My brother was visiting me this past week as he took his vacation time and got out of Michigan to enjoy North and South Carolina. He's a huge fan of motorcycles and he owns a Honda VTX 1800.
On Friday he wanted to check out every shop in town that sold motorcycles so I granted his wish and took him around town to check out every make and model of two-wheelers. We hit the Big Dog dealer in Simpsonville, the Harley dealer in Greenville and some others. One of our stops was Powersports of Greenville on Wade Hampton Blvd. They have Honda, Yamaha and Triumph motorcycles on the floor, amongst others.
I had heard about and seen the Triumph Rocket III motorcycle on the internet and I was incredibly curious about this beast. They boast that this bike is the largest, most powerful mass production motorcycle in the world. It has something like a 2300CC or 2400CC 3 cylinder liquid cooled engine and a shaft drive.
When I saw one sitting in the front parking lot at the store, I just had to test drive it! I've owned 4 Honda motorcycles during my years in California. The biggest, and my favorite, was my last bike, a 1982 CB900 Custom. The biggest bike I ever owned was not even 1000CC's and I was about to test drive a bike with over 2000CC's. My adrenalin was going!
I maintained my motorcycle classification on my South Carolina driver's license because my wife doesn't know it yet, but the day I buy her a new house is the day I'm also putting a new bike in the garage! Ha! I've got that one all figured out!
So anyway, here's the bottom line on the beast Triumph calls their Rocket III:
This bike has so much torque and raw power that I thought my arms were going to come out of their sockets when I gunned the throttle! It was impressive and enjoyable to ride. With all that power it was still a smooth and quiet ride. Normally, you would expect to hear the loud growl of a big V-twin to accompany such a rocket launch effect from a motorcycle. The Triumph Rocket was a unique experience to say the least! And...as big as it is, the bike is pretty attractive looking. Except for the oversized radiator and oddly shaped engine. I kept imagining that they yanked an engine from some car and made it work with a motorcycle frame. That's what it looked like and felt like when I was driving it.
At the end of the day, I'm not so sure it is the most practical bike to own and drive around town and navigate traffic and city driving with. This beast weighs over 800 pounds! It seems like a bike designed to devour the miles on the open highway.
I actually thougtht that maybe it was too much of a good thing. Maybe all that size and power is just silly and not needed. In fact, I was having fun checking out the Yamaha FJR which offers an in-line 1300CC 4 cylinder engine, liquid cooled with a shaft drive. It's a "sport touring" bike which sounds good to me.
I got the fever to own a bike again and enjoy riding after Friday's test drive. I won't be buying anytime soon, but when the time comes, I will have taken more and more bikes out on test drives. I'm also curious about the Yamaha V-four engines in their Star cruisers.
If you enjoy riding motorcycles, I recommend a test drive on a Triumph Rocket III at least once. It is an impressive experience!
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