My Rocket III

Since theres not a forum for R III's that run on the darkside, I put some pics in here. I'm running a Toyo Proxxis 245/50VR16 on stock RIII rim, stock tire is 240/50ZR16 and about $300.00 mounted and only good for about 5,000 miles. The Toyo was a little over a hundred bucks, $104 I think and I mounted it myself with the wife's help. I've done about 3,000 miles so far and other than just a little more countersteer in going into a turn, there is no difference in handling, ride is improved, bike is more stable and cornering inspires more confidence. I won't be going back.

Nice Triumph!

Sweet ride you got there, welcome to the forum. We will get a R 3 catagory started up soon.
Thanks for the pics and the review.


See you out there
Smokey

sweet bike....that tire is wide, wide, wide.....

Jerry

Nice Rocket w/ a Darkside to it......hehehehe Welcome sir! Please bear with us as we are only 5 months old and a growing and ever evoving forum! We had no idea that the darkside and our knowledge would take off to such other brands. We got locked out of a website specific to the VTX because of our growth and just wanted a place for us, and now every one would like in.........and we want you guys here! So, we will get you something soon!


Welcome and Glad to have you here sir!


...............bobby


.

S-w-w-w-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-t-t-t-t-t-t
I dig those bikes, now even more. Nice bike brother. Stay around this is a cool place to be.

Moon

Absolutely friggin awesome

Nice...bet it'll wheelie real well now.

I'll make a Triumph forum section in a bit.

how fast will one of those go ? Are there any options for gearing ? I am interested in land speed racing and always looking for something to go over 200 mph.

Roy

Woohoo, we Rocket III guys have got our own section now, yippee. Thanks to the moderators for creating this for us. OK now that the butt kissing is out of the way I'll get down to answering a couple of questions.

First yes it will wheelie at will in first up to about 25 MPH, I'm not brave enough to try it in 2nd. My second pass on the bike at 411 Dragway just outside of Maryville, TN 1/8th mile track, it pulled up to about 9 o'clock coming out of the hole and on that pass I still managed a 8.04 run. My best ET of the day was a 7.53, I was running a ZX-14 and he turned a 7.45 so I was a little under a tenth of a second behind him, and about 600 lbs heavier (bike plus rider). I'm not a dragracer by any means, I just like to do it from time to time.

Second, it is electronically speed limited in 5th gear to 138 MPH, but there are ways to get around this, even in so doing you are mechanically limited with the ring and pinion ratio to just under 160 MPH. There is a gentleman that is working on this on the R3owners.net forum, his name is Hombre (Walt) and he has many posts there that will answer a lot of questions anyone may have about the Rocket. He is running a supercharger, plus carbon fibre wheels and many other go-fast mods in order to break the 200 MPH barrier at Maxton in NC later this year.

And now a little about me, I come from a family of motorcycle enthusiast, not bikers per se, we have other interests too. I started riding when I was 5 years old on a home made Brigg and Straton mini-bike that my dad welded up for me, and then moved on to the Honda Trail 70, then a Yamaha Enduro, a Harley Davidson 250 and finished out my pre-teen years with a 1974 Honda 750 Four. I started riding the 750 back and forth to school at age 12 and I have been on the road since. I rode the Honda 750 through High School and the Army, then went several years without a bike. I bought a Yamaha Virago 750 used in 1999 and rode it until the Yamaha RoadStar Warrior came out in 2002, when I bought one of those. I bought my Warrior and absolutely loved it, and I had put many hours into it, polishing it, painting it and learning a lot about the bike. I polished a lot of the bike, including the swingarm, wheels, forks, brakes, fender stays, engine covers, basically anything aluminum that I could polish I did, except the frame (yep the frame on a Warrior is aluminum). Then I painted it, my first paint job on anything bigger that 1/25 scale. I then entered it in a couple of shows and won 5 places in the first show, but the judges wouldn't give my the trophy for Best Domestic since I had already won for Best Import:shock: (It didn't say Yamaha any where on it)
On September 18, 2006 I crashed that bike on my way to work, leaving me in the hospital with severe head trauma and various other severe injuries. I had a stroke while undergoing brain surgery to fix a bleeder, I also had a busted right leg
that I am very fortunate to still have, broken thumb, cracked ribs and several cracked vertebrae. I still have nerve damage on my right side from the impact with the vehicle that pulled over in front of me. In short I am very lucky to be here.

