New Rocket 3 2020 Minor Issues

Hi David, the trouble with spending A LOT of money on anything is that there can be expectations of perfection. I've had this on cars I've bought in the past, such as my 911 cabriolet - it was beautiful, fantastic to drive, but NOT perfect.

Re your specific issues I would say that ref the 'spanner' your bike is trying to tell you something - needs a service, somethings broken or out of spec. but something not right.

The idling variance - well it's a 3 cylinder 4 stroke engine so it's inherently out of balance on idle - my 3 cylinder Tiger used to do exactly the same - assuming it runs smooth smoothly I don't think there's anything very big to worry about but you're going to have to take the bike to the dealer anyway so ask them their opinion.

The noises on cool-down seem pretty normal to me - ticking, farting all this suggests the bike is relaxing after a ride.

 

Thanks a lot for your input @thebiglad, I think a lot of my disappoint does, as you allude, stem from haivng waited a year since putting a deposit down, going form excitement, to frustration, and then finally elation to get it, that niggles (while probably inevitable) do bring you down a bit.

I did speak to the dealer about the spanner, and they said it was normal, they all do it. I may have to push them on that :-/ especially since it seems @SleepyOwl 's doesn't show it.

It is good to know however that the slightly erratic idle, and cool down noises are not particularly scary to others though. My commander is, I guess by comparison, a fairly simple bike, and with it's great thonking parallel twin engine with offset firing, is designed to rumbly. But it also is a twin, which is probably inherently more stable than a triple as you say.

Cheers!

 

I must say, I do like my commander. Aside from the belt whirring, and the other initial issues ... oh, and the battery going dead after about every 18 months despite being on an optimate ... I do love it. I can get a lot out of that machine, broadly keeping up with mates on GSXRs and S1000s.

Do you know what polish you used, and how it was applied at all?

 

The usual cause of fluctuating idle in an efi motor is a defective Mass Airflow Sensor. It might also explain your wee spanner.

 

It was this one. Just spray it on the inside of the belt all the way around and it should fix your problem..

 

A bike that is only 170mls old needs some more settling time.
My T120 with 16k makes all sorts of noises when ignition is first switched on? I expected the fuel pump to run but there are, as you say whirrs and clicks, but these would appear to be normal.
You may possibly need a throttle body sync? to cure idle issue.

but ride it and take it back when its due its first visit(do bikes still need oil change at 600-1k?)

 

600 miles is the initial service, yes. And to be fair, they've said the same, i.e. to wait until then and bring it in. And I'm less concerned about the idle, now that people have said that with other triumph 3-pot engines, they see the same thing.

But with the spanner issue, I'm tempted to run down there sooner for fear of making and minor problem a major one. I'd be great if anyone with a new rocket can confirm for sure whether or not they see the same thing when they first switch on. Anyone due to pick one up, let me know!

 

I always understood that a three cylinder engine with a 120 degree firing order, as Triumph’s have, are blessed with perfect primary and secondary inertial balance. What they do suffer from is an end to end rocking motion, reduced by fitting a balance shaft. ?

 

This was captured with bike running from a YouTube clip, so I'd say it was normal and as I said in my previous post I'd change the date for service it should go out.

 

Here is my start up as promised. No spanner in sight

https://imgur.com/N1P2m0o

 

I just picked up my R3 TFC yesterday. I had the spanner warning constantly on (red not orange) from the time i rode off the dealership. They told me it would go away after some engine calibration but that wasn’t the case. In my case the servicing warning light came on because the default date was set to be 1/1/2000, and apparently the red warning shows up when you are past 365 days or 10,000 miles from last servicing. After i adjusted the date and reseted the service check, the warning disappeared.

My bike also shows a bit of rev instability at idle but i honestly didn’t think much of it. All my precious motorcycles had similar behaviors.

Key fob hasn’t been a problem so far.

Regarding the popping noise after a ride, i noticed that too coming from the fuel port, my guess is that after a ride, pressure builds up in the tank from the warm fuel and releases through the ao thread. My old Ducati Monster used to do that a lot.

