Went for the GT.
When the R3 TFC first hit the internet it was love at first sight. Being a BIG bike cruiser guy I loved the power numbers I was hearing but what I really liked was the looks of this bike. It reminded me of my M109R and that was one of my favorite all time rides. A few days after reading everything I could about the bike I went and dropped a $1000 deposit on it not know when it would show up or how much the total cost would be. I did figure it was going to be $25K to $30K and I was good with that for a limited production bike.
I figured there would be some new models coming out at some point based on this platform but I didn't figure that would be till mid season. For sure I figured the TFC's would be the first to hit the streets to give us a little bragging rights and to help stir some interest. Back then there were no other options and if there had been I would have looked real hard at the GT instead of the TFC. My problem is I have a hard time leaving anything stock and to have a bike that I really couldn't mod like I do all my other rides was going to be really hard but I was willing to try seeing there were no other options then.
Fast forward a few months and we see that there are two new platforms in the mix and they are much cheaper with about 20hp less and no carbon bits. What they did have is options. I really like the forward controls of the GT and I fell in love with the silver paint scheme. The fact that it's going to save me around 8K is a plus too. I'm sure I could get that 20hp back and then some with that kind of savings and I can mod this bike without worrying about effecting the stock value. Not a huge fan of carbon fiber anyway so I won't be missing that.
I will say what I love about this bike most is all the ride reports. Most of my bikes handled okay but none of them handled great. My Valkyrie and 109 handled the best of all of them but this R3 is made to handle. The reviews from real riders that have spent a lot of saddle time on great handling bikes were impressed and that says a lot about this bike. I can't wait to drag a peg.
So a dealer about 3 hours away has the bike I want and if my dealer can't make a local one happen pretty soon I'm going to pull the trigger on the one north of me on Tuesday. I think Triumph marketing could have done a better job of the release of this bike and they should have taken care of the guys that put down cash without seeing the bike or knowing the price. I'm not sure if I'm the only guy that feels that way but it is a bad first impression for a first time Triumph owner. I'm sure once I have one between my legs I'll forget all about it. Here's to a great 2020 riding season.