Perhaps new in from Italy

Marco

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Joined
May 7, 2025
Messages
8
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KTM 950 Adventure => Triumph Rocket 3 R Storm
Hello all, I'm Marco from Italy and I am test riding the R3 Storm R in ealry June. After 20 years on a KTM 950 Adventure, now my taste (and capabilities off-road) have turned, and I'm looking into the R3 as an alternative to ride around mountains in North Italy when time allows and 99% of the times solo. I love all of this bike and thrilled to test it, the only concern I have, given the roads I will be hitting the most are narrow corners and U turns, is how soon you scratch pegs. Most of the videos from test riders don't say anything at all if not that it may happen, but I've found a video of guy testing it independetly and he scrateches the pegs almost each turn, even not tight ones and at very low speed too. I'm not a professional rider and don't look into sport riding leaning that much, he doesn't looked either and was still scratching a lot, which is something I don't like when I am looking for a chilled riding. I can live with sometimes, but not all the times. What's your experience? Thank you all.
 
Having scraped the 'bank angle indicators' frequently on my Bobber I can say it's the only bike I own that will do it regularly because of its low ground clearance. Riding a Rocket at a normal rational pace you'll likely never touch the feelers down. The closest I've come (so far) is touching my boot heel once. You can't judge speed from a GoPro's viewpoint. What shutter frame speed was the guy scraping pegs using? Check out the ground clearance difference on the side stand between my Rocket and my Bobber.

This is my Bobber: A modest lean angle gets the feeler scraping


This is my Rocket:
 
Hello Marco,
Ex KTM 990s Adventure owner here......now Triumph Rocket 3R owner.
I think the 950 was a nicer bike than the 990.....The carbs made the engine much more controllable off-road. The fuel injection on the 990 made it more road orientated due to snatchy throttle response.
I too enjoy riding in the hills where I live and the KTM was of course one of the best bikes to do that job.

Now talking about the dynamics of the current Rocket 3.....I really enjoy throwing the bike around in the corners, but I've never scraped the foot pegs on the ground so it's not something that i've ever thought about.
Perhaps i'm not trying hard enough some folk will say.

One thing however that the bike isn't great with is turning really tight corners. This is mainly due to the long wheelbase and fat front tyre etc...
So tight hairpins need a lot of counter steering to get the bike to cut into the bends.
I think the bike handles the corners very well for it's size, but it is a heavy bike and needs to be ridden with this in mind, especially on twisty mountain roads. The brakes are very good and there is plenty of solidity/grip from the tyres, so it's easy to get quite confident, but it's weight can catch you out, so just bear that in mind, and perhaps the pegs do need to touch the tarmac if you're really racing around tight bends, but I have so much fun riding the bike at speeds lower than that, so it just doesn't happen. In fact, I have been surprised how far over you can lean the bike with confidence.
 
This is the guy:
 
Good to know I’m not the only one moving from Dakar winner to the Darth Vader of motorbikes . I’m not that scared of the weight, the 950 with full luggage and passenger weights the same of the R3 with the minus of the weight being very high. KTM solo is surely super agile despite the 21 front wheel and off road oriented sospensioni. On the Alps roads you can find any kind of bike and they all make it, Gold Wings, Harleys, etc… looking at the guy in the video and thinking of our roads, much twistier than the road he is riding, makes me feel i would scratch almost all the times even at cruise speeds. I’m talking of the R not the GT, maybe i forgot to say..
 
Marco said:
This is the guy:
Click to expand...
I'll agree with the guy, my Rocket won't beat my Speed Triple thru the twisties, but that doesn't mean it won't handle the job ridden to the bike's limit. If you want a naked sport bike then the Rocket isn't it. My Thruxton R would probably run away from my Rocket on Tail of the Dragon too (311 curves in 11 miles), but all three are fun in their own way.
My Thruxton:

My Speed Triple RS:
 
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