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Triumph Rocket III Ride Impression:


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 PIC
THUNBS UP FOR THE TRUIMPH ROCKET III!

Regards, Outback AL

Holy Hell!!!!

Is that thing really doing 100kph at about 750 RPM in the second pic or was that just between shifts??!?

I have to test ride one of these!

As the camera was in my right hand taking the pic, there was no throttle on at all.

What about this Pic?

He He....

Great review! They have one at the triumph dealer here in Ottawa and looking at it made me think it would be clumsy and heavy. Now I will have to go and check it out again.

Great pics!

Cheers,
Gatineau_Guy

That first shot is the money shot. Man that is one massive amount of metal and chrome under the gas tank! 2.3 Liters that's huge, my car is only a 2 liter engine. I think it looks best there in black. That must have been a great ride. How big is the gas tank on that thing?

Great review. the pix are fun... torque torque torque.

Glad to see Triumph understands that a little insanity helps sell bikes. I'm not much for engines longitudinally in the frame.. especially the 6's that Honda and Triumph has here. This one is styled pretty well though. The Pipes look great and complement the engine...

For cruiser-esque things I like the new Victory's styled be Arlen Ness, etc.. with a cruiser the looks gotta be in keeping with the nostalgia of a real basic MACHINE. This just reminds me how nice a Vmax still is.

I hope the Rocket3 sells well though... Leave it to the Brits to break the Japanese by going a little overboard with engine. They'll need to do that to get some strong market share in the USA... I really like the edgy styling of there 600 Daytona.. since any 600 on the street is a weapon, it's cool to have something unique. Tough competition in that market.

Well, Triumph's street fighters are more my style but it's good to see what is happening out there.

//monkey