Tale Of Woe -- Keyless Ignition On S. Triple Rs

I apologize for the wall of text below. But I'll cut to the chase at the outset. If you have not tested your two "spare keys" to see if they will start your 2018- RS I recommend that you do so. You don't want to be in my predicament.

I have had my RS since May 2018. I have been very careful with the keyfob 'cause I fully understood it would be a pain if I lost it. Indeed, I swapped out the gas cap so I didn't need to get my fob out to open the gas cap (and potentially drop the keys).

On Friday the keyfob apparently fell out of the inner pocket of my motorcycle jacket while I was at work. I searched high and low but couldn't find it. I was angry at myself but assumed that I could get one of the two spare keys at home and start the bike, as the manual suggested.

I loaded the bike on a pickup and drove the 45 miles to the dealer. There I remained from 1 until 4pm on Saturday (when the dealer closed) while the dealer's mechanic and a Triumph tech on the phone tried to figure out how to program my spare keys. It turns out that neither of my "spare" keys were properly programmed when I bought the bike. First, the dealer told me that the original software that Triumph supplied to the dealer in May 2018 had not allowed them to properly program my spare keys. Later, the dealer told me that they had programmed the keys but, for some unexplained reason, my motorcycle's ecu was not recognizing the keys.

Bottom line is no one at Triumph USA seems to know how to resolve the issue. Triumph USA contends that my antenna transponder must have failed simultaneously with my loss of the master key. (The mechanic swapped out the transponder with a new Triumph and was still unable to program my spare keys.) In the meantime, The dealer awaits an update from Triumph headquarters tomorrow. Because my bike is my only mode of transportation I am now dependent on friends and random acquaintances for transportation.

I full acknowledge that I was a fool to lose my master key. But it never entered my mind that I could only start the bike with the ONE master key I received. My two spare keys are utterly useless unless I want to pop off the pillion cover. With my experience in mind, I encourage you to take your spare keys, hold them near the transponder under the seat (see manual), and make sure that you can start your bike. You do not want to be in my shoes!

 

More shocked that Triumph doesn't give us two master keys if the spare keys are so problematic. If they can give you two fobs when you buy a car why can't Triumph give us two (and a spare that for sure works!).

 

I'll ask the dealer about that tomorrow. When I bought the bike they only mentioned the one master key and that's all they gave me. But I'll be sure to ask. Thanks for letting me know.

 

UPDATE
It is now Wednesday afternoon in the States and my bike has been at the dealer's since Saturday. Triumph UK is now apparently involved and they have yet to find a way to start my motorcycle. Suggests that the Triumph engineers didn't carefully think through problem-solving the ignition when they designed it. I love the bike but I sure have lost confidence in Triumph.

 

UPDATE
It is now Wednesday afternoon in the States and my bike has been at the dealer's since Saturday. Triumph UK is now apparently involved and they have yet to find a way to start my motorcycle. Suggests that the Triumph engineers didn't carefully think through problem-solving the ignition when they designed it. I love the bike but I sure have lost confidence in Triumph.

 

Update 12/21
Triumph today informed me that the entire ignition unit and new keys will have to be shipped from the UK. They will be shipped on January 3rd so I should have my bike operational again sometime around the 8th-10th of January. In other words, my bike will be out of operation because of this failure for 3 1/2 weeks. On the plus side, Triumph has offered to pay for a rental car until my bike is repaired.
So I agree that keyless ignition is a solution in search of a problem.

 

Latest Update

A month ago I posted about my misfortune of losing my "active" key and having two worthless "passive" keys on December 7th. You may recall that in the interim my Triumph dealer tried without success to program the "passive" keys, with Triumph headquarters' help. So Triumph informed me that they would have to ship a from the UK a new ICU unit, with a new active key and passive keys. Alas, the items were on back order so they did not arrive until January 14th.

So they arrived and after a day of hard work the local Triumph dealer has the icu installed and the active key works. BUT the passive keys that Triumph UK sent are apparently the wrong keys. So if I pick the bike up now (located 60 minutes from my home) I will have no "spare keys" and I will have to return with the bike to the dealer once the dealer receives the proper "passive" keys from the UK.
I have decided to leave the bike at the dealer for at least another7-10 days so that I can get a functioning bike with all the appropriate functioning keys.
Clearly, Triumph has some serious quality control issues.

So let me just urge you make sure all your keys work 'cause Triumph is obviously challenged when it comes to quality control and its keyless ignition.

Bottom line: a fully functioning Speed Triple RS with less than 4K miles on it has sat for six weeks because I don't have a working key.