Driving up the highway the other day revealed that the Harley-Davidson Demo fleet was in town. Great I thought, riding the latest model bikes are always interesting & since it's free you can't go wrong.
A few days later I noticed a 'Ring in' had slipped into the fleet! It was....& you couldn't really miss it....a Rocket III!
Now this was going to be exciting! Having filled out the appropriate paperwork it was time to get a quick run down on the machine from the local dealer Michael at Desert Edge Motorcycles. I happened to comment to him that this bike would be ideal for hauling my heavy M/C trailer & he replied "You could pull a Caravan with this bike" Sounds promising!
Now lifting this bike up from the stand & pulling in the clutch was easier than my wife's Sportster, if only Harley could do something about that, women who ride Sporty's would be cheering, loudly!
Sitting on the Rockets wide seat & hitting the start button fired the big triple into life easily & a click into gear saw me riding off down the road without any fuss to street legal speeds. Hmmmm I thought this is easy, just like my Roadking, only I knew the similarities would soon be lost once I cracked the throttle.
A car in front of me was crawling in the 'fast' lane so this was my chance to drag out some of my early courier moves & zip into the other lane & undertake the car, so with a flick of the wrist 'POW!'
I was teleported to miles up ahead of where I once was in a blink of an eye! Can't wait to get out of town & do that legally I thought with a smile, after said thoughts finally caught up with me. 
After a few photos on the side of the road I was cruising along a nice stretch of blacktop & decided now was the time to go thru the gears & see what this baby will do.
First....Seeconnnd....Thhiiiirrrrrd.....FFFOURRRTH.....FFFFFFFFFFFFIIIIIIITTTHHHHH....Kapow! 215KPH (134MPH) in no time at all, now all I had to do was pull back on the handlebars & become airborne.....yeah right! At least the brakes work well.
Upon reaching the corners I found that once you get used to the 'feel' of the massive 240/50 R16 rear tyre you notice the bike handles surprisingly well for it's size. The handlebars put your body in a good position & for some reason I didn't find the lack of a windscreen a problem for a bike this fast & began thinking that perhaps a small deflector would be even better, anyway chin down throttle on & yahoo! back to the frequent but scenic straights again....faster & faster ....look down at the Speedo & see 160KPH (100MPH) which the bike seemed to like cruising at, sweet.
A few more photos at a friends work place attracted quite a lot of attention from the staff who I imagine were suddenly at 'Lunch' Click with the picture & it was time to reluctantly return the Rocket to Base.
OK so the bike style is not for everyone, but for me & a few others I have spoken to, enjoyed the experience. I could definitely handle having a Rocket III for our long straight, long distance desert roads, no worries.
Now....if I sell this car & perhaps this bike, save a few bucks I could....mutter mutter mutter.....
CLICK PICTHUNBS UP FOR THE TRUIMPH ROCKET III!
Regards, Outback AL
