Terry, have you had any trouble with the Rocket? I love them and thought about adding one to the stable, but they seem to have a few reliability issues. Well, in the press, anyway.
Ha ha, well if you'd asked me 6 weeks ago I'd have laughed at the suggestion that they are anything but bullet-proof mate, but as I type this I'm waiting to hear from the Australian Triumph distributor whether or not they're going to cover the major (engine out) repairs required for my Rocket. (with only 6000 miles on the odo)
It was running perfectly on a ride to Phillip Island on the last weekend in January, when suddenly it made a "Bang, rattle rattle" noise from the transmission. From what I can gather, the output shaft bearing has collapsed, releasing shrapnel thru the engine, transmission, and final drive. Fantastic...........
This is common on the 2004-2008 models, but to my knowledge, was never a factory recall, and doesn't happen to the majority of bikes built in that era. One theory I read was that the bearing (a simple ball bearing race, like a wheel bearing) has an oil seal on one side, and supposedly some bikes had the bearing installed backwards which meant that the oil couldn't get in, causing it to run dry, and eventually fail.
This makes sense to me, and explains why the factory hasn't done a recall as most bikes are probably fine, but as they're all out of warranty now, if they haven't had the post 2008 "Upgrade" kit installed, buying one, no matter how clean and well maintained, it's a hell of a gamble, in my opinion. As I said, I'm hoping that Triumph repairs it for free (as they've done in some, but not all, cases) because it's otherwise a brilliant bike, and I still love it. Cheers, Terry.
