Triumph Rocket III

I owned one of these for 3 months before throwing it down the road and busting myself quite badly- not so much the machine's fault, but mine for riding it like a sportsbike. It has a 2.3 litre engine, which propels 1/3 of a tonne of metal to 100 mph in an astonishingly fast time. my best is 7 seconds! As soon as you sit on (or rather in) the bike, a thrill courses through the body - you know its going to be good. from the sidestand position it feels ...
...sidestand up, and ignition on. The dials light subtley and go through a diagnostic mode, which is quite nice to watch. Pull in the clutch and push the red button. It sounds like a truck turning over and the bike tries to lurch to one side as the huge engine starts to spin and.... broom, it sounds like any other triple engine. I found this annoying for such a special bike, so I had the loud cans fitted. Now it goes BROOM!!!!! ( very slight performance ... more

I owned one of these for 3 months before throwing it down the road and busting myself quite badly- not so much the machine's fault, but mine for riding it like a sportsbike. It has a 2.3 litre engine, which propels 1/3 of a tonne of metal to 100 mph in an astonishingly fast time. my best is 7 seconds! As soon as you sit on (or rather in) the bike, a thrill courses through the body - you know its going to be good. from the sidestand position it feels quite light as you gently bring it upright. Kick the sidestand up, and ignition on. The dials light subtley and go through a diagnostic mode, which is quite nice to watch. Pull in the clutch and push the red button. It sounds like a truck turning over and the bike tries to lurch to one side as the huge engine starts to spin and.... broom, it sounds like any other triple engine. I found this annoying for such a special bike, so I had the loud cans fitted. Now it goes BROOM!!!!! ( very slight performance difference to the positive). A reassuring 'thunk' as it goes into first gear and the excitement becomes mingled with the fear that you will soon have to control it on the road. All fears subside as you slowly let the clutch out and she moves like a pussycat hunting a mouse. Slowly out onto the highway, let the cars in front get as far away as possible then up to 2000 revs and dump the cluch. Scream , realise it isn't going to wheelie, compose yourself, wake up to the fact that you're doing 60 in first and that you're going to hit the back of one of those cars that was nearly a mile away a second ago. The road is clear, so you go into second and effortlessly alter course to overtake. Into third and you're past, cruising at 70, low revs, forgetting that you stil have 2 gears left. From 70 mph to the electonically set limit of 140 takes just a second, and beats the pants off of anything else. Piss off a couple of tailgators by travelling at 70 in front of them, then as you pull in to "let them pass", open the throttle and get to the next buildup of traffic to start again. Onto country, twisty turny roads. No problem. The bike feels light as a feather as you flip it left and right, getting the racing line. Its such a disappointment when you come to a junction or a vehicle in front and have to leave your special zone.
At the end of the ride, park up, turn off and just sit there smelling the hot engine, ticking as it cools. Get off and spend the next two hours looking at the bike and answering questions from admirers in the vicinity. Make sure you know all about it, how fast ,rpm,weight, tyre size, cost etc.... as they'll look it up and accost you next time they see you. I once parked in a car park and came back to no less than 7 people round the bike. One was taking photos (of MY bike!).
Not all of the handling is perfect. Roundabouts (for instance) cause the pegs to grind out- looks FANTASTIC at night! Also, if you're riding along a country road which turns into a very bumpy road, its hard to control round bends(which is how I lost it). The horn is really wimpy sounding, fit airhorns! MPG is surprisingly good. It was comparable to the other 3 bikes on a 1000 mile trek to NI. I filled up every 100 miles with everybody else, but still had half a tank of fuel and paid roughly the same (some less, some more)as everybody else. Comfort wasn't a problem, but I was a bit sore for the last 100 miles or so.

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