Feature Story
GO YOUR OWN WAY
Testing The New Triumph Rocket III Touring In The Hill Country of Texas
Story by Neale Bayly
Photos by Riles and Nelson
Purring through Bandera County, Texas, with signs for dude ranches and horse ranches alongside the road, the vast vista slowly rises and falls before me.
Out here, in huge country, there is plenty of time to let my mind wander. With the distant horizon almost blurred through my sunglasses the way the world distorts in a heat haze, lone trees and buildings transform into cowboys and wagons rolling west in search of gold. As an Englishman in a foreign land, the highly untypical motorcycle beneath me that is pulling these incredible scenes across the handlebars seems to be the perfect platform on which to explore this wild, rugged American land.
 All new for 2008, the Triumph Rocket III Touring is not just a warmed-over Rocket III. Starting with its own tubular-steel, twin-spine frame, the new machine also gets a new steel swingarm. The dimensions of the new frame differ from those of the original Rocket some, with a more relaxed rake and trail that give the bike a 67.2-inch wheelbase, compared to the previous 66.7 inches. This slightly lazier set up is not noticeable from the rider’s perch, though, as the Touring comes with much wider bars for increased maneuverability.
Also helping the bike to be more agile are the new 25-spoke, machined, cast-aluminum wheels. Gone is the Rocket’s chunky 240/40-rear tire, replaced by a more sensible 180/70 series 16-incher. This is complemented up front by a 150/80 R 16, which is the same width as the original Rocket’s but comes wrapped around a smaller diameter wheel. This new combination gives the bike very reasonable handling manners for a machine that is tipping the scales a double cheeseburger and fries away from 800 pounds.
2nd Feature
THE HERMIT PART II
Scenes From Behind The bamboo Curtain
Observations by Nick Voge
The Ryukyu Islands hang like a string of irregular pearls from the southern end of Kyushu in the north to Okinawa in the south and form a rough semi-circle demarcating the East China Sea from the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese nickname for this area is Typhoon Alley, because the mighty typhoons that ravage the Japanese archipelago are spawned in the warm Black Current that sweeps up the eastern shorelines of the Ryukyus.
In ancient times there was a Kingdom of Ryukyu. This independent island nation carried on a thriving trade with China and other Asian countries. Eventually, like other island paradises such as Hawaii and Tahiti, the Ryukyus were absorbed by larger nations determined to expand their empires, larger nations against which small islands stand no chance.
To me, however, the Ryukyus are a time machine—a place where one can experience a Japan largely unspoiled by modernization. I’ve come here, to the tiny island of Kikai, off the northeast coast of Amami Island, to work with a group of Japanese carpenters who still build their complex houses the old way, without metal fasteners of any kind.
I’ve taken a room at the inn Tanaka-so, about a 20-minute ride from town. A ride I make on a step-through Honda 90 sans leg shields that I rescued from the trash in Tokyo.
Days start early here and concepts such as Saturday and Sunday are unknown. With the exception of local holidays we work every day, and our lives are ordered according to the lunar calendar. Enlightenment from the master carpenter comes in sharp admonitions.
Interview:
FAST FOCUS
Interview and photos by Reid Libby
All you have to do is close your eyes and it becomes clear.
After a brief glance around for inspiration, close your eyes, and a dip into your imagination is all it takes to be transported back some 40 or 50 years to a simpler time and place , yet one no less exciting than, say, sitting on the pit wall at a present-day Gran Prix. Listen, and you can hear the staccato bark of a grid of high-strung, single-cylinder thoroughbreds, exhaust notes scaling up and down. Riders twist throttles as their mounts vibrate with barely restrained power, anxiously waiting for the ripple of the green starter’s flag that will send them on their way.
