bigSal
Standard Bore
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2019
- Messages
- 10
- Location
- Topeka, Ks United States
- Ride
- 2006 Triumph Rocket 3 classic Special Edition
On July 9, 2019 I bought a pristine condition R3 w/ 8k miles. Ive never owned or operated a motorcycle, and I flew in on a one way ticket from Topeka KS to Austin TX to buy it. Coincidentally, Randy, My best and oldest friend lives there and has been riding for at least 25 years. Randy picked me up at the airport and we went to meet the old guy selling the bike. Randy test drove it for me while the guy showed me his folder of maintenance records an receipts. He'd had extras put on and made this motorcycle into almost my perfect ride, It was only missing a trunk. After seeing his records dilegence, the pristine state of the motorcycle and Randy giving a thumbs up, we notorized the papers with his neighbor and I handed him an envelope with an even $4k in hundreds. I had a new motorcycle, now I needed to learn to ride it.
Night was falling and Randy rode my bike back to his house and parked it in his garage. He rearranged his schedule running his bussiness "South Austin Gym" and the next morning just before sun up he rode it out to a nearby stadium parking lot and I followed in his truck. I'd spent many weeks watching YouTube vids and reading the SMART inc motorcycle training book, and the moment had finally come. A few years earlier He'd taken a SMART course with his GF to get her into riding so he went over the drills with me and sat on his truck bed all morning while i went from my first time finding the friction zone to repeated stops and turns, cornering , highlighting countersteering, dodging, emergency braking and much more. Nonstop practice, then we broke for lunch. He rode the bike back to his secluded neighborhood and there he jumped on one of his own motorcycles and we worked on skills inside his neigborhood until sundown.this went on for 2 more days and by the end of the 3rd day I felt confident in my ability to make the drive back to KS. 750 miles and 13hours later I was home. Parked it in the garage and July 28 I completed my SMART course with perfect scores. The next day I got my motorcycle license.
Recently I completed my R3 with a trunk as you can see in the pics. I looked around for inexpensive sissy bars for sale and I didnt find any. So I eyeballed the size and shape and ordered a Honda shadow sissy bar with luggage rack for $57 on Amazon. Drilled one hole in it and bought some bolts and spacers at Lowes and it fits pretty **** good behind my paniers. My luggage rack fitted with custom mending plates i made hold my trunk box on so well that my GF loves the back support and stability, though it also blocks the grand view from behind.
I think the next mod coming up is the addition of a Suzuki boulevard pillion seat for her queen size hiene. Some dremel work and Pop rivets sounds easy. If y'all have any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
The missing buckle on my panniers is my fault. I need to find some thick leather to replace the starp I broke by catching it on my foot. I still have the parts.
By the way, I'm retired military, i was in both the Marine and Army infantry.
Night was falling and Randy rode my bike back to his house and parked it in his garage. He rearranged his schedule running his bussiness "South Austin Gym" and the next morning just before sun up he rode it out to a nearby stadium parking lot and I followed in his truck. I'd spent many weeks watching YouTube vids and reading the SMART inc motorcycle training book, and the moment had finally come. A few years earlier He'd taken a SMART course with his GF to get her into riding so he went over the drills with me and sat on his truck bed all morning while i went from my first time finding the friction zone to repeated stops and turns, cornering , highlighting countersteering, dodging, emergency braking and much more. Nonstop practice, then we broke for lunch. He rode the bike back to his secluded neighborhood and there he jumped on one of his own motorcycles and we worked on skills inside his neigborhood until sundown.this went on for 2 more days and by the end of the 3rd day I felt confident in my ability to make the drive back to KS. 750 miles and 13hours later I was home. Parked it in the garage and July 28 I completed my SMART course with perfect scores. The next day I got my motorcycle license.
Recently I completed my R3 with a trunk as you can see in the pics. I looked around for inexpensive sissy bars for sale and I didnt find any. So I eyeballed the size and shape and ordered a Honda shadow sissy bar with luggage rack for $57 on Amazon. Drilled one hole in it and bought some bolts and spacers at Lowes and it fits pretty **** good behind my paniers. My luggage rack fitted with custom mending plates i made hold my trunk box on so well that my GF loves the back support and stability, though it also blocks the grand view from behind.
I think the next mod coming up is the addition of a Suzuki boulevard pillion seat for her queen size hiene. Some dremel work and Pop rivets sounds easy. If y'all have any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
The missing buckle on my panniers is my fault. I need to find some thick leather to replace the starp I broke by catching it on my foot. I still have the parts.
By the way, I'm retired military, i was in both the Marine and Army infantry.
do you have your motorbike license? older rockets basically have no resale value --- a 2006 pristine condition 2300cc bike for $4000 how can you sleep at night
