50k mile service

B

dandiego said:

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!! What grief trying to get the 50,000 mile service done.

There are only 2 real Triumph dealerships in the Tampa Bay Area—Tampa and Lakeland Triumph. And the one in Lakeland is a Fun Bike Center.

I asked for estimates on the service per the maintenance schedule and both places waffled. “Well, we kinda go off that sheet but we do our own thing.” The guy in Tampa said he’d “lube the chain.” I asked if he s worked in the Rocket III and he assured me he had. When I mentioned the R3 doesn’t have a chain, he said....”Oh, yeah...that’s right.”

Not instilling confidence.

Both quotes were between 5-7.5 hours of labor plus $200 in parts. $1,000?!? Really?

So frustrating.

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Both these dealers are in fact the same ownership...

dandiego said:

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!! What grief trying to get the 50,000 mile service done.

There are only 2 real Triumph dealerships in the Tampa Bay Area—Tampa and Lakeland Triumph. And the one in Lakeland is a Fun Bike Center.

I asked for estimates on the service per the maintenance schedule and both places waffled. “Well, we kinda go off that sheet but we do our own thing.” The guy in Tampa said he’d “lube the chain.” I asked if he s worked in the Rocket III and he assured me he had. When I mentioned the R3 doesn’t have a chain, he said....”Oh, yeah...that’s right.”

Not instilling confidence.

Both quotes were between 5-7.5 hours of labor plus $200 in parts. $1,000?!? Really?

So frustrating.

Click to expand...

OK look I’ve no vested interest here whatsoever but...you are not talking to the Tech. You’re talking to someone in the shop. Your experience is shocking I agree. However , Matt who would work on your bike is excellent. Overall I have never had anything like the experience you are having with these Guys. I have always found them to be terrific?

dandiego said:

Triumph just started implementing a new sales policy and dealers are dropping like flies. It’s just not doable.

The main issues are square footage (Triumph demands a lot of space), bike stock kept on hand (good for us and Triumph, not great for dealers) and hours of operation (6 days a week and at least one late night).

Many dealers refused to do it and its hurting Triumph owners.

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The other part of this is being required to refit thier shops. They are going for constant brand identity and experience. I agree with you it’s very tough on the dealers. It’s roots are in the UK. Before the 80s the car trade was a lottery. It was so crooked and untrustworthy you wouldn’t believe it. In the 80s started by Toyota , then quickly followed by BMW , Mercedes etc started to buy into these dealerships and retain ownership and run them by employing staff that now worked for one of these manufacturers. It was the best thing that ever happened, finally you knew you were not being ripped off by someone fixing a whine by throwing sawdust in the diff etc. Now they only rip you off on price . Seriously though as far as being a retailer, Triumph is displaying a woeful lack of understanding of the US market and it’s potential. They have forgotten one sacred rule. You give your customer what they want , not what you want to sell them. Thier new biz model is perfect for Europe but they are either naively or arrogantly not tailoring thier model to fit the US market. This is why , with very few exceptions there is not a retailer that does thrive both in the UK and the USA.( Marks and Spencer launched in USA and failed miserably. Wal Mart launched in UK and failed. Although seemingly similar these two markets are very different. Starbucks even got a head start in the UK and was quickly overtaken and outplayed by UK owned brands copying them eg Costa) Potentially the US market is big enough for Triumph to set up a unique infrastructure to exploit it. Like all corporations though , arrogance prevails very often.

dandiego said:

That sounds great. I’m about 15 minutes away. Just sent you a PM.

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You can do all of that yourself.

Thedogsbollocks said:

HAP are no longer Triumph dealers . Triumph are imposing some tight ‘ Triumph Experience ‘ conditions the dealers have to conform to. I think HAP didn’t want to conform.

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I called and spoke to the Hap’s folks. They’d be happy to service my Triumph but we’re clear that it wouldn’t be as a Triumph dealer. Hence, no warranty service, no updating of records and no clearing of Triumph specific codes. Very nice people.

Thedogsbollocks said:

OK look I’ve no vested interest here whatsoever but...you are not talking to the Tech. You’re talking to someone in the shop. Your experience is shocking I agree. However , Matt who would work on your bike is excellent. Overall I have never had anything like the experience you are having with these Guys. I have always found them to be terrific?

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I’m used to the small shop feel of San Diego’s Rocket Motorcycles. I knew the guys there. I bought my bike new there. They would accurately quote the cost of service before the work was done. I got used to that.



It’s just kind of disconcerting when I ask these Triumph dealers about the 50k service and am told it’ll be “anywhere between $320 and a grand...depending.” And this is from a bike that’s been meticulously and religiously serviced by Triumph. I guess I’ll have to get used to that. Or not.

I’m meeting up with a local Rocket owner this weekend and we’ll tackle the work ourselves.

dandiego said:

I’m used to the small shop feel of San Diego’s Rocket Motorcycles. I knew the guys there. I bought my bike new there. They would accurately quote the cost of service before the work was done. I got used to that.



It’s just kind of disconcerting when I ask these Triumph dealers about the 50k service and am told it’ll be “anywhere between $320 and a grand...depending.” And this is from a bike that’s been meticulously and religiously serviced by Triumph. I guess I’ll have to get used to that. Or not.

I’m meeting up with a local Rocket owner this weekend and we’ll tackle the work ourselves.

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Yeah that’s crazy! Good luck with the service diy...love it. ( funnily enough when mine was last serviced they let me sit in and watch him service my ride. As the most enthusiastic but utterly useless mechanic in the world I did learn the odd thing here and there’s )

Just returned from the workshop of fellow Rocket Captain Prestaged. He has quite the man cave and the 50k mile maintenance went very well thanks to his mechanical knowledge.

One item not listed on the routine service is the Bevel Box/Final Drive maintenance. There’s a little work required to get to it—such as removing the rear wheel and both exhausts—but I’m glad we did it as the oil we poured out was black sludge. We also lubed the splines.

Finally, we ran the diagnostics and I was happy to see here were no error codes. As a matter of fact, everything looked pretty good.

Maybe it’s my imagination but my R3T rides a lot smoother now!

Huge thanks to Prestaged for his help getting this done. I owe ya one, buddy!

Note: His R3T is much prettier than mine. Nice and shiny and clean. I was almost embarrassed at how dirty mine was.

Now, I’m off on a 5k mile ride from Florida to California and back later this month...

Great to see how the forum members help each other out, big shout out to Prestaged.

Glad you got everything done in the end Dan, enjoy.