Gene Windell
.020 Over
Hi Folks,
I'm a retired Army officer, living in the small town of Jasper, Indiana and I've been the happy owner of a red '06 Rocket III std. for about a week.
I rode a lot as a teenager back in the 1960s, and then intermittantly in the '70s and early '80s. But up until a year ago, I hadn't ridden a motorcycle since 1982 - or even thought about it. Well, I got the bug again but I wasn't confident about any riding skills I may have retained over that 25 year hiatus- so I decided to get something small enough I was sure I could handle, and this turned out to be a '95 Yamaha Virago 750.
It seems like I enjoy riding now even more than I did back in my younger days, and the Virago and I covered 12,000 miles together in the past 12 months. I'll ride rain or shine, day or night, hot or cold, Summer or Winter, short distance or long . . . . I really enjoy riding! And actually, I would probably still contentedly be riding the Virago 750 if not for 2 things: first, I'm 6'2" tall and the Virago was designed for riders of a shorter stature - becoming rather uncomfortable on longer rides due to lack of leg room. And second, I was always taking a lot of ribbing from the guys I rode with about the Virago being a "girl's bike."
So I decided to get something bigger, a lot bigger. I like the cruiser bike seating and riding posture, but am not really a big fan of the V-twin engine - which really narrows the choices down quite a bit. I was seriously considering the Honda Valkyrie, but had reservations about keeping those 6 carbinators in tune. Finally, I decided that the Rocket III was really what I wanted - though I'd never ridden one and had only seen 1 up close in real life.
After looking around for about a week, I finally found an R3 I liked on Craig's List - equipped with most of the accessories I wanted and at an attractive price. Only problem being that it was in Houston (Katy) Texas, a thousand miles from my home. Well, I cut a deal on the phone, wire transferred the payment, and took an airline flight to Houston to pick up the bike. I thought riding the R3 back home on that thousand mile journey would give me a chance to get familiarized with it.
Well, I left Houston around Noon last Tuesday, spent the night in Little Rock, and rolled in to my driveway in Jasper, Indiana at 6:30PM the next day. I must admit my butt was a little sore, but I enjoyed every minute of the trip and really had a blast! Almost every time I stopped for gas, people would walk up and look at the R3 - making comments like "Wow! I've never seen anything like it before. What is that?"
I rode for about 4 hours in the rain, and was very impressed by how well the R3 handled on wet pavement at "Interstate" speeds. I got off track and "disoriented" for about 15 minutes in the town of Tyler, Texas - but this gave me a chance to practice some U-turns and low speed maneuvering, and I was very pleased by the agility of the big bike. This R3 seems to be running perfectly, and I couldn't be more happy with it. Well, I guess I could be more happy with it if it had pull-back bars and a decent pair of hard saddle bags - but that will all come in due course.
Naturally, I have a lot of questions and will be needing a lot of advice on how to get the most out of my R3. And I'm really looking forward to going on some long rides and getting to meet the other members of this forum in person. Meanwhile, I'll just say I really like this bike and I'm glad to be here.
Gene
I'm a retired Army officer, living in the small town of Jasper, Indiana and I've been the happy owner of a red '06 Rocket III std. for about a week.
I rode a lot as a teenager back in the 1960s, and then intermittantly in the '70s and early '80s. But up until a year ago, I hadn't ridden a motorcycle since 1982 - or even thought about it. Well, I got the bug again but I wasn't confident about any riding skills I may have retained over that 25 year hiatus- so I decided to get something small enough I was sure I could handle, and this turned out to be a '95 Yamaha Virago 750.
It seems like I enjoy riding now even more than I did back in my younger days, and the Virago and I covered 12,000 miles together in the past 12 months. I'll ride rain or shine, day or night, hot or cold, Summer or Winter, short distance or long . . . . I really enjoy riding! And actually, I would probably still contentedly be riding the Virago 750 if not for 2 things: first, I'm 6'2" tall and the Virago was designed for riders of a shorter stature - becoming rather uncomfortable on longer rides due to lack of leg room. And second, I was always taking a lot of ribbing from the guys I rode with about the Virago being a "girl's bike."
So I decided to get something bigger, a lot bigger. I like the cruiser bike seating and riding posture, but am not really a big fan of the V-twin engine - which really narrows the choices down quite a bit. I was seriously considering the Honda Valkyrie, but had reservations about keeping those 6 carbinators in tune. Finally, I decided that the Rocket III was really what I wanted - though I'd never ridden one and had only seen 1 up close in real life.
After looking around for about a week, I finally found an R3 I liked on Craig's List - equipped with most of the accessories I wanted and at an attractive price. Only problem being that it was in Houston (Katy) Texas, a thousand miles from my home. Well, I cut a deal on the phone, wire transferred the payment, and took an airline flight to Houston to pick up the bike. I thought riding the R3 back home on that thousand mile journey would give me a chance to get familiarized with it.
Well, I left Houston around Noon last Tuesday, spent the night in Little Rock, and rolled in to my driveway in Jasper, Indiana at 6:30PM the next day. I must admit my butt was a little sore, but I enjoyed every minute of the trip and really had a blast! Almost every time I stopped for gas, people would walk up and look at the R3 - making comments like "Wow! I've never seen anything like it before. What is that?"
I rode for about 4 hours in the rain, and was very impressed by how well the R3 handled on wet pavement at "Interstate" speeds. I got off track and "disoriented" for about 15 minutes in the town of Tyler, Texas - but this gave me a chance to practice some U-turns and low speed maneuvering, and I was very pleased by the agility of the big bike. This R3 seems to be running perfectly, and I couldn't be more happy with it. Well, I guess I could be more happy with it if it had pull-back bars and a decent pair of hard saddle bags - but that will all come in due course.
Naturally, I have a lot of questions and will be needing a lot of advice on how to get the most out of my R3. And I'm really looking forward to going on some long rides and getting to meet the other members of this forum in person. Meanwhile, I'll just say I really like this bike and I'm glad to be here.
Gene
