Billet crank for Triumph Rocket III

WE FREELY admit this is one of the more niche new products we've publicised 'ere on these august pages. It's not quite in the neck tube, summer gloves or chain lube category for sure.

But isn't it lovely? What it is, is a replacement crankshaft for the Triumph Rocket III 2.3 triple engine. A billet crankshaft, no less, which is to say, machined from a big old forging of solid steel. The good stuff. Stuff you could make a tank gun out of. Strong, tough, immovable, seriously knock-yer-house-down metal.

But why? Why oh why? Well, a little birdie tells us that, should you fit a turbocharger (or supercharger) to the Rocket III engine, you (very quickly) get an awful lot of torque and power. And the stock spinning parts aren't quite designed with the margin of error you get on smaller engines. Japanese litre bikes generally have bottom ends which can take an extra 50-100% of torque with just a few tweaks (stronger conrods for safety, plus heavy-duty studs and bolts). You have to go really quite crackers to get to the point where you'd break a stock crankshaft on a GSX-R1000 or a ZZR1400 - they're highly-tuned performance machines, and made to cope.

But the Rocket is a big, undertuned cruiser of course. Its engine is made to put out less power than the 1,000cc sportsbikes, from nearly 2.5 times the capacity. Adding a blower brings the tuning level right up again, but a turbocharged or supercharged Rocket motor can easily get to the point where the weak point is the crank. And they snap, in an extremely undignified fashion. We've seen the results, and it ain't pretty...

So. Our mate Sean at Big CC Racing has done the obvious thing, and commissioned his own supply of billet crankshafts to suit the Rocket III. And here it is. A gorgeous piece of work, and, we're tempted to suggest, a bit of a bargain at £2,599 +VAT. After all, you'd pay that for a new motor when the stock spaghetti-crank explodes into a thousand pieces after the turbo hits 10psi...

If you're the sort of person who needs this sort of thing, then we're not the sort of people who want to tell you your business. *But* if you're thinking of any serious work on a Rocket III motor (1,000bhp twin-turbocharged Rocket III motor in a Mini or the like?), get yer name down for one of these first.

More info: www.bigccracing.com. Mention Visordown for a mystery free gift with every crank sold!!