AD345
3rd October 2010, 16:47
"New Zealand ain't big enough for a Rocket"
That thought swept through my mind earlier today during an exhilerating ride over the Kopu hill on a 2006 Triumph Rocket. I had wanted to ride one of these beasties for a long time, reading about them everywhere simply whetted my appetite. Combine that with Triumphs slick promo vids of late and it would be fair to say I was gagging for a go.
Today was the day.
We had a club ride for us Victory boys for the first time in a long time after the wet winter from hell (14 consecutive wet weekends!) and we dicided to head out to Kopu, over to Whangamata, back around to Ngatea and then through to Mercer via Te Kauwhata. One of the club members is selling his 8-ball forpersonal reasons and had the use of a Rocket from his brother-in-law.
We arrived at Kopu about 10:30am and stopped for a coffee. Whilst there the opportunity came up to have a go on the Rocket and I joyfully took the chance. The agreement was to ride over the Kopu hill and then swap back again as he had to go back to town for a potential buyer on the 8-ball.
Getting on it took a minute or two to work out where all the little things were, keys and so forth. I pushed it back a bit to get clear and thought that it felt pretty well balanced. 300-odd kg and it rolled back easily enough. Before even pushing the starter I was already grinning. Finally I was going to see what all the fuss was about.
Fire up and off we go!
Good god - what a CRAP riding position!. Seriously, seriously nasty. It threw my whole train of thought off for the first few minutes. This bike is huge and I've had more room on a vespa for Chrisskes! Perched on top, knees bent in half, arms crooked, I was massively deflated. This was easily the worst riding position of any cruiser I've ever been on bar none. So bad that any thought of actually buying one was instantly banished and I hadn't gone 100 metres up the road yet.
Still - maybe I would get used to it, at least I was on it and rolling. Down the road towards the turn-off to the hill proper and I could already feel the massive reserves of torque lazing restlessly beneath me waiting for me to sort my shit out. Throttle on - WHAM! Throttle off - WOOF! I must have looked like an Aussie on a 'roo for the next couple of hundred metres as I swiftly adjusted myself to the subtlties of the throttle positioning. Onto the hill road amidst traffic and I noticed that in my haste to get on I had neglected to do a few things - like button up my jacket, whups. So I pull over, get my shit together and start this all over again.
Right, this time is for the money. Zipped up, adjusted to the (still crap) riding position, steady hand on the throttle, offff we go! A couple of kilometres of just easing into the bike, reminding myself about how to pilot a large rear tyred bike (it's all in the shoulders) and things were starting to feel OK. I was beginning to get a sense of the vast (VAST) amount of torque on tap and figured I could start to open her up, just one last thing to do - have a wee squeeze on the brakes. Squeeze ..... SHIT. I've never done a stoppie on a 300kg bike at 80kmh before........
Wowsa! Ok, brakes - check! Clear of the traffic, lets give it a good crack. Roll on the throttle and go baby go!
The Rocket is Brute Power. The one benefit of the shit riding position is that it virtually compels you to counter steer and that is a very very good thing because those corners come up with awe-inspiring speed and you'd better be ready to get around them, one way or another. You push through a corner, open it up...eeek!..ease up...rollll the throttle just niice and easily, WHAM! own the straight, squeeze the brakes...eek!.caress the brakes, shoulder into the next corner and look for it to open up.........WHAM!...eeek!..WOOF!..eeek!...WHAM!..et c
After about 5 or 6 ks I'd managed to find a happy medium (not a word easily applied to the Rocket) and the rythym was starting to become a pleasure and I was able to appreciate the many many appealing qualities of this beast.
First of all - it's a 2-speed. Top gear and the next one down is all you need unless at an actual stop. The Rocket rolls from crawl to lightspeed just as quickly as you can turn your wrist. It doesn't so much hurtle down the road as pull all of NZ towards it and trample it under the huge wads of rubber that wrap the rims. You can hear the landscape groaing as the Rocket grips the tarmac and pulls Aotearoa into a more pleasing shape. This place is too small and the Rocket is displeased. Coming off the top at one point and around a corner that opened up into a long straightaway you could sense the road pleading for mercy as the hills blue-shifted towards the next corner.
Secondly - it's calm. I wear a Half-helmet (http://www.thebellstore.com/images/Helmets/Drifter/2010_drifter_diablo.jpg) and buffeting is a fact of life. Combine that with the pace of the ride and I would normally expect the world to blur, or at least my eyes to water, but my head was rock steady and the wind was simply not. an. issue. At one point I glaced down at the gauges and thought "wow! 16000 revs! I had no idea.......oh hang on, that OTHER gauge is the rev counter...........eek!"
Give 200 people a Rocket, let them loose in the bounty hunter heaven of Waikato's traffic enforcement zone and the national debt would be paid off in a week.
All too soon the turn ff to Tauranga flew into view and the ride was over. The blast wave subsided and I eased off to the side to wait for everyone to catch up (.....).
I had ridden the Rocket and - it rocked! I've never experienced anything like it before and I will dream about it tonight. It is a stupendous beast of a machine and I am so very glad that it was made.
