Buy an Early Triumph Rocket III For £20k Less Than the New One

Everything about the Triumph Rocket 3 is big. It’s a physically very large motorcycle, measuring a whopping 2.5 metres in length, and a heavy one too, tipping the scales at nearly 300kg. Best not to drop it - picking one of these up won’t be much fun.

The engine is large, and comically so at 2,458cc. That’s big for a car, let alone a motorcycle. And finally, there’s one last ‘big’ thing - the price. It’s never been a cheap bike, and the new Rocket 3 Storm version revealed by Triumph is £23,195 for the R, with the GT model costing £23,895. I believe the word you’re searching for is ‘oof’. 

The thing is, though, the Rocket has been kicking around for a while. The first-generation model can be traced all the way back to 2004, and you can get an early one for the best part of £20,000 less than the new bike. 

Yes, you will be losing out on the more modern looks, plus the fancy tech including the current bike’s multiple riding modes and its spookily-good-for-a-cruiser handling, but you don’t actually lose out a great deal in terms of power. 

The original bike makes around 150bhp and 150lb ft of torque, compared to 180bhp and 166lb ft in the Rocket 3 R/GT. Still plenty, and it comes from an inline-three engine which, while not quite as large as the current motor, is still enormous at 2,294cc. 

We’ve seen early Rocket IIIs for as little as £5,000. This one, for sale at a Kawasaki dealership in West Yorkshire, is a bit more at £5,995, but that’s still not a lot of money for how much bike you’re getting. Which is, as we’ve explained, a lot. 

If you’d rather have some of the modern bike’s accoutrements, the current version of the bike, the Rocket 3 (note the ditching of the Roman numerals) has been around since 2020 - long enough for some chunky depreciation to take hold. This 2020 Rocket 3 R is up for £13,995 at Destination Triumph in Bournemouth, still almost £10k less than the new bike. 

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