First 100ish miles

[atomsplitter]

Took the Rocket out for some breakin miles this morning and thought I'd share some impressions of the bike. This is the sixth Triumph currently in my garage and it blends alot of the really good things of the others with a dash of incredible torque as sweetener. Tom (son-on-law) was riding his 1050 Speed Triple so I was hoping for a spirited pace and got exactly that. We stayed mostly on residential and back country roads with the occasional dip onto the highway for some 6th gear riding. First impressions not in any particular order: 1) the heat coming off the exhaust manifold is excessive at stops, I had to keep my right leg well out to the side to avoid roasting my inner thigh, 2) acceleration was very good once off the bottom of the tach, on one occasion catching up to Tom the tach backlight turned red (I didn't know it could do that), it's not got the rev punch of my Speed Triple RS but still very respectable, 3) Handling was light and felt nimble for such a large bike, my T-bird Storm feels like an Abrams Tank in comparison, 4) fuel economy is about what I expected, similar to my 05 model, 5) the TFT screen is going to take some getting used to, the readability of that vs my Speed Triple isn't as easy, there is another background so may change that before the next ride, 6) brakes are good, better than my T-Bird but not as sharp as my Speed Triple, it benefits stopping power using the rear brake on both my big bikes, 7) Sport Mode is what I selected before the days ride to unlock some of the available throttle, it will benefit more once I get my TuneECU hooked up and remove the factory restrictions on the ETV settings, but I'll wait till I have over 600 miles on it before unleashing the monster lurking in the engine bay.

So overall very pleased with how it's performing so far. Will be tweaking the suspension to suit my lard butt better after a I get the initial 600 miles on it. Fun factor is a clear 9 out of 10 (right up there with my Speed Triple). I'll probably look at resetting the foot peg position in the very near future rearward to see if that helps with my right leg getting cooked. To sum up, it's a winner!