Hi there R3owners community,
A few days ago I became the proud owner of a 2010 R3 Roadster. The previous owner was nice enough to run it in for me and get the first service out of the way as it had 16,350km's on it when I picked it up.
About 6 months ago, after being without a bike for a little over 4 years. I decided it was time to get back in the saddle. I had this stupid idea that due to the years away from riding, that I should get a cheap 250 to "ease" my way back into it all. Well, that lasted about 5 minutes, as that little toy is in the process of being sold. My previous 2 rides had been a 2004 Yamaha XJR1300 and before that, a 2001 Honda Blackbird. The Blackbird was my first full license bike, stepping up from a Honda CB250, it scarred the crap out of me for the first few weeks.
For a long time I've wanted a cruiser, but I missed the raw power of the Blackbird and the torque that the XJR used to provide. Well the Rocket is all those things x 5 plus more!
The guys at City Triumph in Melbourne were good enough to let me test ride the beast in the rain, as I told them the previous bikes I had owned and the fact that I had just traveled 2.5 hours to get there. I took it easy on the test ride and was surprised at how light it felt once I took off with it's lovely low center of gravity. Long story short, the bike was sold. I put a deposit down that day and now it's mine.
The bike was completely stock apart from the mirrors. I purchased a TomTom Rider4 GPS as my sense of direction is worse than my 2 and a half year old daughters. I also ended up getting them to fit the Triumph aftermarket pipes, a K&N intake filer and remap the engine to suit. I'm eventually looking at getting the Cat removed to open it up a bit more, but that will probably do me for a fair while. I don't need the exhaust to be any louder as the triumph aftermarket pipes sound pretty awesome to me and I'd rather not risk getting done for loud pipes and having to put the originals back on.
On the 2.5 hours ride home from picking it up, it went from sunny to pissing down, once I went past Ballarat. Having trucks go past me on single lane highways was the first time on a bike that the wind gush hardly moved me at all, it was so stable in the rain and wind and so comfortable, you could say I was the exact opposite of being disappointed with the purchase.
Anyway, I'm from St Arnaud in Victoria (AUS) and I can't wait to get more time to take the beast out!
I've named him Buster, I'd upload a few pics, but it doesn't seem to be working for some reason.