2008 Triumph Rocket III Touring world launch-Rocket alert in Texas!
Rocket calling Houston; 207Nm about to rip up the tarmac! Not too far from Houston, in San Antonio, Texas we ride in the footsteps of Davy Crockett. –Past the Alamo, we head out into the Texas hill country on a 200 mile ride on the all new Triumph Rocket III Touring. The message is clear, don’t mess with the Rocket!
Words: Tor “Crockett” Sagen/Photography by: Riles & Nelson
Hostile Indians and Mexicans are long gone and we head into proper cowboy country. Bandera is the cowboy capital of the world and shortly after passing the small town we stop to admire a pair of genuine Texas Long Horns. This is the opportunity I’ve been looking for all day to wear my Stetson cowboy hat that Triumph gave us cowboys as a welcome gift. Yeeha Rocket;-I shout whipping the Rocket Touring a bit closer to the Long Horns.
The 2008 Triumph Rocket III Touring is an all new model based on the Rocket III launched in 2004. Only the engine, brakes, rear light and the mirrors are the same as on the original power cruiser. And the engine has been detuned for even more torque!
The R3 Touring gets an extra dollop of torque at even earlier revs than before. That translates to 209Nm @ 2.000rpm. To enable this Triumph have sacrificed a lot of horsepower as the Touring is down from 141bhp to 107bhp @ 5.400rpm.
The massive low rpm torque gives clean drive in 5th gear even from 30Mph. -Entering the towns I could just stick to fifth if I wanted to and let the torque do the job. Lacking horsepower compared to the Rocket III or Rocket III Classic is never a problem. The Touring might be less of a red light racer, but it is still brutally fast if you want it to be. No other Touring motorcycle have as much torque as the Rocket III Touring and you could probably tow a 18 wheeler truck if you had enough grip to get it moving.
