Impressed with handling

I've always thought the handling on this bike (06 standard LE) was pretty good but after this weekend I was truly impressed.

I was getting bored doing the runs with the Harley crowd so I decided to branch out a bit and do a ride with some more aggressive riders. There's a local meetup group of sportsbike riders and I thought I'd give the big girl a real test and do an outing with them. There have been occasions that I've taken her out and given her a good run through the twisties but I was usually alone (or if I was with someone else it didn't take long to leave them so far behind I felt like I was riding alone) but I never had anything to compare her against. The ride on Sunday consisted of 8 other riders on various metrics in the 600 class, some neophytes and a couple of guys who like to ride the amateur racing circuit. They aren't the crazy weave in and out of cars on the highway types but they do like to hit the back roads hard when able to do so safely. At first I thought they were taking it kind of easy, a few hard leans on some on-ramps and a few twisties on the back roads, a little outside my usual comfort zone but nothing more than I haven't already done a few times while riding alone. I was happy I was keeping up with the leaders and almost ran up their tail pipe once or twice shooting out the last turn of a string of snake curves. We eventually stopped for gas and I was unexpectedly presented with a crowd around my bike asking all sorts of questions. Apparently they were not "taking it easy" and were rather impressed that I was able to keep up with the pack. After the fuel stop I was asked to lead the group as they wanted to see if I could outrun them, I respectfully declined as I did not know these roads well and didn't want to get someone hurt leading them too fast into a dangerous area. The rest of the day was spent pushing harder and I certainly wore down the Metzler a few millimeters, never did I fall behind and the other riders weren't foolish enough to try and outrun me on the straights (although it's quite possibly the only place they had a chance to do so).

Now that I've had real opportunity to test this bike head to head I feel vindicated for all the times I blindly told my friends that it can outrun alot of sportsbikes, now I know it's a true statement.

You must be one helluva good rider. I remember once getting unexpectedly passed by a bunch of sporties on a straight section of one of the local favorite twisty roads and I thought I would try to keep up with them. When I saw how fast they entered the next turn I broke out laughing.....at myself. No way was I going to do that on the beast.

now thats a good joke or this dude has some realy good drugs i've been riding and racing bikes my intire life and have pushed this r3 in the twisties and theres no way in hell the r3 can keep up with any sport bike in the twisties !!

I'm pretty confident I can keep up with a squid on a sportbike, but any intermediate rider will take a r3 in the twistys. The bike doesn't have the geometry for that kind of riding. Bur nice sweepers are friggin' awesome!

Correct. The R3 handles great for a big bike-I ground down my pegs a fair bit-but it no way will hang with my Tiger. And yes, I have both.

.............and it most certainly won't hang with a KLR on a dirt road.........

I have both as well.

I wonder if the original poster was riding with a Cushman rally?

For me, the R3 is a big comfortable bike 'emphasis on big' not a corner carver.

R3vsSportbikes

I've run with a few sportbikes on my local back roads and although we weren't heading for a checkered flag the R3 keeps em back for a while. They are usually slowed down by the shock of seeing that monster with bags stay out front at all, then when you hit the straights its outasite! The last of a recent 4pack finally got by me after about 5 mi passing cars @ random racing on for the Darwin award.

I say it is the rider, not the bike. Road conditions another big factor.
This is pick-up country for cages, and cruisers for bikes. I see very few sport bikes, and they seem to be mostly ridden by 'kids', if you'll excuse the expression.
No way I could keep up with a sport bike rider with my experience, but them I don't see many of them. They're in the Triumph shop when I'm there, but don't see them on 'my' roads.
I ride a lot, and never have a bike following me more than a mile or so, and that's because I'm behind a slow mover. All the bikes I pass are cruisers.
Most of the twisties I ride are blind, and even if the bike can do 100mph, the eyesight doesn't go that far/fast, and it would take a fool to max out, not knowing if there were a deer, tractor, or Amish buggy around the next bend. Even seen a few cows in the road. Being able to lay it down in a slide only gives so much peace of mind.

On paper my Rocket is no match for a sport bike with an experienced rider.
On the asphalt, things even out quite a bit.
Different roads, different story.

For what it is, the R3 handles better than one would expect. But it is still a long, heavy bike that pushes in turns, is not flick-able in the turns in comparison to most modern sportbikes, and late braking and trail braking, as you would on a good sportbike, can get you into trouble.

Yes it handles very well, for what it is. This constantly impresses me. But don't fool yourself into thinking that you can keep up with a well riden sportbike in the twisties.

A little focus to clear up the picture...

The roads around here are certainly to my advantage, twists around Western NY aren't like the canyon roads out in California or anything, I live in the hills not the mountains. Most of the turns aren't very tight and the ones that are tight are generally followed by a small stretch of straight road. I'm quite certain that on a challenging course I would get smoked, the Rocket can take an offramp at 80mph but subjected to a few back and forth turns I'm sure I'd be left behind. So given that I'm an experienced rider, against some kids with only a few years in 'em, ideal road conditions for the challenge, and I'm sure I was pushing the limits of my bike and they had more to give (with some experience and a touch of crazy) and they were only 600cc (a liter class would certainly leave me way back). Even with all those factors in my favor I am still impressed with the Rocket (as were they).