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

Discussion in 'Speed Triple' started by SteveRS, Apr 22, 2021.

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  1. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    Most of you who have been on the this site for a while know the issues myself and others have had with the quickshifter, so I won’t go into all of that. What I will say is that it never worked for me on both the bikes I purchased from new. Fast forward nearly two years and I’m watching a youTuber who does bike builds. He’s out riding his new Ducati and has an issue with the quickshifter. He goes onto say that this is a normal experience for him with Ducati quickshifters, and that after some break in time on the gearbox the quickshifter will work just fine. This gets me thinking, could that be the case for Triumph? Could our gearboxes on some bikes just need some break in time and then work just fine? Keep in mind that when I bought my (bikes) from new I used the quickshifter from the start and had problems right away. Well I thought it was worth some carful experimentation. What I should mention is that I have adjusted the shifter rod length to move the shift lever further down, or lower than stock setup. This was done after experiencing quickshifter issues when I first bought the bike, so I thought that if I wasn’t going to use the quickshifter anymore I wasn’t worried about the shift rod length anymore either. Initially I never adjusted it because there is supposed to be a specific length for the quickshifter rod to work properly, so I never adjusted it. That didn’t turn out to be true either. So the second bike now has about 13,800 kilometres with a quickshifter rod length adjusted out of factory recommended specs.

    So, yesterday I thought I would revisit the quickshifter and began to use it very carefully at lower rpm‘s with success. I then began to use the quickshifter at higher rpm’s and worked my way up to about a 10,000 rpm shift. Guess what, no issues at all. I rode the rest of the day using the quick shifter at various rpm’s and had no issues at all. I rode for about 2 1/2 hours and probably performed well over 100 quickshifts and didn’t experience the previous false neutral and hard shift into the next year. I don’t know if it has anything to do with breaking in the gearbox, or because I adjusted the shift rod length or if it’s a combination of the two, but what I can tell you is the quickshifter is working flawlessly up and down at the moment. I will continue carefully using the quickshifter to see how it performs moving forward. I will provide updates as I continue to use the quickshifter. Fingers crossed.
     
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  2. Bolosun

    Bolosun Well-Known Member

    Aug 25, 2020
    218
    93
    Crewe/Cheshire
    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.
     
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  3. Sean80

    Sean80 New Member

    Mar 22, 2021
    17
    3
    Peterborough, On
    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.
     
  4. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    Well then maybe there is something to it then. We will see as I continue the test.
     
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  5. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    You are correct Sean. Unfortunately that didn’t work out so well for me and for many others.
     
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  6. Zaico

    Zaico Member

    Jul 10, 2020
    36
    13
    Sweden
    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:

    [​IMG]

    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.
     
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  7. Sean80

    Sean80 New Member

    Mar 22, 2021
    17
    3
    Peterborough, On
    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.
     
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  8. Alan Gilbert

    Alan Gilbert Senior Member

    Nov 22, 2018
    301
    113
    Lincolnshire, UK
    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 . . . .
     
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  9. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
    Subscriber

    Dec 3, 2018
    21,606
    1,000
    Tucson Arizona
    I'm really glad to read this positive update, @SteveRS! :grinning: 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! :)
     
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  10. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    I agree that there is not a lot of logic behind the quickshifter working after a break in period. Breaking in the gearbox and changing the length of the shift rod really shouldn’t make any difference, but somehow something has changed and the damn thing works now LOL. I hope you’re wrong about the grenade scenario. I’m being as prepared as possible in case the issue arises. Yes you are correct about how I was using the quickshifter. They were very high rpm’s, like a quickshifter should be used. And for the record not all shifts were bouncing off the Revlimiter;).
     
  11. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    Thank you Sandi, I hope so too. As far as the new shift linkage arm, it was on the second bike from the start and it didn’t make a difference. Within five minutes of riding away on my brand new bike trying to make a normal shift with the clutch, it had a false neutral and slammed into the next gear. Fortunately I was using the clutch and it wasn’t very bad. That’s something that should never of happened either because when you grab the clutch the quickshifter is not supposed to work. That was very strange indeed. Obviously I pulled over immediately and disengaged it. I hope to have positive updates to come. If not it’s my own fault isn’t it. Well actually it would be triumphs fault but you know what I mean LOL.
     
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  12. Alan Gilbert

    Alan Gilbert Senior Member

    Nov 22, 2018
    301
    113
    Lincolnshire, UK
    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
     
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  13. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    All good Alan, I was just having some fun there. I just got back from an hour ride where I gave her some beans on the up shifts and all is still very well. I’m almost starting to trust the darn thing now. I know I know, don’t get carried away so soon lol. But I forgot how much fun it is using the quickshifter.
     
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  14. Sean80

    Sean80 New Member

    Mar 22, 2021
    17
    3
    Peterborough, On
    From service manual...

    Screenshot_20210422-205850.png

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

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    Definitely something that should be in the owners manual. Wouldn’t of made a difference though. There was no warning lights or message in the dash on any of the miss shifts.
     
  16. Dartplayer

    Dartplayer Crème de la Crème

    Aug 8, 2018
    6,912
    1,000
    New Zealand
    So happy for you after the history of QS failure, Steve, May it continue :p
     
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  17. SteveRS

    SteveRS First Class Member

    Jan 12, 2019
    862
    500
    British Columbia
    Thank you sir.
     
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  18. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
    Subscriber

    Dec 3, 2018
    21,606
    1,000
    Tucson Arizona
    Thanks for sharing this, Sean. I definitely agree that this is better suited for the owners manual.
     
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  19. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
    Subscriber

    Dec 3, 2018
    21,606
    1,000
    Tucson Arizona
    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! :grinning: Just don't give it too many beans... ;):joy:

    Screen Shot 2021-04-22 at 10.35.39 PM.png
     
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  20. Ducatitotriumph

    Ducatitotriumph Crème de la Crème

    Apr 25, 2019
    2,181
    1,000
    Rothwell
    Oi! That’s my manual! ;)
     
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