Growing Trend

Those ads do sound like a car dealer.. don't they. But its not like the old days for the HD dealers when they took orders for bikes a year in advance and charged $2000 over sticker, Those days are gone. I can see a flood of used HD's hitting the market soon, many of the wannabes are going to get out when they hit 55 or 60. Most Triumph riders are life long riders, but you and I have seen a lot of HD owners that just followed the fad. They have too much money in those things to just let them sit in the garage.

I have a lot of people look at my Rocket III, but it scares many of them. They can't comprehend a 2.3 Litre motor in a bike, they instantly assume its a death trap. I always wonder if these people had a bad experience on a bike in the past.....
 
Yesterday I rode with some guys I work with and some of their HD buddies. About 95% of the bikes were HD Ultras. One had a brand new Screaming Eagle Ultra, $35Gs. I have to admit it looked nice. I found out EFI HD's have similar issues with EFI tuning and aftermarket exhaust as the Rocket does. Therefore the powercommander has become very popular with them. The dealer, who has a dynojet and sells powercommanders, recommended he install a HD "race" tuner instead of the pc since his 103ci engine is so "hot". So if you are going to drop that much cash what's a little more right? Well, the problem now is the dealer can't figure out how to tune it correctly. Right now he has about 10hp less than a bone stock Ultra. Oops They aren't sure what to do. I would not have left the dealer until it was fixed.

And they were all scared of the Rocket BTW. Especially when we were riding and I started blipping the throttle and they could see daylight under the front tire.
 
Good thread!

Like most of you(big assumption here) I enjoy things that "rock" and are "unique"(yeah, yeah and affordable). Boy does the Rocket fit in well with those two qualifiers.

We just had relations(wifey's side) from Germany stay with us. Her cousin Armand(yes it's a Dutch name Jamie) owns a Triumph Daytona 595(I believe he said it was a 1997) and loves it like it's a Porsche or a BMW. To him the Daytona represents the best in it's class. He even said he will never sell it. He's not into cruisers but was impressed(only as a German can be) with my Rocket and the engineering, and how Triumph is dedicated to tri-power. He also saw the BMW Montauk in the Triumph Rocket design and wondered why the Montauk did rather poorly in sales compared to the Rocket. I tried to explain that perhaps the Montauk didn't have the WOW factor along with it's unique design.

Dragging one foot behind to my point, is that we both agreed HD is very popular world wide and will always have a following. Besides the Germans know full well the original HD motor design is simply two cylinders from a early German 12 cylinder airplane. We both agreed though that a HD is iconic and that the rugged, simple, unrefined, motor design has a lot to do with appeal as well as the fact HD did and does make great looking bikes. Being an American status symbol goes a long way too, I think. He can't understand why HD continues to try and improve a design that is flawed from the start, siting the rear cylinder overheating issue that plaques HD to this day, as well as the poor engine balance problems. He got me there cuz I don't understand that either, unless the design issues are not as bad as Armand makes them out to be.,.....logically HD has a duty to improve the design(my German side speaking) but if it ain't broke and it sells, why fix it!(my American influence talking now).
 
Auf Deutch!

I know the German word for virgin...............................................................................................................gudentight
 
I'm reminded of a postcard I once saw; a guy in a Speedo with a prominent bulge and a towel over his face. Caption reads " an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance".
How you answer probably tells volumes about what you ride.
 
Confused

In another thread I recall someone mentioning a "paint can" rattle coming from his "Speedo" and when he grabbed it the noise went away. Any connection?
 
Manic_Mechanic said:
In another thread I recall someone mentioning a "paint can" rattle coming from his "Speedo" and when he grabbed it the noise went away. Any connection?
Click to expand...
That's funny Manic Mechanic-"I don't care who you are." Yesterday I rode my R/3 down to one of the newer HD dealers just outside of Richmond, Va. Since it was mid-day on a Friday the place not really packed. I parked the Rocket out front and went in to take a much needed pee. I looked at some of the new HD's and will have to say they are pretty. I do like this new factory power coat or matt finish on some the machines, but the prices are still on the far end of the scale. When I returned to the parking lot, guess what everyone was looking at. I had to enlighten a group of bearded black tee-shirt wearing gentlemen that Triumph was indeed back in business and producing bikes again. The funny thing was that one of the sales girls (of course she had large sweater muffins under her black tee-shirt) was letting a customer test drive a Sportster with a three wheel set up around the parking lot when I went in. You could tell he was a brand new rider, and looked even older than me. Before I left he asked where the local Triumph dealership was located. Of course my inner thoughts were "dead man walking or in his case riding" if he buys a R/3. One day Triumph may have the large showrooms, expanded dealerships, pretty sales girls with large mommy bags, but will we still be as unique if and when that happens. Just a thought.
 
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