Opinions on the Rocket 3, please

[relax]

Welcome Relax,

If I try to be objective, the R III is an overall good bike but the rear shocks and fork springs need to be changed if you want an acceptable confort and a good handling on our European twisty roads.

The engine is awesome and the bike is very pleasant to drive.

The only bad point on this bike for me is the transmission :
The tranny is very noisy and there's too much play in the final drive.

More worrying, a bad design on the bearing assembly is the reason of a poor reliability. (high rate of transmission failures on the R III since 2004).

All these transmission problems have been fixed on the new R III Touring.

trackerjack,

Just one question, as I am after the "plain" Rocket III, that is, not the Touring nor the Classic, do all models share the same engine and transmision?

 

[PHATDAD]

Ebonics

I had an output shaft bearing fail 6 months out of warranty and my dealer and Triumph stood behind it just so I could give positive objective feedback to guys like you. Pretty cool huh?

"Huh"..may not be in the dictionary so check with Jamie on the meaning.

 

[relax]

I had an output shaft bearing fail 6 months out of warranty and my dealer and Triumph stood behind it just so I could give positive objective feedback to guys like you. Pretty cool huh?

"Huh"..may not be in the dictionary so check with Jamie on the meaning.

A friendly dealer or a good marketing won't keep me from getting stuck in a tiny road inside the Pyrenees mountains, I prefer to feel trusty to begin with, that's why I asked for objective opinions!

 

[TxRIIIRider]

I have a Jul '04 model with 29,000 miles on it. I've traveled all over the central U.S. with it with no problems and she's running better and shifting smoother now than when new.

If you want to talk yourself out of buying a Rocket, go ahead. Dealers are few and far between, A Metz 240/50 - 16 rear tire can't be found on every street corner, most have to mail order them, some have had clutch bearing issues, some have had timing chain gear issues, etc. There are probably a dozen reasons you can come up with for not buying a Rocket, or any other motorcycle, car, etc. I haven't let that stop me from buying mine and enjoying the hell out of it, no matter where I want to go, and I wouldn't be afraid to get on it tomorrow and ride to California, or whereever..

 

[Bohica]

Relax, It appears that you are trying to talk yourself out of buying a R3, all vehicles have their problems. The majority of the members here have a R3 and enjoy them, not to say we don't have our problems, we just don't let them drive our decision to own and enjoy the Rocket III.

 

[PHATDAD]

A friendly dealer or a good marketing won't keep me from getting stuck in a tiny road inside the Pyrenees mountains, I prefer to feel trusty to begin with, that's why I asked for objective opinions!

The only problem I had is with the bearing that was installed backwards at the factory. It might have never become a problem had I not been beating the snot out of my Rocket. Objective opinions are worthwhile, I was only stating in a sarcastic manner how pleased I am that they stood behind me when I was well out of warranty.
My only recomendation is to buy a gently used Rocket instead of a new one just in case you end up not liking it. Let someone else take the depreciation. If you like it well enough you can easily trade for new.
I hope you buy one and share your adventures and photos with us.
Sincerely,
Duane

 

[trackerjack]

trackerjack,

Just one question, as I am after the "plain" Rocket III, that is, not the Touring nor the Classic, do all models share the same engine and transmision?

I just know that the transmission has been modified on the Touring version.
I don't know about the 2008 "standart" version's tranny, but lots of mods have been done on the bike since 2004 (oiling system, final drive, cam drive, clutch....).
As far as I know no mod about the tranny.

Most of the Rocket Captains I know around here had transmission problems and a lot lot of them were a bearing failure (some other had shifting problems).
This from 7000 kms to 64 000 kms with most of them around 30 000 kms. Depending on the way they drive the bike.
A guy here had a bearing failure at 64 000 kms and exactly the same problem 16 000 kms after.
He have 120 000 kms on the speedo now and everything seems to be ok !

The repair cost varies from 1000 (bearing change only) to 8000 Euros (broken tranny).
The factory knows that transmission issue and has always repaired the bikes under warranty (including few months after the legal 2 years period) but I don't know if it will be the case on a 3 or 4 years old bike.

I have 35 000 kms trouble free on my bike. It always worked perfectly and I love it.....

....but I think that all new customers have to be informed about the transmission issue on the R III !

 

[mjbell1]

Rocket Terrific

Now repeat 3 times - Rocket Terrific!!!
Previous ride Triumph Speed Triple.
Love the new bike power, handling all
more than expected. Now for some mods
and performance upgrades.

 

[MikeRokkit]

One of the problems I've had is with the rear tire getting real smokey when I pull in the front brake, twist the throttle open and let out the clutch. And the fact that most people at bike rallys pass up the Harleys to get a closer look at the R3 worries me that there's something wrong with the paint or something, and I can't see it.

Seriously, the only problems I've had were with the idle (and the dealer loaded a different tune to fix it), and a harmonic buzzing at about 83mph, which goes away at 86 or so.

Fair winds.
Mike

 

[Paul Hyland]

Hey "RELAX"

I have what you are looking at, the standard rocket no mods and no problems. Well just one I let the dealer put in an upgraded tune (so they called it) when I took it in for the 500 and it seamed to loose power. I am a broke mother so I can't afford a tune boy but back to the point like was mentioned above there doe's seam to be a problem with it some were because people like to congregate around the R3.
If I lost mine today, with all the other bikes out there to choose from I wouldn't hesitate or think twice I would walk to my Triumph dealer and get another one from Patrick

RELAX, you seam to be suffering from buyers remorse. News flash you are suppose to have it after you get it.

But seriously I am like you it takes me 6 month to buy something and I second guess every perches. I was at a gun show and I was at a both trying to decide if I wanted the S&K or the Sig so I kept bugging all the sales people and picking there brains asking but what if and after literally 45min to an hour later the sales man gave me another 50$ bucks off the sales price just to shut me up and get rid of me. Sea’s I was scaring off customers. I ended up with the SIG by the way love it. So I feel ya.

GET THE DARN ROCKET ALREADY AND HAVE SOME FUN:bch:

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