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The new (to me at least) Rocket arrived on Wednesday last week and I rode to the office that day and Thursday. I spent Friday giving it a good look-over, tightening some nuts and giving it a good cleaning. Saturday I ran errands and I'm at Lowe's no more than two minutes when two guys came over and wanted to marvel at it. I warned them not to drive one unless they are ready to buy cuz that is easily the clincher - no sales talk needed at a Triumph dealer. Anyway, got the errands done and bombed around all day just getting used to parking lots, U-turns, etc., etc. Temperature was in in the low 80's so it was perfect. Sunday I took my wife for her first ride to the local Starbucks and we ran into some local Harley guys I rode with from time to time on my VTX. They were going for a ride up to Jackson in the foothills for lunch and invited me along. My wife had to study (2nd year of law school) so I dropped her off at home and came right back.
First are my driving impressions from Saturday and from driving in commute traffic to work:
As bulky and large as the Rocket looks, it actually handles like nothing I've ever ridden - meaning nimble for it's size. Granted, I'm nearly 6'3" and 235lbs so I fit the bike perfect but the low speed stability is amazing! It balances so well you never even think of the weight, at least I didn't. For some reason my first couple of slow RH turns caused some anxiety (LH turns were nothing) but I kept practicing and now I don't even notice it. I do find that in slow turns I have to lean it over more, I guess due to the 240 rear tire, but once you get used to that it's not bad at all.
Now for my driving impressions with the HD guys:
One was a Dyna glide, one Fat Boy, and one Ultra Glide with the screaming eagle engine mod. Even though my Rocket has the D&D exhaust, I was still the "silent runner" compared to them. I don't miss the V-Twin sound as much as I thought I would, in fact I now prefer the turbine whine the Rocket seems to make as it gets going. So we're going along this nice country road - Latrobe Road for those of you in NorCal - and the Fat Boy and the Ultra Glide break out and start to set a faster pace. The Rocket was amazing! I could have passed them easily it was handling so good. I could see the two of them checking their mirrors to see if I'd fallen back but I was right there with them. We came to a stop sign and decided to wait for the Dyna Glide and the Ultra rider looked over and said man, I didn't think that big bike would handle that good. I just smiled but I was thinking just wait until the next ride, when I have a few more miles under my belt, I'll already be sitting down at lunch by the time you guys pull up. The previous owner had the good sense to add the Progressive shocks so I'm sure that helped with the handling but I found that if I counter steered when leaning into a turn it handled much better than my VTX ever did. I was totally in love by the end of the ride. We did find a couple of long straight a-ways and opened them up. I was right there with the modified Ultra Glide and with more time in the saddle I'm sure I would have blown past him, but why burn through riding buddies the first week of ownership?
One last thing….I read here about the low fuel warning light and how it comes on too early. Well, the light came on as we were leaving Starbucks but I remembered everyone saying it was foolish to pay attention to it cuz it came on so early. By the time I fueled up in Jackson it was about dry. It took almost 6 gallons (and nearly $18.00) to fill it with 89. I think I'll pay a little more attention to it now. Overall though, a fantastic bike that can be your around town ride or cross country ride.
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