I was painting my garden fence yesterday, when a Rocket 3 rode past and pulled over a ways down the road. Now I live on a quiet country lane that leads nowhere. I reckon the guy must be lost so I walk up to see if I can offer to give him a hand. I turn up just as he's taking a leak; better not offer to give him a hand then.
After us both having a laugh we got to talking. It turns out this guy is a tester for Triumph and the bike is a test bike. It's got charts and forms taped to the tank.
Now I live MILES from the Triumph factory. So I ask what the hell He's doing down here and he says Triumph are making some changes to the Rocket 3. When I asked him what they were and he said he'd have to kill me if he told me. I told him I'd heard about clutch problems and he admitted that's one of the changes. He said they where really surprised that there have been problems as they really nailed the bikes in testing with no problems at all.
Anyway he asks what I ride and I tell him a Rune and he gets excited. He says he's never seen one in the flesh and asked if he can see mine. I take him to my garage and the guy REALLY flips out. He says it's the most impressive machine he's ever seen. He goes on to say that the quality makes the Triumph look like a shed and then he tells me that Triumph bought a few Valks for testing before they made the R3 and that was the bike they were original gunning for; apparently lot of the geometry of the R3 came from the Valk.
He told me all the testers loved the flat 6 engine and although the triumph engine is more powerful the testers all still preferred the Honda engines' characteristics.
When I told him I had one of the first R3's reserved but eventually went for the Rune he genuinly said I'd made the better choice; I was amazed.
He eventually says that when he goes back he's going to suggest Triumph gets a Rune for testing/ideas.
When he left I was grinning like a Cheshire cat
Who knows, maybe there might be a Triumph Runocket one day, if so you heard it here first
After us both having a laugh we got to talking. It turns out this guy is a tester for Triumph and the bike is a test bike. It's got charts and forms taped to the tank.
Now I live MILES from the Triumph factory. So I ask what the hell He's doing down here and he says Triumph are making some changes to the Rocket 3. When I asked him what they were and he said he'd have to kill me if he told me. I told him I'd heard about clutch problems and he admitted that's one of the changes. He said they where really surprised that there have been problems as they really nailed the bikes in testing with no problems at all.
Anyway he asks what I ride and I tell him a Rune and he gets excited. He says he's never seen one in the flesh and asked if he can see mine. I take him to my garage and the guy REALLY flips out. He says it's the most impressive machine he's ever seen. He goes on to say that the quality makes the Triumph look like a shed and then he tells me that Triumph bought a few Valks for testing before they made the R3 and that was the bike they were original gunning for; apparently lot of the geometry of the R3 came from the Valk.
He told me all the testers loved the flat 6 engine and although the triumph engine is more powerful the testers all still preferred the Honda engines' characteristics.
When I told him I had one of the first R3's reserved but eventually went for the Rune he genuinly said I'd made the better choice; I was amazed.
He eventually says that when he goes back he's going to suggest Triumph gets a Rune for testing/ideas.
When he left I was grinning like a Cheshire cat
Who knows, maybe there might be a Triumph Runocket one day, if so you heard it here first