But until the riding position gets sorted - I'm over it.
That thought swept through my mind earlier today during an exhilerating ride over the Kopu hill on a 2006 Triumph Rocket. I had wanted to ride one of these beasties for a long time, reading about them everywhere simply whetted my appetite. Combine that with Triumphs slick promo vids of late and it would be fair to say I was gagging for a go.
Today was the day.
We had a club ride for us Victory boys for the first time in a long time after the wet winter from hell (14 consecutive wet weekends!) and we dicided to head out to Kopu, over to Whangamata, back around to Ngatea and then through to Mercer via Te Kauwhata. One of the club members is selling his 8-ball forpersonal reasons and had the use of a Rocket from his brother-in-law.
We arrived at Kopu about 10:30am and stopped for a coffee. Whilst there the opportunity came up to have a go on the Rocket and I joyfully took the chance. The agreement was to ride over the Kopu hill and then swap back again as he had to go back to town for a potential buyer on the 8-ball.
Getting on it took a minute or two to work out where all the little things were, keys and so forth. I pushed it back a bit to get clear and thought that it felt pretty well balanced. 300-odd kg and it rolled back easily enough. Before even pushing the starter I was already grinning. Finally I was going to see what all the fuss was about.
Fire up and off we go!
Good god - what a CRAP riding position!. Seriously, seriously nasty. It threw my whole train of thought off for the first few minutes. This bike is huge and I've had more room on a vespa for Chrisskes! Perched on top, knees bent in half, arms crooked, I was massively deflated. This was easily the worst riding position of any cruiser I've ever been on bar none. So bad that any thought of actually buying one was instantly banished and I hadn't gone 100 metres up the road yet.
Still - maybe I would get used to it, at least I was on it and rolling. Down the road towards the turn-off to the hill proper and I could already feel the massive reserves of torque lazing restlessly beneath me waiting for me to sort my shit out. Throttle on - WHAM! Throttle off - WOOF! I must have looked like an Aussie on a 'roo for the next couple of hundred metres as I swiftly adjusted myself to the subtlties of the throttle positioning. Onto the hill road amidst traffic and I noticed that in my haste to get on I had neglected to do a few things - like button up my jacket, whups. So I pull over, get my shit together and start this all over again.
Right, this time is for the money. Zipped up, adjusted to the (still crap) riding position, steady hand on the throttle, offff we go! A couple of kilometres of just easing into the bike, reminding myself about how to pilot a large rear tyred bike (it's all in the shoulders) and things were starting to feel OK. I was beginning to get a sense of the vast (VAST) amount of torque on tap and figured I could start to open her up, just one last thing to do - have a wee squeeze on the brakes. Squeeze ..... SHIT. I've never done a stoppie on a 300kg bike at 80kmh before........
Wowsa! Ok, brakes - check! Clear of the traffic, lets give it a good crack. Roll on the throttle and go baby go!
The Rocket is Brute Power. The one benefit of the shit riding position is that it virtually compels you to counter steer and that is a very very good thing because those corners come up with awe-inspiring speed and you'd better be ready to get around them, one way or another. You push through a corner, open it up...eeek!..ease up...rollll the throttle just niice and easily, WHAM! own the straight, squeeze the brakes...eek!.caress the brakes, shoulder into the next corner and look for it to open up.........WHAM!...eeek!..WOOF!..eeek!...WHAM!..et c
After about 5 or 6 ks I'd managed to find a happy medium (not a word easily applied to the Rocket) and the rythym was starting to become a pleasure and I was able to appreciate the many many appealing qualities of this beast.
First of all - it's a 2-speed. Top gear and the next one down is all you need unless at an actual stop. The Rocket rolls from crawl to lightspeed just as quickly as you can turn your wrist. It doesn't so much hurtle down the road as pull all of NZ towards it and trample it under the huge wads of rubber that wrap the rims. You can hear the landscape groaing as the Rocket grips the tarmac and pulls Aotearoa into a more pleasing shape. This place is too small and the Rocket is displeased. Coming off the top at one point and around a corner that opened up into a long straightaway you could sense the road pleading for mercy as the hills blue-shifted towards the next corner.
Secondly - it's calm. I wear a Half-helmet (http://www.thebellstore.com/images/Helmets/Drifter/2010_drifter_diablo.jpg) and buffeting is a fact of life. Combine that with the pace of the ride and I would normally expect the world to blur, or at least my eyes to water, but my head was rock steady and the wind was simply not. an. issue. At one point I glaced down at the gauges and thought "wow! 16000 revs! I had no idea.......oh hang on, that OTHER gauge is the rev counter...........eek!"
Give 200 people a Rocket, let them loose in the bounty hunter heaven of Waikato's traffic enforcement zone and the national debt would be paid off in a week.
All too soon the turn ff to Tauranga flew into view and the ride was over. The blast wave subsided and I eased off to the side to wait for everyone to catch up (.....).
I had ridden the Rocket and - it rocked! I've never experienced anything like it before and I will dream about it tonight. It is a stupendous beast of a machine and I am so very glad that it was made.
But until the riding position gets sorted - I'm over it.