Engine Vibration continues

i am not a motorcycle mechanic but i have been a mechanic for many a year. i bought my 07 r3 classic with 6000 miles on it i noticed a vibration around 3000 rpm 80 mph. i though it would be alright now it has 19000 and i had forgotten about it till some one brought it up. so i checked it out and like most of you touching the clutch cable with your little finger takes the vibration away. i figure that someone will take out the free play just to see what happens (DON'T DO THIS).
if you decide to go ahead any way please post your pictures of the damaged parts that will fail.
herman

your right do not take the free play out.
the actuator will not wear as it will normally be spinning at the same speed as the clutch, it will however wear the thrust bearing out if it has no free play as the clutch will be spinning but the rod will not as its will be in contact with the lifter.
So please keep your free play.

Pierre

Hi All,

I have a 2010 Roadster with 30,000 kms and has always had a slight vibration that went away when pulling in the clutch lightly. I have noticed that the vibration is getting worse over time to the point that it is starting to get uncomfortable. It seems to me the entire clutch assembly just hangs out there on the end of the shaft. I am wondering if the bearing that supports it starts to wear and then the clutch "wobbles" causing the vibration. When the clutch lever is depressed it puts pressure on the entire assembly causing it to run true and stop vibrating. I am an auto mechanic but have never had the clutch apart to see if this is possible. Maybe someone who has seen it first hand can comment if this reasoning makes sense

Ah Ha! My vibration is "exactly" worse at 3000rpm/80 mph too! When I had it in for the 3rd final drive replacement, they would only test drive it up to 60 mph. I also have the noise at idle in neutral, that goes away when you take the slop out of the clutch cable. I first thought the flywheel might be coming loose. I'm still running her, under warranty, hoping that whatever it is, shows it's face while the warranty is still in effect. I love my Rocket, but I do fear a catastrophic failure down the road. I just hope it isn't while taking a curve, or when very far from home. "Triumph Corp, are you reading?"

My 2011 has the same vibration that has been mentioned here, with only 15000km on the bike the condition does not seem to become any worse but I would love the get rid of it.
Have written to Triumph Australia twice about just so it's on record in case of a future issue.
Before a purchased the R3R I test rode two bikes from two Triumphs shops, both bikes had the same condition. I was looking for it because a mate had told me about his 2008 Classic which he had back the Team Moto twice in the hope it could be fixed.
May be oneday someone on this site will have an answer because a fix would make my Roadster the perfect bike and just that much more enjoyable.

My intentions are to ride mine till it shakes to bits , hopefully while under warranty

Hi to All Rocket III Roadster Owners/Riders.
I put a post in this forum back in May 2013, referring to a vibration described in others posts that got worse and after the Dealer had a go at fixing it. it was there a little when i got it back from the dealer but it got worse.
The dealer eventually gave me a deal where i get a new Roadster and pay them $3000.00.
Guess what happened to the new one about 2 weeks after the fist oil change, yep the vibration was there and coming on strong.
I alerted the dealer.
Someone was supposed to get back to me.
They didn't.
It slowly got worse over the next couple of months so I took it to the Triumph Classics at Hampton Downs and got 2(two) triumph technicians to take it for a ride and the both of them said that there was definitely something wrong with. They examined the front tyre thinking that it may have had something to do with the handlebar vibration. The tyre was faulty because I should have had to change it at 10500km, but I changed it at 11500km. It did not remove the vibration in the handlebars.
The triumph technicians emailed the factory for advice, they recommended a complete clutch replacement. My argument at this point was that I did not buy a brand new Triumph to have it pulled apart within the first few years, let alone its first few thousand km's.
so I tried to avoid the clutch replacement by doing another deal with the dealer hoping that the new 2014 Roadsters will be vibration free.
After waiting about 12 weeks without a response I was left wondering just which Monday it was that he meant, that he was going to get back to me. So I appeared at the dealership and asked him to go through the processes of trying to fix and replace the clutch system.
He replied that that was good because they would not have the 2014 models until about August.
I rode a demo one in February this year.
Again, I don't like the idea of pulling apart a brand new Rocket. I do not want to buy a new bike to have it pulled apart in the first 2years. I bought it to ride, not fix.

I believe that on a specific day someone did not do they're job properly and the crank was not balanced properly and there may have been another issue too, like possibly cross threading a mains bearing bolt. That is what could have been wrong with the last rocket (05/2013) when they were waiting for the mains bearing bolt.

Anyway watch this space.
And Good Luck to those that are having the same issues.
Ride Safe
Ed

Crap. You had to draw my attention to it. I also feel it at certain revs, but it's not extremely objectionable, at least yet. I've felt it pretty much from the first while of owning the bike, just figured the engine vibrated at those revs; when riding around 80-90km/h I tend to do so in fourth gear to avoid the vibration I feel in fifth. Has anyone actually reported failures coming from this? I mean, the vibration itself, not from adjusting away the slack in the clutch, which probably will destroy it eventually.

Hi cr0ft,
I think that you have a genuine problem. I had a 2005 Rocket III, no vibration whatsoever. Then a 2009 Rocket III Classic, again no vibration whatsoever.
In the Winter 2009 Issue 006 of Triumph (The Official Magazine of Triumph Owners Worldwide) on page 28, 4th paragraph reads as follows:
"What isn't clear from this photo is the fact the Roadster has new engine management systems featuring a CAN-enabled ECU, running Triumph's best software. As a result, the 2010 Rocket IIIs have improved drivability with better control and a smoother pick-up than the models they replace."
The key word here is SMOOTHER, pick-up.
My 2013 Rocket III Roadster vibrates violently when you are in fourth gear, doing 2900rpm, then you go to throttle away at speed. It vibrates violently through the whole bike to the point where I don't want to ride it. My last 2011 Rocket III Roadster did the same thing, but not as bad.
I did not buy 2 brand new Rockets, only to have them both pulled apart to be fixed.
I Love Rocket IIIs and I won't change the brand and model that I want, but, Is this what you get if you want to up-grade to the latest (better) model?

"What is a Triumph 2 year Factory Warranty worth?"

Cheers
Edaman1

The ECU improvements they quote don't really have any bearing on the vibration issue, though. My engine is otherwise nice and smooth - once I got "Triumph's best software" map out of there and replaced it with the map by Power-tripp, anyway - but this seems to be a hardware issue in the clutch. The vibration difference with the clutch in and clutch out for me is minimal, but I can detect that it vibrates less if I take the slack out. I guess time will tell where it goes from here as I add miles to the bike. Unfortunately, the two year thing is up for me... I wish they would have had a "2 years or X miles, whichever comes first" on it instead of just two years, but there you go.