All of these thoughts melted away though, as I donned riding gear and swung my leg over the beast. I was immediately surprised how easily it picked up off the stand, and how fuss free it was to roll around the parking lot. This was most certainly not the case with Kawasaki’s new Vulcan 2000, and I think I had expected the Triumph to feel the same.

Reaching over the small speedometer and tachometer, I twisted the ignition key and fired the beast into life. Firing instantaneously with a deep growl, the bike pulls gently to the right as you rev it up. It also revs quite quickly, and there is a healthy amount of intake noise from under the tank, First gear goes in with a solid thunk, no heel/toe shifter to be found here. No footboards either, as the Rocket III uses solid, round metal foot pegs, with attractive machining on the ends. They have peg feelers attached, and one enthusiastic Canadian journalist in our group actually managed to snap a peg off during some spirited cornering. I did plenty of grinding in the tight twisty sections. Personally, I don’t like scraping the pegs, having touched down a side stand last year on a racetrack at triple digit speeds. With the end result being some painful, high-speed asphalt surfing, it is still a touchy subject.

The Rocket III handles it with aplomb though, the pegs folding up on contact, and I never felt as if was going to unsettle the bike. On faster, less twisting terrain, foot pegs and terra firma kept their distance, and I think the Triumph probably has a tad more ground clearance than any of the current competition.

This is not an accident, for a while the Triumph development team leaned heavily on the opinions of American cruiser riders for the styling clues and riding position, I can’t help feeling the handling package is derived from English A roads. The type of tight, twisting secondary roads found around the Triumph factory in England.

With the bike immediately displaying very user-friendly manners in the parking lot shuffle, the ease of operation just carried on as I got on the move. The light clutch lets out smoothly, and on barely a whiff of throttle I pulled onto the road.

Getting both feet up onto the pegs, almost before clutch was all the way out, the bike feels perfectly balanced and steers with the lightest of touches. With the 240-section rear tyre out back, only at the last minute rolling up to stop signs and traffic lights is it necessary to put a foot down.

The bars are wide, there is no denying that, but the steering is surprisingly light. Just a small nudge on the bars initiates the turn, and the bike flicks back and forward so effortlessly, I was mentally scratching my head at the thought that this thing weighs around 750lbs full of fluids. This light easy steering is consistent at all speeds, but it is the low-speed agility that impressed me most.

During press launches, a fair bit of time is spent riding back and forward for photographs, and while this is not so exiting, it is a great leveler, because you have to repeatedly turn the bike in a short space. Rolling the Triumph almost to stop, I could turn the bike almost to full lock, lean into the turn and roll round to get facing the other way. No need to muscle the bars and no drama, unlike a couple of the latest cruisers I have tested, which have been something of a handful for this operation.

With the gargantuan amounts of torque available from the 2300cc engine, 64 foot-pounds on idle, there is no need to use the throttle for this maneuver, until it is time to head back in the right direction.

Straightening the bike up, and getting ready to twist the throttle you have two distinct choices. Firstly, a gentle twist has the big triple purring effortlessly up the road with no vibration, and a liquid fluidness that is so smooth it isn’t possible to feel the engine working.

Secondly, a large handful is going to have you thinking you have inadvertently hitched a ride on the Space Shuttle during take off, however, and you better be hanging on. Producing 147 foot-pounds of torque at 2500rpm and 140 bhp at 5,750rpm, you are in for a wild ride. As the approaching landscape goes into some sort of manic fast-forward, and your stomach internals attempt to wrap themselves around your spine, the Rocket III just keeps pulling like a team of Clydesdales, feeling as if it is never going to run out of power.