Six months to the day after my accident and just 2 weeks after coming off a walker, I bought the Triumph Rocket III. I didn't even get to ride it home the salesman had to ride it for me. I had not driven since the accident and was coming back from the eye doctor after a post op check-up for a blood clot in my left eye he removed. He had cleared me and said I was fine, so I talked the wife into going in the local bike shop to see a Rocket III that my boss had told me about. It was a Honda dealer and my wife really liked Gold Wing trikes so I didn't have to twist her arm very hard. We looked around and found the Rocket, my wife said if you can get your leg over it, we'll buy it. So I twisted and bent, stretched and leaned and finally got my gimp leg up enough to get it over the seat, so we bought it. The salesman volunteered to ride it home for me as I could not (no helmet)(actually I think he just wanted to ride it) . The wife and I needed to take my Mom's car back to her at her job and pick up the wife's F-350. We get there and I tell the wife that I'd like to drive back home, so she agrees. After getting back home and admiring our purchase sitting there in the driveway for a while, I tell the wife that I wish that we'd gotten something to eat while in town and she agrees that she is hungry as well and tells me to get in the truck. I tell her "Nah, I think that I'd like to ride the bike." She says OK, let me get the helmets and comes back outside the house with hers and mine helmets, I tell her that I think I want to at least ride the bike around the block and see if I can even hold the danmed thing up. I go maybe a half a mile around the neighborhood before pulling back up in front of the house, she gets on the back and says lets go. And we're off.

I tell that to say this, it tells me one of two things about this woman I'm married to, she either loves me very much or she's got a bigger set than I do.

I've since put about 10,000 miles on my Rocket and I really like this bike, it's smooth as silk and strong as a freight train. I bought the Warrior back from the insurance company I could not bear the thought of watching it roll away on the back of a roll-back with some-one that just wanted her for parts that I had put so much of me into. I've got her disassembled and have every part to put her back together with sitting in my shop (much of it was donated free of charge by the members of RSWARRIOR.COM) Those guys are much like what I've seen here, very good folks.

Here's a link to all the photos http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb36/CADFather/?start=40

Joe aka CADFather

she is a keeper my friend , you can always find another bike but you will never find another woman like her .

have fun , be safe, your friend , Horse

CADfather,

Awesome write up! Thanks for the insight. I for one am sure glad you made it thru the wreck. You sound like some one cool to have around.


...................bobby

.

I still think it is sweet.

twin1300 wrote:You sound like some one cool to have around.
...................bobby
.

Bobby thanks for the kind words and I am pretty cool to be around at least I think so and so does my dog at least he'd better . BTW, I neglected to mention that I got here off of the VTX forum via my wife's new (to her) 2006 VTX 1300C trike, we picked it up a little over a week ago and she loves it. And technically she is also on the darkside, being that she has two car tires on the back of hers, doesthat make her twice as cool?

Pictures really do not do this paint any justice

Nice bikes & trike. Glad to hear you are back on 2 wheels.
Welcome to the Madness.
Muntz

That trike is nice. Love the silver on red, one of my favorate color combos. I like Twins orange on white, or is white on orange, donno. I think it is cool tho.

I have always had a passion for the trikes. I am wanting to build one myself. All custom and prolly will once the shop gets built. Cant even start aquire doner bike and parts as I have no place to put them. Once the shop is built all I can say "its on."

Peace yall

CADFather wrote:
Second, it is electronically speed limited in 5th gear to 138 MPH, but there are ways to get around this, even in so doing you are mechanically limited with the ring and pinion ratio to just under 160 MPH. There is a gentleman that is working on this on the R3owners.net forum, his name is Hombre (Walt) and he has many posts there that will answer a lot of questions anyone may have about the Rocket. He is running a supercharger, plus carbon fibre wheels and many other go-fast mods in order to break the 200 MPH barrier at Maxton in NC later this year.

Joe aka CADFather

I will be looking for him. Is he going to run a darkside there ? He might want some extra traction :-)

Roy

Great bikes. Welcome to the dark/wideside forum. We all kin here.

Hello,

I am about to remove the stock tire from my Rocket III and replace with a Bridgestone Turanza EL42 225/55 R16. Slightly narrower (5/8") and 3/4 " taller, but it should work.
I'll add photos when I take up Hwy 1 next month. Stock tire for this bike is $300 plus mounting and I just happen to have four new Turanzas! We will see.

Just read CADs story about the wreck... Glad you made it and are alive and walking today. It takes a true rider to get back up and buy a beastly Triumph Rocket III after that.

I couldn't see buying a smaller bike or whimping out altogether! We're lucky to have you on this planet.

JL Mealer
Mealer Companies LLC
http://mealercompanies.com

My name is skip.
I'm new to this forum.
I can vouch that Joe is a cool dude.
He was my room mate in Maggie Valley, N.C.
at the fourth Annual Rockets Across America
this last May.
Didn't have the pleasure of meeting his wife,
Hope to meet her next year as my wife will be there on her Rocket,
running a darkside too.