Luckily I'm a wrench and have the facilities to do the work. But, I don't need the practice if ya know what I mean!

 

[CanberraR3]

I don't have a Touring but I do ride my R3 Standard every day and bloody hard sometimes. It's the most reliable bike I've owned.

 

[RKTBOB]

I have over 32,000 miles on my 08 R3T..Minor issues that has never put bike out of commission..would buy another..great cruiser with power(did I say power?) and torque for passing.Over 1800 sold in 08,only a handful of people complain here on this site...always the same people(lemons??)

 

[CWCobra]

I've put almost 5,000 miles on my R3T since April.
No issues at all. Great bike so far: 2009 model, bought used.

CW

 

[dandiego]

Luckily I'm a wrench and have the facilities to do the work. But, I don't need the practice if ya know what I mean!

I have a garage to work on my R3T, too. But out in the Texas desert, 40 miles from nowhere (except Van Horn, which really is nowhere), the options for working on my bike were limited.

Folks, if your bike is running well, kudos to you.

But I have a 2009 with 32,000 miles on it that has broken down 4 times. All have been warranty repairs with apologies from Triumph and a promise that it won't happen again. It did. It always does.

Potential owners should know that there are problems with a "touring" bike that doesn't like touring.

I have a grand collection of my bike on the back of fladbeds, tow trucks and other wreckers. Even AMA is wondering why I'm maxing my towing benefits every year.

It's acting suspiciously like a Harley. And so is their customer service.

 

[muleskinner]

Harley not so bad

Ya know I only had one problem with my 07 Street Glide in 20,000 miles. The fuel pump pressure regulator in the fuel tank got something under the pintal valve and started diverting all the fuel back to the tank. Was it a bad valve? Or was it a small piece of foreign material? No one will ever know. But it quit running on me on Highway 46, 10 miles West of Highway 99 in Bakersfield, while I was wide open in fourth gear passing an 18 wheeler. Not good. I had to get towed 300 miles home. So I know where you are at. My wife has a 2005 Road King with 18,000 miles on it and has had zero problems. Harley's are a lot better than they used to be.

I just got tired of the "Harley thing" and having to do a bunch of Mods to the engine to get the bike to run right. Because of smog standards, they come from the factory very lean. They need cams, tuner, air cleaner and exhaust changes to make them run good. Also, I got tired of worrying if I was going to overheat in traffic in the hot desert areas. So here I am. An R3T owner. We shall see. So far I like the bike.

 

[dandiego]

Picked up the bike. All better now?

I picked up my R3T from my local dealer last night. He explained that they located two fairly major electrical issues, in addition to a malfuctioning alarm. One of the electrical issues had to do with the ignition, and they added a bypass (my term, not theirs) to minimize overheating of those wires. Triumph also paid for a brand new alarm as it was still under warranty.

I'm assured that this bike will cause me no more grief. I'm hopefull, but we'll see.

All of the last repairs were covered under warranty.

Now, I begin working with Triumph USA (customer satisfaction/after sales) for reimbursement of my "considerable" expenses...