On my end, i also have a couple of minor annoyances, not really with the bike itself as it is a beautifully design beast. I’m missing extension sockets in the tool kit located on the side panel, passenger seat is missing the seat strap, bluetooth module is extra and currently turn by turn doesn’t work for iphone 11 (unclear what the fix is, software vs hardware). I thought the heated grips were std on the TFC but guess i was wrong.. it’s my first Triumph and for such a special and expensive bike i expected a much more “premium” experience i guess.

Nitpicking aside, i’m in love with this bike, everything disappears as soon as i twist the throttle (but under 4,000 rpm ). Such a beautiful machine!

 

Wow, thanks for all this.

Yes, the Bluetooth and heated grips not being included on a £25k bike is, quite frankly, bullshit. I had both fitted immediately.

Now not worried about the idle so much as people say it’s normal. So that’s all good. And I’ll check the service date and see if that removes the spanner.

Most annoying that you were told a blatant falsehood by your dealer about the red spanner, this validates why I don’t trust the dealers when I ask questions and always get the “yeah yeah, it’s normal” response.

I’ve just checked and my passenger seat does have a strap on it. I was t even aware of the ‘toolkit’, but in the side panel I seem to have just 2 Allen keys ... is there supposed to be anything else?

have you ridden it in the dark yet? I just came back from a ride in the dark, and my word ... the headlights (especially full beam) are almost entirely useless. I had to ride a country lane on low beam, and go around 20-30 mph because I could hardly see anything. Not sure if they’re faulty or just rubbish ... :-/

 

@Adc59 Just checked the manual and the bike, mine is also missing the extension socket Not even sure what it is, or what it's for, but I care that it's missing!

@SleepyOwl Have you ridden yours at night yet? How were the headlights?

 

Oh and @Adc59 you said "currently turn by turn doesn’t work for iphone 11 (unclear what the fix is, software vs hardware)"

Where did you hear that? I have an iPhone 11 (pro) and after significant work, I did get turn-by-turn working, but it's really finicky an unreliable, I made a whole other forum post about my issues with the bluetooth module (https://www.thetriumphforum.com/threads/bluetooth-woes.22707/). Did you get it fitted?

 

I thought it was fairly normal for vehicles to display all warning lights etc when first switched on. I assume to give confidence in the fact that they are working. If the spanner symbol goes off after a second or two then I can't see it being a problem.

 

@David Downes Sorry David, only just seen this. I havent yet ridden tin the dark Im afraid

 

I actually got a definitive answer on this!

So yeah, many lights do come on to show that they're working and then go off. But this 'light' is part of the TFT screen, so that doesn't make sense.

It turns out that I was right, I didn't see that warning when I first rode the bike, and indeed it did start a few days later. The reason is that it comes on to WARN you that you have a service approaching. So for me, it started after my first 100 miles, meaning I was then within 500 miles of my initial 600 service.

Not that it says that anywhere in the manual ...

 

So I'll give you a heads up on this @SleepyOwl ... I might be teaching you how to suck eggs here, so apologies if that's the case.

On the left hand control cluster, you have what looks like dip beam, and high beam. The high beam is basically useless, and the reason ... it's not the high beam!

Flicking up from low beam, is actually the Daytime Running Lights, you should be on that mode in daylight hours, it's a bit brighter than low beam, but doesn't have the illumination of the floor directly infront of the bike.

To get to HIGH beam, you switch it to LOW beam, and then use the red switch round the front of the left-hand instrument cluster. A switch I wasn't even aware was there

Like I say, if you've had a Triumph with DRL, then this is probably ridiculous obvious. But all my previous bikes didn't, and high beam was just the 'up' position of the low beam switch. So I was might perplexed by this!

 

I really hope you don't have any problems with the keyless ignition fob,in november i bought a Ktm with keyless ignition,the "key" was in the dealers drawer but in range of the bike for possibly weeks so the bike was on standby and could have been started,First time i took it out for a good run it died and would not even turn over,RAC came said the generator is not charging the battery and i had got that far on battery power alone,turns out the generator had burned out[from possibly having the ignition "on" all that time,month later new battery and generator,no loan bike,they would not give me my money back so i traded it in for a bike with a proper key.

 

Hi David,
Read the replies-I have a new Rocket GT and the key fob continuously tries to connect whilst riding (key sign on dash). Do you think it's the battery?
Good luck with your issues.