With a swish, the flag drops and you feel the impact of the sound on your chest as the swarm of racers leap from the starting line and howl down the front straight. You catch a flash reflection off split-pane goggles and watch colorful pudding bowl helmets seemingly floating above the smoke of their passing like so many glass marbles being tossed down the sidewalk. The blare of the wide-open megaphones slowly fades with their passing, being replaced, instead, by the soft babble of the voices of the other enthusiasts surrounding you, some of whom have also experienced the same imagined, sun-drenched, long-ago racetrack and heard the howls of those very same machines that are presented in front of you.  This is the Golden Age of Italian motorcycle racing maintained in a tangible and most tantalizing form.
This picture of the past comes courtesy of Guy Webster, a man well known for his artistic abilities behind the camera. For years, Webster has created photographic images of the Hollywood elite, the well to do, and the just plain important people of our time. His photographic talents have also extended into the music industry, where his work has graced the covers of many albums and CDs. This lucrative avocation and a passion for things with two wheels have combined to enable Webster to amass a truly impressive collection of significant vintage motorcycles to be preserved for posterity. You might call his assembly of important machines a living photograph of the way motorcycle racing used to be
For more on this story, pick up a current issue of FREE 2 WHEEL at your local dealer, or use the handy order form page found on our web site.
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Scuttle Putt:
Think you had it bad riding clear across Los Angeles to the start of a Poker Run? Or traveling all the way to Anaheim to catch Supercross at the Big A? How would you feel if you had trained for months, raised thousands of dollars, put a team together and trekked half way around the world only to be told that the event you’d set your heart on had just been cancelled.
That’s what happened this year to the hundreds of off-road hopefuls who turned out for the Dakar Rally, which was scheduled to leave Lisbon, Portugal, on January 5 on a 16-day, 3,700-mile, cross-country blitz to Senegal’s capital of Dakar.
On January 4, just one day before the racers were to leave the starting line, organizers cancelled the event due to terrorist threats. The decision, made in consultation with the French Ministry For Foreign Affairs, was based partly on the level of political tension in North Africa and the murder of four French tourists the day before Christmas that was linked to a branch of Al-Qaeda in the region, but mainly due to direct threats launched against the race by terrorist organizations.
The event’s organizers condemned the terrorist menace, saying it had “annihilated a year of hard work, engagement and passion for all the participants and the different actors of the world’s biggest off-road rally.” They also cited the dire economic consequences the cancellation would have for the countries the rally would have visited, but said the action was necessary because they were responsible for guaranteeing the safety of the competitors, mechanics, journalists and others, and the populations of the countries the rally was to have visited, which included Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal.
Way 2 Go:
TEMECULA FINE WINES AND OLD TIMES
Story and photos by Bob Kaufman
Even a popular tourist area becomes ho-hum for someone who passes through it every day. Over the years, that’s the way Temecula had become for me. After all, I live just a bit north of the city and do the treacherous merge from the I-215 onto the I-15 there every day on the way to San Diego.
But when I finally decided to slow down and explore Temecula’s finer aspects, rather than just stopping off for gas, dinner,  and spark plugs, I found a fascinating history, the pastoral beauty of a top wine-growing region, and a surprisingly classy casino and resort.
Because of the fine motorcycling roads in the vicinity, I’ve had the opportunity to mention Temecula three times in Free 2 Wheel over the last 11 years. The last mention was in June 2001 when the connection to Temecula was the Pechanga Indian Casino, located at the north end of twisty Pala-Temecula Road. A lot has changed since then. Pechanga has moved from a tent into a permanent complex, which includes a very classy four-star resort that boasts California’s largest casino floor at 188,000 squ are feet. And the road in front of it has been renamed Pechanga Parkway.
Prior to that, in 2000, I very briefly mentioned Temecula as the place where you get off the freeway to take Route 79 toward Anza-Borrego State Park. Things have changed there as well. The exit ramp is often congested now, and Route 79 in that area is now called Temecula Parkway. And finally (or firstly if you go chronologically), in 1976, I wrote about De Luz Road, which is accessible by getting off the I-15 at the Rancho California Road exit and heading west.
