I continue to be inspired by the great font of knowledge that exists on this forum and the helpfulness of those who share it. Thanks to everyone and apologies for not being able to contribute in a meaningful way.
I am riding a 2012 standard Rocket 3 Roadster and loving it of course. Neither the roads here nor the police encourage much modification to a bike. A change of silencer or rear number plate style earns a ticket from the police and then the bike has to be retested by the government department to see if it complies, with fines and licence points if it does not. There are many stories of guys on all kinds of bikes having to convert them back to "normal", survive the government test and then put all the good bits back on again.
The last serious job on a bike that I did was to rebuild a 1965 Triumph Tiger 90 (350cc twin) when I lived back in the UK in the early 80s. Before that a 500cc single cylinder AJS/Matchless. My days of serious work on motorcycles are behind me. That said, a friend of mine runs a motorcycle repair shop here in Hong Kong and specialises in British motorcycles. He runs an old 1926 Sunbeam and a variety of other bikes and his shop is always full of Triumphs, Tritons and other machinery. He looks after the Rocket as there in no Triumph dealer here. So I just wonder if there are any modifications that he could make to the Rocket without being too obvious from the outside. It's not that I really need more speed. The maximum speed limit here on the highways is 110 kph (around 70 mph) and the regular speed limit on the roads through our country parks, which are a beautiful ride, is only 50kph. The police do a thorough job with radar traps both fixed and portable. Still, it would be fun to do a little customising even if I am the only one who knows about it! Any feedback on what I might do would be welcomed, as would suggestions for a decent horn. With the traffic congestion here in Hong Kong and the wild antics of our taxi drivers, it would be nice to make more noise when I am getting carved up.
Incidentally, there are plenty of Harley riders here in Hong Kong but I know of only one other Rocket and have never seen it. The roads through the hilly country parks are more suited to a lighter bike but there is nowhere that the R3 will not go and it is a great feeling taking such a huge machine through the bends.
Oh yes - the Melbourne question. My daughter has recently married an Australian and they will be moving to Melbourne to live permanently at the end of this year. I will likely be making visits to Melbourne starting 2015 and it would be great to hire a bike and do some touring on these trips. Any recommendations?
Thanks again for a fabulous forum.
PS Picture of a typical Sunday morning group. We ride around 90 miles and set off early to avoid the heat and the traffic.