Triumph Rocket III Touring

Triumph's critically-acclaimed Rocket III Touring is a true mile eating custom tourer blessed with unique character and that memorable 2.3 litre motor. This iconic engine has been retuned for effortless low down torque. Coupled with high levels of comfort for rider and pillion with sumptuous seats, detachable screen and front and rear footboards this bike is designed to devour the miles with effortless ease. Now with ABS brakes as standard.

Suspension has been tuned to achieve high levels of comfort without compromising control, while the with 180mm rear tire and 16 inch wheels make for surprisingly agile handling. Comfort comes from sumptuous rider and passenger seats, detachable screen and footboards front and rear, while color matched, water resistant, hard cases and shrouded front forks with polished lower castings add more than a dash of style and practicality to this highly accomplished motorcycle.

Triumph Rocket III Touring

Combining classic touring cruiser style with the awesome performance of the legendary 2.3 litre Rocket III engine, the Rocket III Touring has been designed specifically for riders who demand serious long haul capabilities.

With this in mind, Triumph has endowed the 2011 Rocket III Touring with its advanced anti-lock braking system for the first time, making this range-topping tourer an even more attractive proposition.

At the heart of the Rocket III Touring is Triumph's iconic 2,294cc triple, which has been tuned specifically for the needs of the touring rider. The engine delivers a mighty 203Nm of torque through the low maintenance shaft drive system at just 2000rpm, making overtaking in any gear safe and effortless, even when fully laden with passenger and luggage.

The Rocket III Touring's chassis has also been developed specifically for its intended purpose and helps deliver a surprisingly nimble ride, thanks to the low centre of gravity, 16in wheels and 180 section rear tyre. Rider and passenger comfort is paramount with the Rocket III Touring. The well appointed seat is constructed using two separate layers of cushioning of different densities, with the pillion also benefiting from an additional gel layer for supreme comfort and �eday long�f capability. The finely tuned suspension has been developed with comfort and control in mind, while comfort and practicality are enhanced with the standard fitment of quick release screen and 36-litre panniers.

The high specification continues with the adoption of an analogue fuel gauge and LCD clock and trip computer, all mounted alongside the speedometer in the stylish tank-mounted chrome nacelle.

Teardrop shaped rider and passenger footboards are also a standard feature, while a long list of optional accessories allows riders to create the Rocket III Touring they want. Accessories include alternative touring screens, sissy bars, racks and auxiliary lamps, as well as a host of chrome and leather items to make this already distinctive motorcycle even more striking.

The 2011 Triumph Rocket III Touring comes in two classic colour options: metallic Phantom Black with hand painted silver coach lining or a two-tone Phantom Black with Crystal White infills.

Accessories Included as Standard:

Drilled oval mirrors
Pannier Embellisher kit
Headlamp visor
Quick release sissy bar
Luggage rack
Rear Fender Rail
Auxiliary lamps
Long haul seat
Roadster windscreen
Engine Dresser bars
Pannier dresser rails
Highway pegs
Adjustable pegs mounts
Adjustable riders backrest
Passenger backrest

Triumph Rocket III Touring Highlights

Engine: Liquid-cooled, DOHC, in-line 3-cylinder

Rear Brakes: Single 316mm disc, Brembo 2-piston floating caliper, ABS

Instruments: Analogue speedometer featuring LCD odometer, trip information, clock and analogue tachometer featuring fuel level indicator, gear position indicator

- Bespoke tourer based on legendary 2.3 litre three-cylinder power plant, the world�fs largest capacity
motorcycle engine

- Standard ABS for 2011 model year

- 203Nm of torque for effortless two-up touring

- High specification includes bespoke hard luggage as standard

- Two year unlimited mileage warranty as standard

Triumph Rocket III Touring Features and Benefits

Rocket III Touring - Triumph's 2.3 litre tourer. King of the cruisers.

Over 15,000 sold since its memorable introduction. Mile after mile is eaten up by this beautiful machine. Designed with touring in mind. Powerful, precise, comfortable and well equipped. One up or two. No one will miss you arriving.

Engine

The Rocket III Touring shares the same engine platform as the Rocket III. Its increased torque at low speeds means that even two-up and fully laden it will accelerate effortlessly for easy overtaking. The engine management system uses sensors to determine the correct fuelling and ignition and tailors the torque curve for each gear ratio. As a result the Rocket III Touring responds quickly, cleanly and strongly at any speed, in any gear.

Seat

The seat has the generous proportion of being 18� wide. The three layer construction with taped seams ensures that water is kept out!

Hard Panniers

The colour-matched, hard panniers come as standard and are lockable using the ignition key. They are quick to detach via two quarter-turn fasteners. They have been designed to be free-standing, are fully sealed and water resistant.

Footboards

Teardrop shaped, chromed aluminium castings with removable wear plates, spring mounted with an anti rattle pivot and rubber down stops.

Screen

A quick release screen comes as standard with great care paid to the details: The polished stainless steel mechanism and unique spring-loaded mounting bobbins lock the screen solidly in place, while lower air deflectors work with the main �blade� of the screen to deflect turbulence.

Review

The Rocket III Classic Tourer is a true cruising motorcycle, and one firmly focused on rider and passenger comfort. It�s aimed squarely at those who favor a more laid back approach to motorcycling and features a relaxed riding position with forward set floorboards, pull-back handlebars plus a supremely comfortable stitched touring seat as standard.

Triumph has built a Limited Edition Touring variant of the Rocket III Classic that offers Touring-oriented riders an excellent value when compared to the Standard Rocket III Classic. These bikes come complete with $1,978 of must-have touring accessories and feature 3 unique two-tone paint schemes.

