New 2021 Triumph Rocket 3 R Black & GT Triple Black Announced: Full Details, Price & Interview

Today Triumph announced two incredible looking stealthy special editions of their massive two and a half litre triple cylinder cruiser the Rocket 3. So in today's video we'll go over the specs, all of the changes and the price and I was even lucky enough to see the bikes for myself already and speak to Myles Perkins at Triumph about the thinking behind them as well as why this generation of Rocket has been selling so well so stick around to the end for that interview. But before we get started if you're new here and you want to see all of the latest motorcycle news right here on YouTube then please do remember to hit subscribe. First up we'll start with my personal favourite of the two and that's the Rocket 3R Black. The fundamental specs of each of these editions are the same as their non-black counterparts including the world's largest production motorcycle engine which generates more torque than any other bike on the market at 221 newton meters. Braking is top spec in the form of Brembo Stylema calipers at the front and the Showa suspension front and rear is fully adjustable. The level of tech is exceptional too with a TFT dash with Bluetooth connectivity, four riding modes, lean sensitive ABS and traction control, LED lighting, hill hold, cruise control and keyless ignition. The R is the more sporty variant with mid-position foot pegs, lower bars and fewer distance orientated features. But what sets this version apart is the finish with a completely blacked out look that gives it a much more menacing appearance. The extent that Triumph have gone to here is quite something so here's the full list of parts that have had a black finish applied. There's a new carbon front mudguard that's exclusive to these models with black supports and the engine now gets a black finish with painted exhaust headers, painted heat shields and a crinkle black powder coated intake cover. In terms of the details there are black painted headlight bezels, fly screen finishes, radiator cowls, seat finishes and rear body finishes, blacked out badging and rear wheel finishes. Black anodization has been applied to the rear frame forging, brake and clutch levers, yokes, risers and handlebar clamps, rear shock rocker, the swing arm guard, side stand, rider foot pegs, brake and gear pedals, heel guards and pillion foot pegs and hangers. You also get these black anodized bar end mirrors with a more premium machined finish than the standard bikes. Specific to the R is the matte and gloss paint job with the matte black on the sides of the tank and a gloss strip down the middle. This gloss finish is continued all the way along the bike from the mudguard to the fly screen along the tank and then down to the end of the seat unit. Personally I think it looks absolutely incredible but let me know what you think of it in the comments. The GT gets pretty much all of the same specs as the R but with forward foot pegs, a more laid back handlebar position, a bit of a windscreen and a backrest for the passenger. You can also spec it up with soft luggage as an accessory if you do fancy a bit of weekend touring. The triple black gets most of the blacked out components mentioned above but instead of the matte black tank with black logo, it gets a gloss paint job with three shades of black also known as grey and a silver logo. Although I do really like what they've done with the tank here, for me you can't beat the more stripped back hunched down aggressive look of the R but like I say let me know which you'd pick down below. Dealers are taking pre-orders right away with bikes available from mid-April with the R Black costing 21 grand here in the UK whereas the GT comes in at 21,700. That's an extra grand on top of the standard version of each which seems pretty reasonable considering that it's a limited edition and that so many of the components have had an extra finish applied as well as the more complex job on the tank. Both bikes will be limited to just a thousand units worldwide and from what Miles told me in the interview I wouldn't be surprised if they sell out pretty quickly. But when we had the briefing for these bikes the other day you were talking about total sales for the Rocket 3 this generation and I was quite surprised by the numbers so I wondered if you could tell us a bit more about that. Yep so for those who know their Triumphs of course the previous generation was a big fan favorite and went through several different iterations and at launch and in its time was world leading and specification and benchmark setting. With this new generation however particularly I think because of the two flavors the more touring orientated or the more muscle bike what we've seen in there just about a year and a half since launch are we've built 8,000 and it's been about 50-50 in sales. Now that's twice as many on a year-to-year basis for sales than the previous generation so that would say to me that there are more people who are coming to this bike and seeing this which is as I said before very much our flagship you know absolute top spec and world leading motorcycle but it's drawn more people to Triumph to to ride a Triumph and to own a Triumph. But then I talked to previous Rocket generation owners and some of them have actually got the previous one and one of these for the lucky few but for those who like the previous one I think there's enough of what was great about that which has made even better with this to have kept that fan base. And are those kind of exceptional sales figures a surprise to you or like beyond expectations? I don't know if it's a surprise I mean it is wonderful when to see the efforts of the hundreds of people at Triumph in Hinkley who are in design planning, who talk with customers, who prototype, who develop, there's just thousands of things go on to bring something like this into the world and I'm in order that the people I work with you know I work with some very smart engineers and designers and I'd off my hat to them so when I when you see the effort that goes in and the result of that effort of course part of our effort is in planning and designing and listening to what people want which gives you a clue quite a strong direction as to how many people will buy one and of course you wouldn't make the investment and put the effort in unless you were fairly sure so that's part of the design process is to make that plan so have they sold more than we thought they have but but it isn't is it in that kind of territory of are they doing what we thought they were going to do they they have so it's great to see the numbers but they're pretty much meeting what we believe was the target we were aiming for in regards to being world leading and we thought that that would generate a big enough audience to want to ride a Triumph and buy them and in many ways that's why we've got these two editions because the success allows us to know and talk to customers and say well this is a this is a development that sort of answers that brief which is well they they look great but wouldn't they look even better if you made a really stealth black version of them so that's something that's been asked for by customers a stealthy black version or purely kind of you just thought this is going to look a bit of both so of course black triumphs always sell well um there are me myself all my triumphs have been black there are a lot of people who would say well i love bright colors i love to look at them but when it comes down to what do i want in my garage there's something about that and i think the rocket is one of those bikes that um it looks good when it looks when the colors are match its substance and its attitude and black is one of those things i think the red's absolutely stunning and these have sold incredibly well but the blacks are still very strong sellers interesting you said that actually i was thinking oh yeah i bought two triumphs both of them black yeah thanks to triumph for inviting me to take a look at the bikes and to miles for taking the time to speak to me about them both beautiful machines to my eye but as always i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below and if you're new here and you want to see more videos like this hit subscribe and i'll catch you next time you