ZoneIII
Supercharged
I returned from a 6,000 solo trip two weeks ago. It was great! I did a similar trip on a Bonneville back in the late 60s. The Rocket was a joy to ride with one exception. On a twisty mountain road 44 miles from the nearest town (Sweet Home, Oregon) and with no cell phone tower, I glanced down to see my oil pressure light on. As you know, unless you glance down at the dummy light, you can miss a warning because of it's placement. I do glance down periodically but I don't know how long the light is on. Well, you don't mess with oil pressure! The light would go on for 30 seconds or so and then go off. The problem was there was no place to stop and no way to get help. There was no tappet or engine noise indicating it was oil starved so I pushed on slowly. That 44 miles felt like 500 miles. I finally got to Sweet Home and an old man came up to me to tell me about his old Triumph back in the 60s. He pointed me to a sport motorcycle shop/welding shop where I might get help. The guy at the shop was amazing. He dropped everything and we worked on the bike all day in temperatures well over 100. The odd thing was that when I stopped in Sweet Home and let the bike sit for 5 or 10 minutes (before going to the shop) the oil was reading very high in the oil tank making me think oil was not getting out of the tank. So we removed the oil tank and flushed the ports out. Unfortunately, that didn't fix things and it turns out that two of the intake bands had loosened so, when I left the shop, it would "pop" and spit gas every once in a while, especially when throttling down. I had to have the bike towed about 100 miles to Beaverton, Oregon where there's a great Triumph shop. The took the bike in right away and determined that the problem was a bad oil pressure sending unit, which was good news for me. But they also said the water pump was leaking so they had to order one from Triumph. Triumph rushed it out the next day but the shop was closed on Monday so I had to stay in town for three nights. (I have my doubts about the water pump leaking. The bike was brand new and I always check for leaks whenever I approach the bike and there's never been a single drop of anything under the bike. Also, I have a picture of the bike on a huge piece of cardboard from when we were working on it in Sweet Home and the cardboard is perfectly dry. Oh well!
As I said, the folks at Triumph in Beaverton were great but something odd happened. They dropped the bike off at motel after test driving it. The next morning when I hit the road, the intake boot was popping like crazy. They had to have noticed that when test driving it and delivering it and they new I was in the middle of a long trip. It was OK when cruising but would pop through the loose boot when backing off the throttle. I got to my son's house on the coast and we tighted the boots as best we could and it was almost perfect but it did pop a couple times when engine braking in twisty mountain roads. So I called ahead to Triumph in Reno, Nevada and they took the bike right in when I got there and fixed it right. Great folks!
So I was on the road again. I crossed Nevada on highway 50, known as "The Lonliest Road in America." Great ride. If you get a "Highway 50 Survival Guide" stamped at at least five stops along the way, you get a signed thing and pin from the governor of Nevada. (You can read about this road on Wikipedia or just do a search for it. There's videos of it on YouTube.) Anyway, it was a great ride and I'll do it again if I'm out that way in the future. It was the old Pony Express Route. I'm not a speed freak. I got over that long ago. But just for the heck of it, I gave the throttle a slight twist and hit 100 mph almost instantly from about 70 or so. I then gave it another quick twist and the bike leaped forward as it I was only going 50. It was effortless for that big engine.
I passed through Sturgis on my way out from my home in Northern Illinois. Thankfully, it was a couple weeks before the rally. I avoided it like the plague on my way home, taking a two lane country road along the southern border of South Dakota (another great ride). I wanted to avoid 80 across Nebraska because I've driven it several times and it's boring and monotonous as hell.
I met some real characters in the remote towns I passed through. All in all, it was a great trip. Now I'm planning on taking a ride around Lake Superior this fall with my wife or maybe riding to the New England states. (She loves the bike.) I love the bike!
Other than the oil pressure sending unit, the bike drove like a dream. I confess, though, that I'm a little slow in the twisties. Part of that is because I almost hit four dear on the trip - three on twisty roads. Also, I'm always careful when I ride (or drive) over hills or around curves if something could be right over that hill or around that sharp turn. But it's also because, for some reason, I still don't feel comfortable on sharp turns with the R3T or, expecially, when doing slow manuevers. It's NOT the bike. It's me. I just have to get used to it. I think I lost a little nerve when I first got the bike and tipped it over a few times when stopping. My stops and starts are perfect now but it put something in my head that's been hard to shake. It was a bit frustrating on mountain roads with sharp twisties ands switchbacks because I would always find I was holding someone up behind me. Embarrassing!
