New owner from Somerset

Hi All

Picked up a 2015 triple black at the weekend, coming from a Honda XL1000 Varadero. Both bikes weigh about the same but the BMW feels much lighter and more agile and, of course, is festooned with more gadgets than you can shake a stick at. I must admit that I approached the change with some trepidation having read posts about failures of this that and the other and the size of repair bills but I guess you only hear from those who have had problems and are outweighed by the many who haven't. It's got a transferrable warranty on it though and so should be OK. I'm currently trawling through ebay deciding what farkles on I can put on the Christmas list to Santa.

Couple of major differences to the Honda
- mechanical noise from the engine is much more which I put down to less sound deadening as the water cooling isn't as complete and the heads sticking out in the fresh air.
- gearbox is pretty awful with mega clunk going from neutral to 1st and from 1st to 2nd (quite embarrassing at the traffic lights) but I've read that this isn't uncommon. I have had a R1100GS in the past and can't remember it being this bad and also currently have an old K1100RS where the gearchanges are japanese slick. Is this something you just get used to or is there a knack in getting it right?

That aside, loving it at the moment - if it would just stop raining......

cheers

Rob

Greetings Rob & welcome to the forum.....enjoy the TB, it's a cracking bike

Welcome to the forum Rob, cracking bike is the Triple Black LC (not that I'm biased or anything!). Some good threads on here re what farkles work and which are pants...plenty of goodf reading ahead of you!

Welcome Rob, am in your neck of the woods.

I found the same regarding mechanical noise coming from a Triumph Explorer, but once used to it it's not unpleasant.

Surprised you have a big clunk in low gears, on my 2016 GS there is a clunk when going from neutral to first, but no worse than every other bike I've had, but there's barely any clunk going first to second. Are you changing to slowly perhaps, I guess others might have some views.

Hi Rob

My 66 plate had a clunky gearbox which is quite normal, i used to alleviate the noise by doing the first two gears at a much slower speed or start it in gear which you could feel a little clutch drag after that it was fine.
I messed around with acceptable different grades of oil but neither worked.
Hope that helps