TRIUMPH ROCKET III

A coming classic?

Nothing and I mean nothing prepares you for your first ride on a Triumph Rocket III.

You sit astride a huge 25-litre fuel tank while beneath you sits a 2.3 litre inline, longitudinally mounted triple: the largest capacity production bike engine ever – or at least it was back at the end of 2003 when it was unveiled. The Rocket III was developed from 1998, codenamed Project C15XB, as an attempt to crack the American big-inch cruiser market and a number of engine layouts including a V6 were mooted before the mighty triple was adopted. So back to riding… anything over legal speeds is plain daft, as you’re comfortably sat on the bike, but you resemble a sail as you head into the sunset. That 240-rear-section tyre delivers 140bhp (crank, maybe 120 rear-hoop) from the 2294cc motor and the delivery is almost light-switch instant through the light five-speed gearbox thanks to a whopping 147lb-ft coming in with a chirp at a lowly 2500rpm… And the sound… oh that sound. Nothing is like the Rocket III when given the berries. The chassis wasn’t a soft splodge like some ‘performance cruisers’ of the time. Suspension was firm and gave good feedback, using 43mm Kayaba forks similar to those seen on sportsbikes at the time as well as a shaft-driven rear with a classic twinshock layout. Brakes were 320mm discs and decent enough – despite hauling up a hulking 320 kilos of dry (and 363 kilos of wet) weight: coming as they did from the Daytona 955i. Strangely the first Rocket III never really fitted into any pigeon hole and therefore never really cracked the American market. Like a teenager it later went through various phases to morph into a ‘Classic’ with footboards, a ‘Tourer/touring’ with a screen and panniers, before becoming sort of a ‘Roadster.’ Up against it was 2001’s Harley-davidson V-rod (the first liquid-cooled bike they did) Kawasaki’s VN2000 Vulcan and the import-only Honda Rune, which used the Gold Wing’s glorious flat-six, but – as I’ve said – it really was the kind of bike to avoid any real pigeon holes or even direct competitors.

Price-wise these machines have held up very well and we’ve not been able to find a first-year Rocket III (Jet Black or Cardinal Red colours) for under £4500… While many may baulk at that sort of outlay, you are getting so much metal for your money and even at £5k it’s well under the price of either a V-rod or a Rune.

So, for a big chunk of British beef and the sort of street presence you’d normally only get from a CBX1000 at twice the price, it’s not too bad at all…