Featured Revisiting The Quickshifter After Nearly Two Years, Here’s What Happened

I am on my 3rd Bimmer with a quick shifter as standard and never had an issue with any of them. Was speaking to someone at a track day yesterday and they were on a new Aprilla 660, and he was having issues with his quick shifter and was reluctant to use it. After a couple of sessions he said it was working well and no issues any more.

 

Mine works flawlessly, and even better after setting the shift rod to the spec in the service manual. I find it works much smoother when higher in the rpms and when completely off throttle on downshifts. The service manual also states that normal easy riding should be done with the clutch. Its more intended for spirited riding from what I gather.

 

I've seen this "the rod needs to be kept at the specified length" mentioned both in the original thread about this issue and in this one so thought I'd clarify that you don't need to keep the rod at that length -- that's merely the default length. I'm not really sure why Triumph makes such a big deal out of it in the manual, and specifies such an exact length down to less than a millimeter. But it's not a required length.

See this section of the installation manual:



Not sure if it matters all that much now that the new model is being launched with all new shifter and gearbox. But in case some future owner of the old generation comes looking for info it might be nice to know that you can adjust the shift lever to a height that fits your foot.

 

Good to know! Like you said, very strange it would have such a specific measurement in the manual. The quickshifter is essentially just a pressure sensor from what I understand, so it makes sense that you should be able to adjust the rod length.

 

SteveRS is a brave man. I opted for TPMS on my RS and the dealer was quite happy to throw them in rather than the QS.
I didn’t want the QS because given folks’ experiences with it, there is no way I would trust it and if it false-neutraled and slammed just once, it would ruin the ownership proposition for me.
That said - my take on it . . .
I simply can’t believe a period of “break-in” could be even remotely beneficial - there’s no logic for this and if necessary, Triumoh would be more than vociferous in pointing it out.
The fault is intermittent and inconsistent, not just from bike to bike but on any one individual bike.m as well.
I suspect that the problem is more manifest based on riding style. Steve was previously at pains to point out that he rides his bike hard and used the QS on full throttle changes, often at the redline. Clearly this is the type of riding the QS should cater for but a great many, if not most riders, do not ride their bikes like this and it could well be this type of use predisposes the thing to grenade. For Steve’s sake, I hope he carries on with no issues but I expect to see a grenade story appearing shortly. . . . .
I have a QS on my S1K and BMW suggest a steady throttle during up changes and a closed throttle during down changes - presumably the latter is to allow the autoblipper to function correctly without being over-ridden by the TPS if the throttle isn’t held closed. It’s easy to understand how a false neutral will slam the gearbox on a full throttle up change but I don’t ride my S1K like that and tend to feather the throttle so that the engine loading is more or less neutral when changing up - makes the BMW changes far smoother, especially at the lower end of the rev range but also means if I get a falsey, the engine revs will hold more or less where required rather than bouncing off the limiter before slamming.
Of course, using it like I do does rather defeat the purpose of having it which is to allow rapid, seamless changes during hard acceleration. I spent some time reading through the S1K forum discussion topics and there were isolated incidents of false neutrals and slamming as per the S3RS but they were isolated and without any pattern of the repetition as demo’d by the Triumph. Most failures were not of the “false neutral” variety but more along the lines of sensor gremlins failing to initiate the shift sequence by unloading the engine and the bike simply refusing to change gear both up and down. Without the engine being momentarily unloaded, you can stamp on the gear lever but you won’t be able to shift and this would seem to be the more common failure.
Good luck SteveRS - keep us posted . . . .

 

I'm really glad to read this positive update, @SteveRS! I know you've had lost of problems with your QS. And lots of related frustration and rightly so. I never did experience problems with my 2019 RS when using my QS. I did have the "updated" shifter arm installed before it ever even became an "official' warrantied recall based on information from this forum. My dealership was very responsive to my concerns and communicated with Triumph America who, at the time of the call, must have known something was coming down the pike because they sent the replacement part right out.

The service manager at my dealership did speak to the concept of "break in". He commented that as I rode the bike more miles and used the quick shifter that it would work more and more smoothly. I recall his exact words--"it will eventually shift like butter". And, luckily for me, it really does.

Steve, I hope that your QS continues to work well for you. Please keep us posted!

 

yeh, I know you ride hard but I wasn’t implying your up-changes were bouncing off the limiter. Right or wrong, I was assuming that when the box hit a falsey, it would bounce off the limiter before slamming - assuming an open throttle when changing up.
Interesting you had a false neutral using the clutch . . . . Thus far, I’ve found the gearbox on the RS to be impeccable and a massive improvement on my 2008 1050 Tiger which contains more neutrals than sand in the Sahara - it will always reward a casual gear change with a neutral followed by a seismic event!!!
Anyway, good luck with this - hopefully you’re sorted

 

From service manual...



Anyone else feel like this info would be better suited for the owners manual and not the service manual?

 

So happy for you after the history of QS failure, Steve, May it continue

 

Thanks for sharing this, Sean. I definitely agree that this is better suited for the owners manual.

 

So glad that you were out giving that RS "some beans" and that all went smoothly and you (finally!) had fun using that quick shifter! Just don't give it too many beans...

 

Oi! That’s my manual!