How much lash in the drive train is normal?

[Wrecka]

I feel it to some extent when walking my bike home after work in the stop and go traffic. I work mine out by slipping the clutch ever-so-slightly to decrease any abruptness that is associated with the drive shaft. Many of my previous bikes had drive shafts, (VMax and several Hondas), the R3T is no worse than any of them and better than most of the Hondas I have ridden. It seems about the same as my VMax which is manageable in my opinion.

I totally agree, i have owned an R3S and 3 vmax's previously ( got 13 R3R Now ) and driveline lash is all the same.

 

[ski]

I have a 2014 Touring and I felt the lash was excessive. I too have had shaft driven bikes. If you read some of the reviews from motorcycle mags, drive shaft lash is usually mentioned as being more than on than other bikes. I just came back from Tennessee and the Dragon and I was careful as all the down and up shifting from 1st to 2nd and 3rd puts seems to put undo stress on the shaft. That being said...Triumph doesn't seem to mind.

 

[Jeff Cameron]

My Rocket has more driveline lash that I like. My last two bikes were also shaft drive and they did not have has much. Mine is most noticeable on the 1-2 shift.

 

[cr0ft]

Just for the record here I thought I'd add that when I got my new throttle cables, the curved metal parts you actually attach to the bike on the ends were loose (that is, as long as the cable is loose, you can pull them off the cable end so you see wire between them) unlike the stock black cables that are pretty much one big unit. This made it very easy to adjust the throttle cables until they were perfectly tensioned - when you could no longer easily pull the cable sheath out of the holder at the end, you had perfect tension, not too much and not too little, on both the throttle and the throttle return.

This made a marked difference on the drive train lash, it became much easier to control the throttle and not have the bike "thud" to a stop or when it gets moving. So anyone who has objectionable drive train lash may want to verify that both throttle cables are tensioned just right, not too little and not too much. It doesn't make the lash go away, but it does make it much easier to control it, I find.

 

[STRIPES]

My last Harley got lashed a lot.

 

[TriumPhil]

I lash my mistress, not the other way around!

Given the output from our Beasts and comparable to other shaft-driven steeds, ours, as Boog indicated, is far better than many if not most others of the same ilk.

 

[ROCKETHEAD]

Just for the record here I thought I'd add that when I got my new throttle cables, the curved metal parts you actually attach to the bike on the ends were loose (that is, as long as the cable is loose, you can pull them off the cable end so you see wire between them) unlike the stock black cables that are pretty much one big unit. This made it very easy to adjust the throttle cables until they were perfectly tensioned - when you could no longer easily pull the cable sheath out of the holder at the end, you had perfect tension, not too much and not too little, on both the throttle and the throttle return.

This made a marked difference on the drive train lash, it became much easier to control the throttle and not have the bike "thud" to a stop or when it gets moving. So anyone who has objectionable drive train lash may want to verify that both throttle cables are tensioned just right, not too little and not too much. It doesn't make the lash go away, but it does make it much easier to control it, I find.

Agreed, my wings had a lot of lash but once adjusting the throttle cables and twist play a lot of that went away...

 

[rolandrat]

I had lots of clunking back and forth a while ago,at walking pace in traffic.i stripped the swing arm etc and found nothing wrong.i have changed the TPS this week and the clunking back and forth has gone.the voltage on the TPS was fine on the old one.slight vibes have also gone.still got lash but nothing like before.im going to try the cable trick just to eliminate what lash is left...

 

[TriumPhil]

You might want to examine your clutch adjustment/gear selector fork-shift arm array as possible sources of that clunking.

 

[Scuba Craig]

A question without notice from the under-informed … Is the lash we are talking about (i) the clunk changing from one gear to the other, or (ii) the driveline taking up the slack when you come on the gas?

I get a pretty good clunk when shifting up from 1st to 2nd at low rpm (crawling traffic etc). But it does not occur when I shift 1-2 at higher rpm.

I also get a bit of an engagement clunk when I come back on the gas in 2nd gear after taking a slow corner or roundabout etc. Those same corners taken in 1st or 3rd result in a much smoother experience.