I believe it\'s heavy due to the engine requiring a lot of counter balancing. The rocket doesn\'t need that much if any being an inline 3. So basically thats where the weight its. But consider this. For one, weight means little if the bike feels light and performs extremely well, and so far all the reviews have raved about the handling, the power, and how light it feels. I sat on it and sat on the rocket right next nto it and i assure you that sitting on them both and leaning them over to feel the weight will leave you thinking the Tbird is 1/3 less weight. I\'m not exaggerating at all. If you have a chance to sit on them both side by side, try it. You\'ll be surprised. the R3 also feels like a behemoth....like you\'re sitting on a whale.I rode one and it feels like that on the road too. The Tbird is not much bigger than a speedmaster when you sit on it. In fact the wheelbase is actually shorter. It\'s wider, but thats it. So you have to view weight in the context of how it inhibits the bike if at all. As far as i could tell and from all the reviews it doesn\'t in the least. Trust me, i felt the same as you and untill i sat on it and read all the reviews i was apprehensive. By the way, some people cite power to weight ratio. But you have to realize that once you have a certain amount of torque in a motorcycle, weight stops being linear in how it affects performance. People with R3\'s say they notice zero difference with a passenger. yet a passenger means someone as much as a couple hundred pounds. The extra weight over my speedy is the amount of a passenger, yet even on my speedy i don\'t lose a lot with a passenger because it has good torque. The Tbird has double the torque. So imagine a speedmaster with 30 extra HP and double the torque with it\'s peak being delivered at 1000 RPM lower and a passenger on the back. thats the Tbird. and don\'t forget that triumph has TORs and a filter that can be installed and mapped and will no doubt add 5-8 HP and a few lbs of torque. After all, how many of us have speedys that are totally stock? and if you can afford the BB kit, end of story.
In any case, point is that weight stops mattering a lot past a certain point power wise and if it doesn\'t feel heavy and handles as great as the reviews have been saying.