Purring through Bandera County, Texas, with signs for Dude ranches and various horse ranches beside the road, as the vast vista slowly rises and falls before me there is plenty of time to let my mind wander. With the distant horizon almost blurred through my sunglasses the way the world distorts in a heat haze, lone trees and buildings transform into cowboys and wagons rolling west in search of gold. As an Englishman in a foreign land, the highly untypical motorcycle beneath me that is pulling these incredible scenes across the handlebars seems to be the perfect platform to explore this wild, rugged American land.

All new for 2008, the Triumph Rocket III Touring is not just a warmed over Rocket III. Starting with its own tubular steel twin-spine frame, it also gets a new steel swingarm. The dimensions of the new frame differ from the original Rocket some with a more relaxed rake and trail which give the bike a 67.2-inch wheelbase, compared to 66.7 inches. This slightly lazier set up is not noticeable from the rider�s perch though as the Touring comes with much wider bars for increased maneuverability. Also helping the bike to be more agile are the new 25-spoke machined cast aluminum wheels. Gone is the Rocket�s chunky 240/40-rear tire, replaced by a more sensible 180/70 series 16-incher. This is complemented up front by a 150/80 R 16, which is the same width as the Rocket�s but comes wrapped around a smaller diameter wheel.

This new combination gives the bike very reasonable handling manners for a machine that is tipping the scales a double cheeseburger and fries away from 800 pounds.

Still displacing a whopping 2300cc, and kicking out more torque than a barn full of Texas Steer, a mind blowing 154 foot pounds at 2,000 rpm, the new Rocket III Touring is producing 108 horsepower at 5,4000 rpm. Where the original Rocket was laying down 140 horsepower, Triumph has elected to detune the new Touring, which makes an enormous amount of sense for a bike that has been built for cruising. And, as an added bonus to this more manageable power output, the bike now makes more torque than ever at even lower rpm. I have to admit I have always enjoyed the Rocket�s wild ride, but it has always seemed like a strange idea for a cruiser to have so much power. So now, with the Rocket III Touring, Triumph has gone and created a true American style cruiser, and tuned the power out put accordingly.

So how does it perform now it has more weight and less power, I can hear you ask. Well, this was one of the first questions on my mind, and the easiest way to describe the new Touring is it feels exactly the same as the previous Rocket from take off until you hit the peak horsepower output. The additional torque offsets the added weight and it feels completely similar. At this point you are happily cruising along your road of choice at 70mph and life behind the handlebars seems exactly the same. The big difference is, if you twist the throttle at this point, the Touring feels sort of flat. Where the original Rocket would be taking off like a scolded cat, the Touring is wandering off with quite disdain. This really isn�t a problem on a cruiser though, as the last thing you want at is your passenger exiting the rear when you crank the throttle at speed if you don�t have the luggage rack in place.
Later in the day, I had an opportunity to try an accessorized version of the new bike and found a completely different animal. This is the one geared to the single guys out there who are going to ditch the touring windshield, slap on a single seat and install the pipes. These come with a factory re map to increase the horsepower to 125 and the added sound and grunt totally change the nature of the Touring. Louder, without being obnoxious in anyway, the power output is more aggressive, and with the shorty windshield allowing more wind in your face, the whole experience feels more edgy and exiting. With the modifications easy to perform, of course it gives you the options of having two motorcycles with two completely different personalities from the one platform.

On the highway the seating position is plush and reach to the bars is not taxing. The broad, wide seat sits closer to the floor this year, making parking lot maneuvering a tad easier than the slightly taller Rocket. It has never been a big problem though, as the longitudinal engine sits low in the frame and the bike has great low speed balance. A light clutch and foot controls that don�t put your legs in an advance Yoga stretch to reach compliment this ease of operation.

The Touring differs from the original Rocket here again, with its use of floorboards instead of conventional foot pegs. Using a heel toe shifter, it is set up so you can use it like a conventional gear lever without using your heel if you want. The floorboards themselves are sensibly placed and are just about wide enough to wriggle your feet around for comfort on a longer ride. They are also high enough up to allow some healthy lean angle in the turns before you are greeted by the sound of metal grinding away beneath you. And, I would hazard a guess the Touring has the most Ground Clearance in the heavy weight cruiser class.

Suspension duties this year are handled by a set of 43mm, inverted, shrouded forks. I know the original Rocket�s were a derivative of Triumph�s aging sport bike, the 955i, and I wonder if these are just more left over units modified to take the Touring�s greater weight. Either way they have a pre-load option available and gave a very compliant ride on the less than smooth Texas tarmac. Keeping the rear wheel connected with the ground, Kayaba also supplies the rear suspension with a pair of twin, chrome shocks that have a total of five positions of pre-load available. With the bike having a pair of good-sized hard backs, and a large rack, this is the minimum you are going to need for adding a passenger and luggage. Down at the wheels, a pair of 320mm floating rotors and two Nissin4-piston caliper brakes handles stopping duties. These calipers look also as if they came out of the 955i left over bin, but do an adequate job of slowing the beast without any weird behaviors to report.

They are joined in their speed loss campaign, by a single Brembo two-piston caliper getting cozy with a single 316mm disc when required. This set up allows a good healthy stomp of the boot before the fun begins, and you start leaving trails of smoke from the rear tire. Did we really behave like that on a press test? Surely not!

Traveling on the near deserted Texas Hill Country roads gave plenty of opportunity to try the Touring high speed cruising abilities and it passed these tests with aplomb. There aren�t too many twisty sections to be found, but there are a couple of high-speed sweepers that pop up, and here the Triumph proved to be stable and competent. With a good ability to turn in at speed, adjust lines, as well as soak up mid-corner bumps, the Rocket III Touring

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