New Rocket 3 owner, need some pointers for mods

barbagris said:

On the headlights thing - I do wish Steve would post his Adaptive vs non-Adaptive LED videos. The man makes a living from road safety and visibility.

Seriously If after watching you cannot see the benefit on unlit curves then frankly you probably need to see a doctor about your Nyctalopia.

The question is not is it bright or not. It is where does the light go? If you want to see the road you need a well controlled beam. If you want to tell the whole world where you are (including spacecraft) then you need a DRL. The Triumph Headlight excels as the latter. The EARLY JWS did not scatter at all which made it a fairly poor DRL- but the dip beam on the adaptive is a bright and very attention grabbing white blast. But without blinding other traffic. That took some R&D effort.

Well under 30% of the light from a Triumph OEM headlight gets onto the road. And most 5&3/4" H4 reflectors will not fare much better. Why? - because 5&3/4" was never mean to run with an H4 bulb. Hella have published that a basic old fashioned 35W sealed beam 5&3/4" puts more light on the road than a 55W H4. The H4 was designed for 7" and up.

I have said this before. Stand near your bike with the lights OFF. If you can see the bulb that means light can escape at that angle.

Adding a bright LED "bulb" does nothing to direct the light where it should be.

If you do not ride at night - then you really can run anything.

DO NOT GET HUNG UP ON TECH. Especially not from eBay vendors.
CREE make a huge variety of LEDs - as do EPISTAR, PHILLIPS, OSRAM and others. Each one has a purpose and a price.
A sh1t load of ebay bulbs --- well you can guess.

A ROT: 20W LED usually equates to 55W Halogen - ish, approx.

Oh and you should aim for 5000Kelvin White. This SUNLIGHT COLOUR. 4000K is a bit more yellowish - 6000K is more blueish.

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Dr.D said:

There are quite a few mods that benefit a Rocket. I started my information search at the RAA last year in Stearns. I asked a lot of questions and looked at a lot of bikes. I had sort of made up my mind before going and learned enough to change my mind. We are getting together in Maggie Valley this summer, come join us so actually see these things in person.

First of all we know the bike is underpowered, hence all the guys looking to make enough power to get the bike to go down the road adequately. I was all set to go on a Carpenter kit but changed my mind favoring a build for torque and not so focused on top end HP. I’m finishing that project now.

I did perform a stage one first with K&N filters and a tune. Very nice low cost bump but not enough power to exceed the speed limit fast enough. Have you even ridden a stock bike yet? What other rides are you accustomed to?

I did upgrade front and rear suspension and it really handles superbly for such a heavy beast. Costs a plenty.

I almost never ride at night so lights are low priority at this time.

Enjoy the search for your best bike but be ready to open the piggy bank. Do I hear money pit?

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smither_me_timbers said:

Yeah the bike is underpowered, that’s why I bought it! Had to put my grandparents at ease because “motorcycles aren’t safe” so I got a big cruiser and told them it’s slow I don’t need to have some 300 horsepower monster, I just go on YouTube and hear all these awesome exhaust systems on Rocket 3’s, so now I want one for mine! But also I hate chrome, and the stock pipes on the R3 are the biggest, most chrome things I’ve ever seen, and they need to go. But I’m not looking to dump a whole lot into it, it’s expensive enough to insure and keep tires on

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TheKid said:

Oh Smitty, this is getting good. I'm gonna post a pick of my adaptive headlights tomorrow. All kidding aside, the headlights that look around corners are great, but pricey.

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