On a different subject, I did buy the TuneECU connector and I also bought DealerTool and their software. I haven't used either yet but I will this fall before putting the bike away for the winter. From what I can tell, DealerTool looks really user-friendly. It reportedly will do anything the Triumph tool will do but it can't do anything that it wouldn't do - like load up different maps. It'll balance the throttle bodies, bleed ALB, etc. I'll report on it after I use it.
I also have the special tool for replacing the valve shims without removing the cams. I haven't used that yet either but I'll report on that too when I do. It's a very nicely machined tool.
Sorry for the double posting of one of the attached pictures. I don't know how that happened. It doesn't show up in the attachment feature. Notice there is no drops of anything on the cardboard under the bike when we worked on it in Sweet Home, Oregon. That's why I was skeptical when the Triumph dealer in Beaverton said the water pump was leaking and needed replacement. There's never been a single drop of anything under the bike. And we would have seen it while working on it all day. The bike only drove about 1/4 mile after that picture was taken before being towed to Beaverton so it couldn't start leaking in that short distance. Strange.
As I said, the folks at Triumph in Beaverton were great but something odd happened. They dropped the bike off at motel after test driving it. The next morning when I hit the road, the intake boot was popping like crazy. They had to have noticed that when test driving it and delivering it and they new I was in the middle of a long trip. It was OK when cruising but would pop through the loose boot when backing off the throttle. I got to my son's house on the coast and we tighted the boots as best we could and it was almost perfect but it did pop a couple times when engine braking in twisty mountain roads. So I called ahead to Triumph in Reno, Nevada and they took the bike right in when I got there and fixed it right. Great folks!
So I was on the road again. I crossed Nevada on highway 50, known as "The Lonliest Road in America." Great ride. If you get a "Highway 50 Survival Guide" stamped at at least five stops along the way, you get a signed thing and pin from the governor of Nevada. (You can read about this road on Wikipedia or just do a search for it. There's videos of it on YouTube.) Anyway, it was a great ride and I'll do it again if I'm out that way in the future. It was the old Pony Express Route. I'm not a speed freak. I got over that long ago. But just for the heck of it, I gave the throttle a slight twist and hit 100 mph almost instantly from about 70 or so. I then gave it another quick twist and the bike leaped forward as it I was only going 50. It was effortless for that big engine.
I passed through Sturgis on my way out from my home in Northern Illinois. Thankfully, it was a couple weeks before the rally. I avoided it like the plague on my way home, taking a two lane country road along the southern border of South Dakota (another great ride). I wanted to avoid 80 across Nebraska because I've driven it several times and it's boring and monotonous as hell.
I met some real characters in the remote towns I passed through. All in all, it was a great trip. Now I'm planning on taking a ride around Lake Superior this fall with my wife or maybe riding to the New England states. (She loves the bike.) I love the bike!
Other than the oil pressure sending unit, the bike drove like a dream. I confess, though, that I'm a little slow in the twisties. Part of that is because I almost hit four dear on the trip - three on twisty roads. Also, I'm always careful when I ride (or drive) over hills or around curves if something could be right over that hill or around that sharp turn. But it's also because, for some reason, I still don't feel comfortable on sharp turns with the R3T or, expecially, when doing slow manuevers. It's NOT the bike. It's me. I just have to get used to it. I think I lost a little nerve when I first got the bike and tipped it over a few times when stopping. My stops and starts are perfect now but it put something in my head that's been hard to shake. It was a bit frustrating on mountain roads with sharp twisties ands switchbacks because I would always find I was holding someone up behind me. Embarrassing!
On a different subject, I did buy the TuneECU connector and I also bought DealerTool and their software. I haven't used either yet but I will this fall before putting the bike away for the winter. From what I can tell, DealerTool looks really user-friendly. It reportedly will do anything the Triumph tool will do but it can't do anything that it wouldn't do - like load up different maps. It'll balance the throttle bodies, bleed ALB, etc. I'll report on it after I use it.
I also have the special tool for replacing the valve shims without removing the cams. I haven't used that yet either but I'll report on that too when I do. It's a very nicely machined tool.
Sorry for the double posting of one of the attached pictures. I don't know how that happened. It doesn't show up in the attachment feature. Notice there is no drops of anything on the cardboard under the bike when we worked on it in Sweet Home, Oregon. That's why I was skeptical when the Triumph dealer in Beaverton said the water pump was leaking and needed replacement. There's never been a single drop of anything under the bike. And we would have seen it while working on it all day. The bike only drove about 1/4 mile after that picture was taken before being towed to Beaverton so it couldn't start leaking in that short distance. Strange.
