I have not spent any time on the old style Rocket. To be honest I liked the power numbers but wasn't in love with the look. Don't take this wrong but back then it looked too much like a tractor motor to me. I had just started customizing M109R's and that's what I was focused on. Like I said it wasn't the power that made me fall in love with this bike, it was the handling. My 109 had big numbers and handled pretty good. My supercharged Valkyrie also ran well and handled pretty good. My Boss Hoss handled like crap and wouldn't stop and it was ugly but at 400hp I didn't mind and getting into the secondaries on that bike was like being shot out of a cannon. My Pro Street V8 Chopper trike would put the tires up in smoke at 70mph and 520hp. I may not have any time on the old R3 but I do know what power and handling feels like and I know what I like when I look at it.
Cheers Man, as I said this was not a dig.
The Gen I Rocket wasn't (it seams) that popular in the USA, as Triumph did very little marketing of it.
I now see all these "Jorno's" raving about the new bike, I wonder if any of them had ever ridden a Rocket before.
Triumph has done a lot of marketing and created a lot of hype over it.
Hence me asking if you had spent any significant time on the older bike.
My back ground is Research & Development Engineering and Tool Making (and playing M/C's all my life) so do like, and can appreciate the new bike.
I can accept that what a bike, Girl, whatever, looks like is purely subjective and of coarse personal taste, as my Dad said "It would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing"
Admittedly, my bike is modified so does perform and handle far better than a stock unit.
I kept this in mind when I rode the GT, "do not compare" is what I told myself when riding this new bike, as I wasn't comparing one stock bike with another (stock bike).
Cheers.