Clutch gone after 2 months......

Rock Ape

.040 Over
Joined
Aug 30, 2020
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98
Ride
Rocket 3 R
Love this video by Triumph
but have they got a problem or am I just unlucky? Do these bikes in the video survive?

Riding Rocket 3 R

Problem: Took the beast for a few laps of a race track where she performed nicely. But then, a quick launch - wanted to do a straight line run, try to spin up the rear to warm the tyres more .... Noise but no movement. Upshot being she just sits there. Goes up and down gears on indictor but wont move. Revs in gear, no clutch in but moves no where. What do you think guys? The dealership yesterday diagnosed it as ****ed clutch. Never seen anything like it they said.

Now I have done a little hooning but nothing extreme and not to the levels of the video above. I have never in my life blown up a clutch on the plethora of bikes I have owned, yet here, after 2 months of ownership of the new R 3, it is gone! Worse thing is that being so new and so few in the country here in Australia, I may not see the bike for a while. Keen on your thoughts

I hope it is a freak occurrence and not an ingrained issue with the bike. Anyone else have this problem?

DD
 
Take no offense by my next comment but... I hope it's you! :p

I would hate to think these new units have a clutch problem.
I don't mate. I wish it was. I have owned a plethora of bikes though and NEVER ONCE blown up a clutch. I have had a few moments of hooning - but rare. A few quick launches to blow away some gixxers :) and that is about it. All I did in this case was to try warm the tyres with a small burnout. Nothing out of the ordinary and at 53, I don't ride it like I stole it all the time. Am hoping it is just a freak event.
 
Did you hear anything when the failure happened? Any snap, grinding, scraping noises? Did it happen while the tire was spinning and just stop dead or before you let the clutch out???? Confusing. Curious to see what the failure is. A lot of us can guess away about the type of failure but being so new....
 
Could you baby it and get it to move? How did you get home? Were you able to gingerly ride it home? If so then I would think that the fiber and steel plates may be toast. If you could not detect any clutch action at all then I would suspect a broken cable or clutch actuator. Does the clutch lever feel like always when pulled in?
 
Did you hear anything when the failure happened? Any snap, grinding, scraping noises? Did it happen while the tire was spinning and just stop dead or before you let the clutch out???? Confusing. Curious to see what the failure is. A lot of us can guess away about the type of failure but being so new....
Nothing. No noise. Maybe the engine drowned it out. The tyres did not spin out. Was like WTF and then she just did not move. Heavy beast to roll off the race track. :) Had literally only done about 6 laps of a small loop track and not big enough to hit any high speeds. Coincide? Been riding without TC for a couple of weeks as it was kicking in to much off the lights. I can't explain it as I really haven't been riding her that hard and no more than I have any other of my bikes. Crazy thing is I traded my 2012 Diavel Carbon for it because I was at the point of thinking that was going to go soon - being so insane and on edge all the time where the Rocket 3 felt so refined and did things so easy in comparison.

Maybe the standard clutch just can't cope with the bike and how Triumph promotes you can ride it?
 
Could you baby it and get it to move? How did you get home? Were you able to gingerly ride it home? If so then I would think that the fiber and steel plates may be toast. If you could not detect any clutch action at all then I would suspect a broken cable or clutch actuator. Does the clutch lever feel like always when pulled in?
No. Had to push it and walk it off sitting on it off the track and onto the street. Alternating - so heavy. Had about 300 Metres and that was tough. :) Had to get roadside service (part of my insurance to take it to the dealership. The dealer saw it yesterday and it is definitely the clutch. Triumph have asked for it to be sent to them. They seem concerned.
 
I don't think the factory clutch can cope with the bike and harder launches to be honest which flies in the face of some of their marketing for the bike. Had the 2012 Diavel Carbon for a long time and that clutch never had a problem with hard launches. Unless it was a freak accident, they may need to consider a better heavy duty clutch for this bike.
 
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