Both seats are rather good at keeping you
comfortable on longer hauls. Your pillion? Well, she
wants to be a more petite model if you’re to be
speaking at the end of a long day.
Triumph has also clearly decided its flagship
monster will offer owners a level of finish that is
quite amazing. This is one highly polished product.
From the way the pillion pegs fold invisibly into
the bike, to the tiltable and fully-hectic TFT dash,
to the clean, internally-wired handlebars – this is a
quality motorcycle. Just look at the superbike-spec
Stylema Brembos at the front, and the brilliant
radial-mounted four-piston jobbie on the 300mm
rear rotor – which is, rightly so, the best rear-brake
on any bike ever made.
Clever touches abound. You can adjust the
footpegs on either model, or even fit the R’s mid-
controls to the GT or vice-versa. There’s a Bluetooth
system (yes, it’s finally here) which will give you turn-
by-turn navigation on the dash, and you can also
run your phone and control your GoPro camera
(that’s a thing now, apparently) via the handlebar
controls. You also get hill-hold control, a USB port
under the seat, cruise control, top-end lean-angle
sensitive ABS, and there’s a range of more than 50
Triumph aftermarket goodies – heated handlebar
grips (standard on the GT), tyre pressure sensors,
bling, and a bunch of luggage options because you
will struggle to strap anything to the stock models.
I loved the old Rocket III.
But beside the new Rocket 3 it is as dust.
Some people will buy it just to relish the expression
on peoples’ faces when they’re told it’s a 2500cc
motorcycle. It’s worth the price of admission just
for that experience alone.
Other people, with fire in their hearts and a
screaming licence in their pants, will buy the Rocket
3 because it is a brilliant and unique motorcycle
– the pinnacle of the engineer’s craft, as it were.
Polished, potent, and pleasurable at a level, few, if
any bikes like this can even hope to approach.
Quite simply, awe-inspiring.
KIWI RIDER 57