alselec said:
New to the site, don't own a Rocket yet, but been looking at them for awhile. I am 53 and have an 02 Bonneville which is a great bike. I don't want to get rid of it but the wife says I'd have to trade the Bonneville in, in able to get the Rocket. What I want to know is would it be worth the upgrade? Haven't ridden one yet but heard a lot of good ratings about them.
Also I heard the black engine was a temporary special edition for 06' There is a nice yellow with black engine rocket at the dealer. Or I could order one. Are they going back to the silver engine in 07?
Well, I have 'em both. I'd never sell my '02T100 maybe because it has a sidecar attached and maybe because it took 2 years to put together. They are different bikes, as different as night and day. The T100 is light and agile and a good around town bike but the R3 is a freeway mile eater. The R3 is heavy but the T100 motor might be a starter motor for the R3. The R3 will top out in 3rd gear at what a Bonnie will do flat out. The brakes on the R3 are superior both in feel and stopping power. The T100 is a peg scraper whereas the R3 can ground the pegs but isn't happy about it. The T100 gets good mileage, the R3 gets fair mileage. Riding in a cross wind on the T100 will push you sideways, the R3 is rock solid. The seat on the T100 after 100 miles makes you want to get off and sit in a hot bath tub. 100 miles on the R3 and you are ready for another 300. Don't ever expect the R3 to handle like a T100. The low speed manners of the R3 aren't there like the T100, but the R3 is several hundred pounds heavier than the T100 and the Cg., seems like it's a bit higher too.
One thing has become quickly apparent to me and that is the owners of the R3's are a breed different than the Bonnie owners. I guess that's because you have to have steel hinges on your wallet compared to owning a Bonnie.
Go take a demo ride. I did. Actually I rode on 2 demo rides before I bought mine, once last year on a Tribal bronze R3 and this year on a Classic. After the first ride last year, I knew I was going to get one and the incarnation of the Classic sealed the deal.
I expect that some participants on this site will disagree with me on this, but the WOW factor for the T100 is appreciably more than the R3. The R3 is, no doubt a beautiful bike, especially the Classic in red and cream, but T100's are beautiful no matter what the color or model. The T100 is the incarnation of the '68 Meriden classic whereas the R3 isn't. The original Rocket 3 was a British Small Arms 750 transverse triple. The Triumph was a Trident. My primary reason for purchasing the R3 was the Classic 2 tone paint and I wanted a mount that my wife and I could long distance tour on in comfort, comfort that the T100 can't afford even with a sidecar. I could have purchased a Gold Wing or Harley Tour Glide but I'm a Triumph fan through and through.