Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Rides, Rallies, & Events Demo Truck Coming to Ft. Lauderdale Mar 17-19

I FINALLY get to ride the Rocket!!

and the Thruxton, and the Scrambler, and the T100, and, and, and......

Yes, it will be at Pure Triumph in Fort Lauderdale. Thats right on Route 1. The information is on their website http://pure-triumph.com

Went down there Saturday early and told the guy signing up people for demos that I had talked to Jeff the previous day. Guys says "I told him not to do that, @!#@#$!"

(wow, I think to myself, THAT's how I would talk to a stranger).
btw, can anyone describe what Jim Callahan looks like? I am thinking that this is him...

So I am trying to be nice, smiling, friendly, and this guy's still being a jerk. What is this guy's problem? Don't matter, I am going to ride a Rocket III at 10AM!!! We go through the safety briefing and I find the lead and tail riders are very nice. Ride consists of 8-10 miles around the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Not a bad ride, has some nice S turns, couple of straights. I figure it will let me feel out the bike...

We get on the road and man this thing sure has some power! Just burping the throttle, the whole bike is torquing sideways . I am the last but two riders and everyone behind me gets stuck at the light . Guess who is now the tail rider? We get over to the first straightaway and I let everyone get WAY up ahead. OK, what can this baby do? I punched it and ran up to third as the road is rapidly running out. A glance down at the speedo and I am at 105, in THIRD GEAR!!!! Holy crap! Hung back again and now I want to see what happens from a very slow roll. Punched it again and now I've got the front wheel off the ground! WooHoo!! Again to over 100 in third!!! OK, I better settle down before I get in trouble (and no more straights ). Kept getting on it though, in short bursts. One more interesting note. I managed to scrape the hero pegs on a hard left turn. The guy in front of me on a Rocket did the same thing and darn near lost it! He pulls over and starts looking at the bike like there's something wrong. I pull up and explain and away we go. When we got back, the guy says "I thought I broke it!" I asked him what he usually rode and you know THAT answer!

Go back up to sign up for the 10:30 ride and there's the gruff bustard again being short and nasty to everyone and 10:30 is full. Crap, how about 11? Nope, full too 11:30? Again, no. Now I have to hang out without much to do. I made sure I got signed up for the Thruxton at the 12. Oh yeah, when I got back from the first run, Phil (Agentorange) was there and HE got to ride the Thruxton first (dammit)!

Finally on the road with the Thruxton and I knew right away, I was not going to enjoy it. Having to support myself on my palms and the feet slightly back position was NOT comfortable. No big deal, it's not like I was riding up to Pat's place! I even tried leaning back a bit to shift my weight but it did not help. Halfway through the first straight, it sputtered and died. Flipped it to reserve and it took a minute to start. This time the tail rider was with me and everyone else had checked out. We get going again and he asks with a smile if I want to lead. HELL yeah!! So now I have the whole road to myself and I am running it hard. For being uncomfortable, that Thruxton sure moves nicely!! Very nimble. Only thing I noticed was in that hard left again, the tip of my boot caught a little. No big deal. Got back and the crowd had increased substantially. Looked at the 12:30 list, nope. Looked at the 1PM list, nope. OK, time to go!

Overall, had a great time, got to ride a couple of bikes I have been itching to ride for a long time. Met one complete a$$hole who I believe might be Jim Callahan...

Was he the 2nd to last guy in this pic?

http://www.triumph.co.uk/usa/3603_3310.aspx

I read a review of the Rocket recently that commented on grounding the pegs rather easily. The low center of gravity does it everytime. I will trade that though, for ease of handling at slower speeds. Were you not amazed with the handling of that 700lbs. machine? Now imagine trying to do that on a Heritage Softail. Yuck Yuck. So what was your verdict on the Rocket as an everyday machine? I still love that Blue Special Edition they had in Daytona. I doubt I could love it as much as my TBA though.

Callahan did not lead the ride to St. Augustine during Bike Week, but whomever did, he was equally abrasive. Was it that guy? I believe he is the new RAT Czar. Callahan showed up at the Pub as we were about 1/2 through our dinner Phil. He was wearing a grey, collared shirt, and sat right in front of the door with his "boyz". I assume they had just arrived from Ga, etc. I would be surprised if he was out with the truck, since he has been bumped from his RAT gig. Sounds like the Corporate folk were pulling the same act in Ft. Lauderdale that they pulled during Bike Week. If I were the dealer on site, I would b$tch slap the guy. Talk about bad for business.

Marketing and sales 101 folks.

Was it MATT WEINERT?


Trying to find a photo of Mr. Callahan, yet jim is the marketing director not the head r.a.t..

Photo from Left: Gary Busch, Matt Weinert, Satu Meta, James Callahan, and Jim Callahan Jr.

OK, was not Callahan as near as I can tell.

Ryan, remember that guy at the truck with the long grey ponytail and stupid little soul patch. THAT's the guy. What an ugly (inside) person! Same miserable person down here as up there.

I don't know if Matt was there. Lots of full face helmets, you know? Whoever the tail rider was struck me as pretty nice.

The Rocket:
I rode the Classic so I got to feel the swept back bars (as opposed to the stock Rocket bars) and the hand positioning was comfortable. The power, tracking, and control was just awesome. I had no issues with the floorboards scratching. Shoot, I do it often enough on my bike!

The only thing I had a problem with was the heat. Man, did that thing put out some heat!! It was fairly warm Saturday and when we stopped at traffic lights, I thought I was in an oven!

The guy you (ponytail) are referring to is the demo truck driver. That is all that he does. He is okay once you get by the intitial demeanor, but he shouldn't be the first contact with Triumph. I think he worked for Suzuki or something for a long time prior to hooking up with Triumph.

Moe that is the guy!!!!!! Matt was the ride leader to St. Augustine. I am sure he has a passion for Triumph and is probably a great rider, but he did not show much as a PR or Sales personality. It was not his finest hour, but I am not sure how much they invested in this experience. Once we got there, it was like, ummm we could have gotten together for a few beers a little closer to Daytona. Right Phil?

I guess it just wasn't the same without Wojo!

Ryan

That guy your talking about was an @%&8 hole he talked to most everone in a rude manner. He seemed to think he was super cool. Yes he is the truck driver, I managed to get a little info out of him. He didn't give me any crap though, guess my ugly mug intimidated him.

Yeah Ryan, snobbery was king in that pub!

That's OK.... Fishercat, his brother, their friend (sorry Ron, can't remember their names), Greg, and you more than made up for it! I had a great time.