By Sabrina Giacomini, RideApart
There’s a number of things Triumph
is famous for, mainly the frozen-in-time 50s-60s aesthetics used for
80-percent of its lineup. What Triumph is (or should be) also known for
is for producing the biggest motorcycle engine on the market. Now it
looks like the biggest engine wasn’t big enough because the block will
gain some volume this year.
I am of course talking about the Triumph Rocket 3,
the power cruiser in its purest form. The appropriately named Rocket is
propelled by a 2,294cc parallel inline mill rated at 148 hp and 163
lb-ft of torque. A 2.3-liter block in a bike. Why? Because why not.
Since
the end of last year, following the infamous Triumph dealers’
conference that saw a number of leaks hit the Interwebs, we know the
manufacturer is working on a new generation of the Rocket 3. The picture of a screen on which a render of what the next-gen would look like hinted not only at a new, upgraded design but also at a bigger engine.
Then Triumph launched its Triumph Factory Custom division with a limited edition Thruxton and Rocket 3—powered
by, you will have guessed, a new, bigger engine. This version of the
monstrous three-cylinder block gains considerable volume, going from
2,294cc to 2,500. That’s 2.5L of bike for you. The launch of the Rocket 3
TFC with the bigger engine added weight to the dealers’ conference
rumor, despite the model being a limited-edition model.
The math
was easy: considering the Thruxton TFC uses the same engine as the
Thruxton, the scenario would likely be the same for the Rocket 3 and
that the 2.5-liter engine would land in regular production as well.
Spy shots shared by Motorcycle News
published in April cemented everything: the Rocket 3 was spotted out in
the wild with its shiny new 2,500cc inline three and a fresh, new,
modern look. According to our British colleagues, the new mill is
expected to produce something around 180 hp and 170 ft-lb of
torque—numbers that have yet to be confirmed.
At this point, it’s
not a matter of “if” but rather a matter of “when”. The general
consensus seems to be that the new-generation Rocket 3 will show up at
EICMA 2019 where we should get the official numbers of the new mill. The
biggest production motorcycle engine is about to get beefier!
