Speed Triple Rs 4th Gear Problems

Still had a good day though steve on my 1995 triumph thunderbird, nothings wrong with the gear box and everything works as it should and come to think of it nothings gone wrong in 24 years either hahahaha

 

Ok, enjoy the Harley

 

Triumph is dead to me....

My bike has been at the dealer since August 14th. It took them until the 22nd to "find" that there was an issue with the gearbox during a road test. Keep in mind this is the second dealer I've been to this summer. This issue has been going on since May!

I've been passed around Triumph NA from after sales agent to agent like a dirty rag. I've put less than 500km on the bike this year and it's not fixed yet. It's had more km put on it by mechanics than I have.
They decided to swap the transmission out last week, but all parts are back order and need to be shipped from the UK. Triumph has managed to ruin my entire riding season, my love for my Speed Triple and trust in the brand... I'm beyond pissed off now! I haven't even touched the bike since August 14th!
Has anyone here ever taken legal action for a similar outrageous after sales shit storm and/or ridiculous repair timeframe like this? I'm at my wits end and feel like they shouldn't get away with this.

 

Tank fuel connector is loose...... you might guess how I know. It took about 3 weeks for mine to decide to come loose on a weekend in the Lakes (after I had removed the tank to fit the QS).

Easy roadside fix as long as you have a mate with an 8mm spanner (there is one under my seat now).

 

Yip i have a feeling its gunna be that, i refuse to get my spanners out buddy, its just been serviced ££££ and I've not had it to bits yet.

 

I feel your pain. Mine spent over three weeks in the shop with the same issue before it was sorted. On top of that, the quickshifter issue was not resolved, so I just don’t use it anymore. It’s hard to believe Triumph can’t find a fix for this. Some on here have had it fixed, others like myself haven’t. It definitely took the shine of a new purchase for me.

 

Nope it wasnt as simple as you describe dude and I'm really glad i didnt look into myself and waste my day in the process..... my dealer reported back- the fuel line from the tank to the throttle bodies was at fault.

 

Update!

After a hard and long battle, Triumph finally stepped up and swapped my speedy. To recap, I made them aware of the quickshifter issue April 23rd. After four months, the dealer could not diagnose the issue. I went to another dealer in my area for a second opinion. Within a week, he found an discrepency in the transmission.
Then, my bike spent 7 weeks at the dealer while Triumph attempted to sort their shit out and swap the trany... Which never happend. I huffed and I puffed, and finally made them understand that I was done with their BS! Anyway, when I picked up the new bike, it put a smile on my face like the first time I ever saw the thing. Im happy with the result although I can never recuperate the time lost. Im going to leave the QS de-activated for the time being. Ride safe gents!

 

Congrats. Good idea leaving the quickshifter de-activated.

 

That's great news, Luke! Congrats on the new bike. Your persistence paid off. Enjoy riding that new Speedy.

 

Excellent news Luke, lets hope it was worth the wait!

 

My bike goes in for the new gear linkage on Wednesday
Hopefully it fixes the delay I get when shifting 4-5 & 5-6
I’m a bit worried it won’t and that gearbox damaged occurred when the QS was fitted as it took all day and they struggled to get it working. It mostly shifts well but sometimes has an annoying long delay and clinks into the next gear, downshift is perfect though.

 

I don't know if i'm unlucky as it's only been the once but i've had this on a speed triple rs WITHOUT a qs.
Myself and my girlfriend were going along "briskly" and i had the awful grinding when going from 4-5th.
Pulled clutch i and tried up again and there was an awful grinding and a clunk when it went in.
This was only the once and on only on about 1000 miles (now on 4100 after a 1600 NC500 trip)
All positions are on default btw (with splines/levers etc) so i've not adjusted anything.
Only the once but its happened WITHOUT the QS for me.
I see all of the threads saying it's about the qs but for me, that's definitely not the case .

 

I thought I'd post up my experience with blowing out 4th gear due to issues with Shift Assist. Strap in, it's a long one

While on a road trip about 7 days into it I had an issue. Pulling out on to the highway I was on it hard using the quick shifter ... 2nd, 3rd, CRUNCH, 4th and so on. The bike had on occasion had what I would call an incomplete shift using the QS in the past, maybe a handful of times. This time the crunch/bang sound was louder than normal but the bike appeared to be ok. About 2 hours later I was leaned over (Think Valentino Rossi ... ha ha) while in fourth gear accelerating the bike felt like it lost traction briefly in the rear. After I composed myself and confirmed that a change of underwear wasn't necessary I continued my quest to kill my chicken strips. Thought out the day the bike did this from time to time, after a while I discovered that it seemed to be only happening in 4th gear. After checking the chain tension and disabling the QS it still happened, and more frequently. I then just avoided 4th gear (yay torque).

Did a bit of research and came across this thread, which verified in my mind the transmission was damaged as a result of the QS.

Once I returned home I took it to the dealer, armed with the knowledge gleaned from this thread and my own observations. It took the dealer less than a day to recreate the problem and start the tear down. Took about a week before Triumph authorized the warranty work. Parts were on order, including 2 key parts (in my mind) ... the Shift Assist (Quickshifter) and the updated gear clamp assembly (T2085100). I believe this updated part with the milled out section is the fix to this issue, and also should be proof that both Triumph and my dealer are aware of the issue and have a workaround for it. Surely they would issue a recall and proactively avoid damaging transmissions .... ya no.

Anyway, back to my exciting story. I contacted the dealer about every two weeks for a status update. Each time the answer was: "waiting for back ordered part from Triumph UK". Fast forward to Oct 18th and all the parts finally arrived to repair my bike (according to the dealer). The dealer informs me that bike is ready and I pick i up on October 19th.

