New 2011 R3T Owner (or soon to be) Restoration Questions

Hello everyone, am new to the forum but not new to R3 ownership. In the next couple weeks I am going to pick up a 2011 R3T locally from the original owner. Bike has about 12k miles on it but has been sitting outside unused for the better part of the year. I work on bikes as a hobby and have brought many back to life and looking forward to doing the same to this one. From the pics and text discussions with the current owner these are some of the things I will be dealing with.

1) Rust in the gas tank: plan on pulling it and cleaning it as well as servicing the fuel system. Have done this before on other bikes but is there anything special I should know here?
2) Rust under the passenger floorboards: Ok this is kind of weird but when you lift up the passenger floorboards instead of them being black, they look rusted. Not sure why they would rust as other pics look like they are painted so I figured I will just clean and repaint as needed.
3) Condensation in the speedo: Some current pics show condensation build up on the inside of the glass. Figure I will use a hair dryer to take care of that but did not know if there are other weakness around the speedo I should know about.
4) Other maintenance: of course will be doing the oil and coolant as well and check plugs, brakes, tires. Anything specific I should look for additionally? Final drive?
5) Tuning: have read a few articles on dropping a new tune in the ECU to brighten up the bike and want to do that. Any one stop shopping resources that can guide me through that. The bike is stock and will remain that way for now.

Other: If you have other recommendations for things to do right from the jump please let me know. Am looking forward to getting this beast on the road as soon and as safe as possible.

Thanks in advance.

WELCOME! to our R3 Family Forum... It looks like you have a solid handle of the expected "must do" items already. I'm sure Final drive fluid change and a battery you know you can count on are on your list as well. When you change the coolant, I'd replace the hoses with a SAMCO Silicone Coolant Hose Kit as well.
-MIG

MIG, thanks that is exactly the kind of input I am looking for. As soon as I get hold of the bike am going to throw up some pics and then use this thread to track up restoration (if you want to call it that) for anyone who is interested. Hoping it can be helpful and I will learn a lot as well.

IMBatmon68 said:

Hello everyone, am new to the forum but not new to R3 ownership. In the next couple weeks I am going to pick up a 2011 R3T locally from the original owner. Bike has about 12k miles on it but has been sitting outside unused for the better part of the year. I work on bikes as a hobby and have brought many back to life and looking forward to doing the same to this one. From the pics and text discussions with the current owner these are some of the things I will be dealing with.

1) Rust in the gas tank: plan on pulling it and cleaning it as well as servicing the fuel system. Have done this before on other bikes but is there anything special I should know here?
2) Rust under the passenger floorboards: Ok this is kind of weird but when you lift up the passenger floorboards instead of them being black, they look rusted. Not sure why they would rust as other pics look like they are painted so I figured I will just clean and repaint as needed.
3) Condensation in the speedo: Some current pics show condensation build up on the inside of the glass. Figure I will use a hair dryer to take care of that but did not know if there are other weakness around the speedo I should know about.
4) Other maintenance: of course will be doing the oil and coolant as well and check plugs, brakes, tires. Anything specific I should look for additionally? Final drive?
5) Tuning: have read a few articles on dropping a new tune in the ECU to brighten up the bike and want to do that. Any one stop shopping resources that can guide me through that. The bike is stock and will remain that way for now.

Other: If you have other recommendations for things to do right from the jump please let me know. Am looking forward to getting this beast on the road as soon and as safe as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Sounds like it's been in a very damp environment, I wouldn't ride it home, in fact after just starting it to make sure it runs/drives/rides, either trailer it or do an engine oil/filter change there and then, oil can be hygroscopic and form an emulsion, great for mayonnaise, not so good for lubrication.
Floorboards? yep not sure what Triumph uses for their paint/chrome but it's rubbish, and poorly applied, wire brush, rust killer, and epoxy spray can, use an epoxy primer. Don't just unscrew the bottom plate, take the whole thing off (carefully, there's little springs and detent ball bearings) clean the whole thing up and regrease.
Corrosion is probably going to be your biggest issue, be aware that all the alloy is "coated" once a few stone chips damage it the corrosion gets in underneath it, fork sliders, wheels, etc. If you have to "renovate" one or more of these items save yourself a ton of time and hit it with paint stripper first, get rid of the goop, then polish, and either recoat with a clear lacquer/polyurethane or (my preferred method) ceramic mag wheel protector. Or as some here have done, just paint em, but I like shiny.
Speedo? There's electronics in there and condensation equals moisture which equals corrosion (there's a theme starting to form here) drying it out MAY! work, but don't bet on it, fingers crossed and all that.
As for tuning that's the absolute last thing I would be considering, get the old girl finished, ride her around for a while, you just might realise it's quick/grunty enough, I have a "slightly!" modified tune on my Touring (not to be confused with a T) only because it was too quiet and I fitted Tors pipes to it, deleting the cat in the process (tourings have the cat's in the pipes not the collector box) nothing to do with performance, just sound.
I'm quite new here, but similar to you my 2008 Touring had sat in a shed unused for a few years, luckily SE Australia has a fairly dry climate, nevertheless rust is the enemy, I pulled the ancient "Lucas the prince of darkness" (old joke) headlight out to replace it with an LED and sure enough the interior of the shell was rusty. Anything that can't be easily viewed seems to be neglected by Triumph, surely even the most fastidious owner isn't going to take his/her headlight apart to clean it regularly?
One tip, have a look at the thread Coil Over Plug mod (COP) for standard coil removal I recently have an annoying issue (shared by more than a few) with my sweetheart, and this mod seems to solve more than a couple of issues, I'm waiting on the bits but am quietly confident it will finally resolve the problem, just something to consider seeing as you're going to pull it apart anyway.
Good luck, and welcome aboard, Rocket 3's are a bit like that favourite girlfriend you just can't seem to forget, high maintenance, absolutely infuriating at times, but my, what a ride ;-)

Welcome from South Australia

And, why was this poor thing so neglected ?????

Hey sorry for being away so long, have been tied up with work and making some progress on the Rocket. Will get some pics up soon but now it definitely looks like I need to rebuild or resource the fuel pump assembly, it is a mess. Am going to try a clean and rebuild and see how that goes first before spending $300 on a new/used assembly but it is coming along. Also, the fuel tank is completely varnished so in the process of treating that right now. Thanks for all of the input.

Oh, now that I have the tank of any recommended mods to the airbox or any easy changes while I have all of this apart?

Thanks.

IMBatmon68 said:

Hey sorry for being away so long, have been tied up with work and making some progress on the Rocket. Will get some pics up soon but now it definitely looks like I need to rebuild or resource the fuel pump assembly, it is a mess. Am going to try a clean and rebuild and see how that goes first before spending $300 on a new/used assembly but it is coming along. Also, the fuel tank is completely varnished so in the process of treating that right now. Thanks for all of the input.

Oh, now that I have the tank of any recommended mods to the airbox or any easy changes while I have all of this apart?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Removing all the plumbing and installing a RamAir foam filter or K&N pods is a good mod while apart. The airbox under the seat becomes a storage space as well. I waterproofed mine and keep tools, tire plug kit, and air pump in there freeing up space in the bags.

This thread may be helpful for fuel tank issues, Fuel Assembly I would recommend having fuel injectors cleaned and tested