Reliability issues as a working bike

[ShaunDW]

I have just read that the Blood Bike group that I belong to have felt it necessary to get rid of the 2 TTs they have been using after one lost all its front brake fluid whilst in use and with the comment that they have spent as much time in the workshop as they did doing what they were purchased for. Understandably the report does not want to go into specifics, but I find myself somewhat concerned. The liveried Blood Bike bikes are obviously working bikes, and will accrue high mileages, but they will always be ridden responsibly by experienced, well qualified & Advanced riders. So what’s the problem? Sorry, I can’t help there, as the group is a charity and understandably need to concentrate on their work and put this behind them, but Triumph have apparently agreed to buy the bikes back. I would be interested to know the mileage they achieved, but I never rode them myself, so I don't know. When I initially saw them in use as liveried bikes by the group, I thought "yes" that's a good endorsement to the reliability and practicality of the model, but now it appears to indicate just the opposite. 

[Coconut]

While that doesn't sound good for the Charity,
it is another sign of Triumph's commmittment to both the Model,
and their customers - by buying them back to help the Charity's funds,
which will provide them with 2 high mileage bikes to examine
and develop any modifications that may improve reliability,
and hopefully extend the longevity of the Model.

[cropbiker]

Yes... I'm sure Triumph will learn lots from these bikes.

[Autopilot]

How long did they have them?   I guess it will also depend on the area and type or riding too, as well the quatity of jobs.  Might the have been unlucky....I can give you a long list of issues with the RT and I am proof that given the choice of an RT and a tt I will take the tt every day.

The blood bike group I used to run average about 30k miles on each bike per annum.  Currently thet are running RT's but this is partly down to local plod doing all servicing, and they won't touch the TT....plus triumph wouldn't support the switch gear required for lights and sirens and the added electronics.  We had so many problems with electronics with aftermarket kit when we ran the FJRs,  so wanted to avoid similar, hence a bias to the off the shelf RT-P (the p stands for police and comes with factory fit wiring looms for lights sirens electonics and different gear ratio and higher rated alternator).

it is necessary to rotate the bikes around regularly as part of the servicing schedules, but this also ensures that no bike is isolated to a particular road type.  Eg one area covered at one sde of the county is big mileage with motoway driving in the main, whereas the bike on duty at the other end of the county is twisty lanes and shorter distances between jobs...so the wear on tyres and brakes for example is quite different, hence the need to rotate the bikes around each coverage area.

[Gar]

Hard to find a picture of what you're talking about but I see from this partial picture that there has certainly been some extensive mods. Besides the brake issue I'm wondering if most of the problems were electrical from the aftermarket mods. 

[Autopilot]

here you go . better pic

[Gar]

Thanks Autopilot, not as many light mods as I thought there would be.

[ShaunDW]

Originally Posted by Autopilot

... We had so many problems with electronics with aftermarket kit when we ran the FJRs ... 

I understand my group have arranged a deal to replace the TT's with FJRs.