After reading all about Triumph’s gargantuan Rocket III we’ve finally had a chance to ride the monster. it’s just as big and badass as the overseas media have led us to believe.
At the heart of the Triumph is a brutally powerful longitudinally-mounted three cylinder engine, displacing 2,3 litres — the biggest motorcycle engine ever put into mass production. With 200 Nm of torque on tap at just 2 500 rpm, and 140 horses lurking under the fuel tank, it’s only to be expected that a jab with the spurs is likely to produce an interesting ride. But the experience is nonetheless startling the first time you open the throttle. Try 0-50 km/hr in just one second, and 0-100 in well under three seconds for size. If all of the Rocket IIIs sold so far were pointed in the right direction and then accelerated hard off the line, I’m quite sure that the sun could be made to rise in the west.
From the saddle the Triumph is an awesome machine, even standing still. The wide handle bars and the massive fuel tank , squatting in front of you like an enormous jelly-tot that’s been left too long in the sun make it feel intimidating at first, but once on the roll you find that the low centre of gravity makes the bike a cinch to control.
From the minute you ease the clutch out and start the wheels turning you get the message that this is one serious machine. The Triumph’s engine management system reduces torque by 7% in first and second gears to enable rapid takeoffs without wheelspin, but you’d never say so the first time you crack the throttle open. In any gear at any speed it takes off like nothing I’ve ever ridden or driven before.
Where Kawasaki’s new ZX10 superbike is more intimidating in that it feels like it wants to dump you on your backside when you wind the throttle open, the big Triumph just hoists its skirts up around its waist and accelerates like a jet fighter. Trundle along at 100 km/hr in fifth gear, roll on the throttle to pass a truck and you’ll … well … rocket past 200 km/hr in roughly the time it took you to read this sentence. If you’re a fast reader! The reason, of course, is all that lovely torque, and the bike’s mass that keeps the front wheel down and imparts stability. Top speed is governed to 240 km/hr, but this is supposed to be a cruiser, after all, and the riding position and lack of a windscreen mean that most riders won’t get up to maximum very often.
The long wheelbase, 300+ kg mass and laid back riding position don’t allow the bike to change direction easily, but after a while you get used to planning your attack on the bends and the bike handles way better than its looks would suggest. I rode it briskly quickly through high speed bends and the power and mass never threatened to tie the frame in knots, as used to be the case with earlier musclebikes.
Ground clearance is also way better than that of most cruisers, which is very reassuring to fast riders. Triumphs are renowned for having stunning brakes, and the Triumph Daytona 955 discs and calipers fitted to the Rocket III do a good job of slowing the monster down.
The Rocket III is beautifully built and remarkably easy to live with for such an extreme machine. In this case, nothing succeeds like excess.
The Triumph Rocket III is imported through Kawasaki Motorcycles South Africa, and retails at R159 995 with a two year unlimited distance warranty.