Ask the Sergeant:
I have a new cruiser with a set of “Screaming Eagle” pipes that were installed by the dealer at the time of the purchase. They were even included in the sales deal and financing. The salesman told me the pipes were legal but I got pulled over last week and cited for having a modified exhaust. My question is: how can a dealer sell pipes that are not legal? And will the Judge take pity on me because I bought the bike in that condition from the dealer?
Jared Augustine,
Fountain Valley
I have often pondered the same question myself--the one about how a dealer can sell something that’s illegal, but I suppose the answer lies in a dealer’s own ability to sleep at night rather than in the cold hard facts of the California Vehicle Code (CVC).
California law makes it illegal for a dealer to sell any vehicle that is not in compliance with equipment regulations (CVC 24007(a)1). However, as with all things in this world, I am sure that lawyers with whom dealers consult have taken this section of the CVC to mean that as long as they sell you the parts either separately, or have you return later to have them installed after the sale, they have not violated the law. That may be open to interpretation but the simple fact is that, in order to be enforced legally, the officer would have to see the parts being installed prior to the sale, in his presence, and that is not likely to happen.
Many people have asked me over the years, “How loud can my motorcycle be before it is illegal?” The answer to that question is surprisingly simple. The California Vehicle Code states that an exhaust system cannot be modified to amplify or increase the noise emitted over what was stock or established as legal under CVC 27200 (CVC 27151). Basically this means that, depending on the year the bike was produced, the maximum allowable motorcycle noise limit is 80db (for 1985 models or later).
While it is often difficult for an officer in the field to determine a specific db level, it is not a difficult point to prove in court that your exhaust is modified. Just like you can watch traffic and take a guess that someone is speeding because of how fast he is over-taking surrounding traffic, it is not difficult for an officer to notice that, for the last five to ten seconds, he has heard the same motorcycle approaching and subsequently passing his position. The officer can also testify that the same motorcycle was heard over the noise of all the surrounding traffic. Once stopped, if the officer were to just do the most basic of inspections, he can see that the exhaust is not the OEM system.
Another way to prove that an exhaust system is legal is to look for its certification markings as required under Title 13, CCR Section 612a. This administrative law states that all noise-emitting parts of an exhaust system, like the muffler, must be labeled as being in compliance with the standards of the Vehicle Code. If you want to see what it looks like, look on your stock OEM muffler and read the paragraph etched into the canister. If your muffler lacks the markings, it is illegal.
To answer your second question, I don’t know what to say. As much as I love all things motorcycle, I cannot understand the need to make a bike louder. I have heard all kinds of arguments that “loud pipes save lives” but, as someone who has a loud siren on the front of my motorcycle and who finds that people STILL don’t get out of my way, I have a hard time believing a pipe facing behind you will make you safer. I think that “loud clutches save lives” is a better point. Just ask any Ducati fan.
A Judge is a real person, who lives in a neighborhood much like yours, who drives on the same highways you do, and who sits through hours of court testimony by people trying to get out of every violation you have ever heard of. He is awakened early every Saturday morning by the guy with the open-baffled sportbike from four streets over and he is startled while sitting in traffic by the race-tip equipped dual-sport splitting lanes past his mirror, and he has already heard every excuse in the book as to why their bike is different. The likelihood that he will feel sorry that you told the dealer to install loud pipes on your bike, and that you shouldn’t be held responsible for it, is pretty low.
In today’s age of technology, motorcycle manufacturers build quiet, high- performance bikes that meet ever-tightening emissions standards. It is incredible that anything can make the levels of horsepower and torque that these machines do while still being as socially responsible as they are in regards to noise and emissions. My 1984 HRC VF750R race bike could not hold a candle to the performance levels of a stock 2008 GSXR-750, while the Suzuki sounds like a sewing machine by comparison.
Ride safe, keep smiling, and take care of yourselves and each other out there.
For more on this story, pick up a current issue of FREE 2 WHEEL at your local dealer, or use the handy order form page found on our web site.
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