A Triumphant 2300cc ... #71

This is Dave who I met on Saturday afternoon... out for a ride on his Triumph's 2300cc Rocket III ... and believe it or not there are about 30 of these in Wellington.

Now we do know that in America, there's big, and there's really big. A 20-ounce Coke is big; the 72-ounce "Bladder Buster" from the local Stop 'n' Rob is really big. The Ford Excursion is big; the Hummer H1 is really big. In the world of motorcycles, cruiser motorcycles in particular, the Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 is big--but the Triumph Rocket III is really big. Twenty-two hundred and ninety-four cubic centimeters big, to be exact. Just look at the size of that motor. (For comparison, our family car is a 1600cc Honda Jazz.) And with 147 foot-pounds of torque, it's also likely to be damn near the hardest accelerating production streetbike in the world (in a straight line, at least), if Triumph's press babble can be trusted. "God save the Queen", and don't forget the brave motorcycle road testers, too.

Why would Triumph, a characteristically reserved British company whose most ferocious cruiser to date has been the mild-mannered, 790cc Speedmaster, gut-whomp us with a motorcycle that outdisplaces most automobiles on the road today? In a word: respect. Triumph very much wants to make a big splash in the motorcycle market, and to do this it needs a big cruiser. Correction--it needs the biggest, baddest cruiser ever seen. More than 50 percent of all motorcycles sold in America are cruisers, the vast majority of these so-called "heavy cruisers" (over 1000cc). To make an impression saleswise on the U.S. market, you have to do it in this segment. With the Rocket III, Triumph cannonballs into the deep end ... and like I said before some have even made their way downunder to Wellington, NZ. Apparently the last shipment sold out within days ... LETS DO A ROAD TRIP !!