4500 miles 2013 1200 XC, broken gears in the Shaft!!!!!

[Kobus]

Sorry this is long after the initial discussion. My 2013 did the same on about 14000km.
Sometimes it shifts to 3rd and sometimes not. I changed down to 2nd gear and all went solid. Clutch did not release the gearbox. When it was stripped gears were broken!! There is a gearbox problem from the factory and they know it. Some bikes were recalled. I had to pay for a new gearbox. My experience with the dealers and Factory was not good.
They all prtect their bottom line and on the other side they are loosing business.

 

[keystiger]

I hate to hear this. Especially the bad back end customer service. If a mistake is made --- OWN IT-- fix it and move on. Do not mess over the buyer.

That said I can honestly say -- when the new 1200 was announced --- I was TICKLED pink ....I so SO SO wanted one. BUt when I saw it had shaft drive.........I walked away (well rode away on my 05 Tiger) ......The SAME reason I chose the Tiger OVER the BMW GS in the first place. --- THE SHAFT---

YES I hear stories of shaft reliability ---- blah blah blah --- I have owned and ridden bikes (often times very hard and abusive) for almost 40 years --- I have never had a chain break and leave me stranded ---ever --- and if I am going on a LONG tour-- I can throw and extra chain (and al the tools needed to replace it) in my tool kit "just in case" .......I cant do that with a shaft.


Not pouring salt in the wounds fellas......just pointing out TRIUMPH really dropped a big turd IMHO when they put a shaft on that big Tigress.

 

[Willem M. Poort]

I have the same gear problem with my Triumph Explorer 1200 XCX. I bought it last december 2017 and now 9000 km later the second gear "skips some teeth".
The dealer confirmed it to be a known issue. They will replace my gearbox with hardened steel gears. For the rest I do love this bike

 

[DEMBONES]

OUCH! Sorry to hear.

 

[mike2411]

I know I'm coming in to this conversation late but I wanted to add that I am a 2019 1200 XCA owner, coming off the 2016 Triumph Trophy. My Trophy chewed the gears as well, alternator went bad, and it sucked a valve!

I am really hopeful my Tiger is going to be better than what I had with the Trophy. I can't afford months of shop time for I rely on my bike daily, putting 20k-30k miles per year on my bikes. I have had my Tiger for 8 months, went through a tough 5 months of no work and didn't ride much during that time and I still have 12k miles on mine. Every time I get on the bike I cross my fingers in hopes that nothing goes wrong...kind of a bad place to be as a premium motorcycle owner, sadly! If only Triumph would set up a loaner program. That would make a lot of us Triumph owners happy! I love my Tiger, best bike I've owned (have owned sport bikes and a couple sport tourers, the Concours and the Trophy) if you take into account the whole package; luggage capacity is amazing, seat is all-day comfortable, power is amazing, handling is amazing, leg room is something I really needed (bad knees), the ability to take it off-road, easy to clean and maintain...hoping for an issue-free ownership this time around.

If Triumph doesn't do something to improve owner-support I will be switching the GSA when the Tiger is ready to go to motorcycle heaven. I can take a GSA into the local BMW shop for any service or repair and ride away on a loaner, ensuring I have a bike when mine isn't available...that's HUGE!

 

[Greyfell]

If Triumph doesn't do something to improve owner-support I will be switching the GSA when the Tiger is ready to go to motorcycle heaven. I can take a GSA into the local BMW shop for any service or repair and ride away on a loaner, ensuring I have a bike when mine isn't available...that's HUGE!

Have you asked your local dealer if that is an available "dealer" option, even if Triumph themselves don't offer it. Most of the people at your dealer are also riders, likely, and would understand. It might not be promoted, but that doesn't mean it is not available.

 

[mike2411]

Yeah, I did but they haven't done much in the way of loaners. They "rent" bikes now but I don't want to take mine in, pay for a rental and pay for a service. I did speak with Triumph USA and they have been discussing it but I was told that getting one in-place is like trying to turn a large ship...takes a lot!

 

[Greyfell]

Yeah, I did but they haven't done much in the way of loaners. They "rent" bikes now but I don't want to take mine in, pay for a rental and pay for a service.

Am I missing something? You don't want to pay for a rental? But will you "pay" to trailer your bike to/from the shop, or "pay" to have someone pick you up/drop you off before/after leaving your bike for service?

 

[mike2411]

Ummm, yeah! If my Tiger is anything like the Trophy I will be without the bike for 3-4 months at a time while I wait for Triumph to figure out how to get something shipped to the US so "yeah", I don't want to rent a bike...pretty easy! But, I am basing it off past experience and that is all I have so no telling what to expect with the Tiger. But in my 2nd year with the Trophy, it spent 8 months in the shop. Would you pay for a rental to cover that? And, I was more referring to repairs over services. Service is typically a day, but repairs is a whole nuther story...that is what I was referring to more than anything.

 

[Greyfell]

OK. Of course, I understand your caution, but the guy above, @willem-m-poort, has a 2017 Tiger 1200. You have a 2019. Since, as Willem stated, it was a known problem in 2018 about the 2017, we should be able to trust that Triumph decided to upgrade the "gearbox with hardened steel gears" in the new models. And that might simply be because Triumph doesn't want to keep losing money on warranty repairs, which I am sure are NOT inexpensive.

 

[mike2411]

You would hope but my faith isn't very strong in Triumph. The issues I have experienced and the long, long wait times have me very skeptical. I want to trust things will be better but I still have that bad taste in my mouth. The Tiger can get me back on the side of Triumph should things be handled in a timely manner, should something go wrong.

One of my issues is that I rode the Kawasaki Concours and that thing was bullet proof! And, any issues with that were taken care of in a day or 2, maybe 3 at the most. But I understand, different companies with a different support structure. Triumph does need to increase the level of support here in the US but we all know that!