Picked the bike up, not so much as a "sorry for the delay" or even any acknowledgement of the situation, hell they didn't even wash the bike!. The only thing he said was something about the manual stating that the QS should only be used at 50% throttle and above and 5000rpm. I don't know where this comes from since I can not find this in the manual. Page 81 has information about using the QS, nothing about throttle % or RPM. And I can be 100% sure I was about 5000rpm and at 100% throttle. I later spoke to the Service Manager and he said that advice was in his opinion, fair enough.

I asked the service manager what do I do if this happens again out of warranty. He assured me that this would not happen again, since the root cause of the problem has been addressed with the QS and the updated part He was very confident of this, I'm inclined to agree. However when push comes to shove this is worth exactly nothing if the issue reoccurs.

I rode the bike about 30km (It is just above 0c) running through the gears multiple times. If anything, 1-2 shift seemed smoother and less crunchy than before. But that could be me hoping for a better experience as a reward for my 2 month wait. Placebo, right?

So it took 2 months in 2019 to get a part from Triumph UK, when I can order almost anything from Amazon and have it here in 24 hours. I'm told that the delay was due to supply chain and logistics issues. THIS to me is the real crime. I can deal with there being damage to the bike, shift happens. I can deal with a bug which leads to the damage, shift happens. BUT what I have a HUGE issue with is the 2 month wait time to get it back and the fact that they have a known issue and fix that they aren't communicating to their dealer network. THAT is criminal in my opinion.

Now that I have the bike back I will begin my campaign to get some sort of resolution (satisfaction?) from Triumph.

-Triumph had a known issue with a fix that they did not proactively act upon. As per the dealers comment, and the fact that the updated clamp exists and that they changed it and my QS under warranty proves this.
-I know that they have done this repair on several motorcycles in North America prior to my issue, lots of good stories here.
-The symptom of the damage to the gear box (momentary popping out of gear) could have easily caused me to lose control of the motorcycle. Probably not a big deal being full lean in 4th gear on a mountain road right? Um no.
-A current model in the showroom of my dealer does not have the updated clamp installed. For the cost of the part either for Triumph or the Dealer it'll save one of their customers a huge head ache. So at least one or both is prepared to cause a customer who spent north of $17K (Canadian) on a PREMIUM motorcycle a serious headache that will taint the brand for them going forward .

I've owned the bike from mid July 2018. That's about 13 months of ownership. 2 months in the shop. I've effectively lost 2 months of my 24 month warranty, and those 2 months were in prime riding season .

What would make me happy? An additional year of warranty to make up for the lost coverage while he bike was being repaired. A note on file with Triumph NA that this happened and that they will cover it if it happens out of warranty. And as a good will gesture for my time and inconvenience, my 20000km service covered by either the dealer or Triumph NA.

My concern (RAGE!!) isn't focused on the actual problem, this is the 3rd new Triumph I've owned since 2011 (2010 Thruxton, 2013 Speed, 2019 SpeedRS) and this is the first time I've had to make a warranty claim. That's about 90,000km of riding with only one problem. Not bad, so I like the machinery it is just the warranty process that has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Sorry for the long manifesto style post, but I thought someone might like to read a detailed account of my experience.

tl;dr
Triumph knew about a potentially serious issue with 2019 Speed RS with factory Shift Assist and did nothing to proactively fix it (recall?). It took Triumph nearly 2 months to get the parts to my dealer. User (me) is going to ineffectually attempt to get some sort of satisfaction from the dealer, expect a bitter disappointment post as a companion to this one.

Thanks for reading!

Jason

 

I hope that resolves the issue for you. You probably saw that I went over three weeks with the dealer and Triumph screwing around. I emailed the CEO and received a new bike the next day. Even with a brand new bike with the new shift linkage arm, the bike would still false neutral. For me there has been no resolve. I even tried to get Triumph to buy back the damn shifter and they won’t. As you know here in North America you are forced to buy the quickshifter on the RS. Then when it doesn’t work as advertised (or in other words DESTROYS YOUR F@*CKING BIKE) they aren’t prepared to do anything to right the issue. I really love the bike but I doubt I would buy another Triumph because of all of this.

 

I missed the part the you got an entirely new bike, I thought it was just the guts of the transmission. I'm impressed that Nick Bloor dealt with your problem that quickly, that says a lot about the organization that they gave you a brand new bike.

I'm going to go on the assumption that the issue is fixed until I'm proven wrong. If that happens then back to the dealer it goes and we start over.

Sorry it hasn't worked out for you, you seem to be cursed.

Jason

 

Hey Jason, I was asked by the dealer not to say anything, but after Triumph reneged on buying back my quickshifter, I thought it was important to tell the truth. I can’t be sure it was Nick who made the call to replace my bike but it does seem more than coincidental. Some bikes have the issue and others don’t. Again, I hope everything works out for you.

 

After loosing 7 weeks of premium riding season for the same reasons(parts backordered, poor customer service and negligence from Triumph, I email and called everyone to get some answers. I did email Nick Bloor with an address I got on this forum and the NA service manager did mention that he got an call from him saying: “you need to settle this issue with the customer ASAP “.
The ceo does read his emails gents! Don’t give up. I also got a brand new bike Sept 27th and I’m in love with my speedy again. I just won’t be using the QS for a while...or ever!

 

Would you mind sharing the contact details for Nick Bloor here please?

 

https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/recall/2019-triumph-speed-triple-rs-quickshifter-recall/

And there we go, a little late for some of us.