I was tempted by a R3 and test drove a used one at a local dealership that sells mainly pre-owned (and is also quite liberal with allowing test drives). At the time I had an Indian Scout, with a 1130cc v-twin. With what I'd done to it, it should be putting right about 100hp to the wheel, maybe 80 for torque. Bike was maybe 550lbs, not a feather but light by cruiser standards.
As F-M noted, I instantly found the R3 very uncomfortable. It's a huge bike, yet the riding position is very cramped and awkward, and I'm only 5-8. Ultra wide gas tank, high mounted mid controls, and a decently long reach to the bars make for a very goofy rider triangle.
But, 150hp and 160lbs of torque! This thing is gonna rip my arms off when I hit it, which of course I did on the nearest on ramp. My buddy was following me, on my Scout. It definitely wasn't slow, but given it's dyno numbers I was expecting quite a bit more. Around 4000rpm the bike shakes like it's about to come apart, the tach and speedo were vibrating furiously to the point I legitimately thought they were going to fall off. My Scout was also not getting any smaller in the mirror. I ran it up to about 120 and north of 100 I started to gain some distance on my own Scout, but considering it has 50% more power and 100% more torque to shove it's extra weight I thought it would have absolutely ran away. It just didn't feel all that fast to me. My Vmax was definitely more "exciting". My current Valkyrie (about 100hp/100 ft-lbs) feels all as fast according to the butt dyno but runs about 400x smoother. I returned the R3, thanked the salesman, and left, my interest in the bike had gone to absolute zero.
On a separate occasion I demo'd a used R3 Touring, the bagger version. It was an absolute pooch. I actually thought something was wrong with the engine, which initially I had assumed to be the same one in the R3 standard/roadster. It was torquey and ran smoother, but the throttle seemed to stop working after about 50%. Nothing more happened. There was absolutely no top end power anymore. Apparently Triumph decided to carry the extra weight of a bagger, the engine should have less power. A lot less. That 2300cc engine was detuned to only put about 100hp to the wheel. Why, I have absolutely no idea. The bike was running perfectly fine. The Touring did have a much better riding position although the gyno-chair leg spread was still mostly there. They also axed the tach (not like you needed it, the engine signed off at what felt like about 3000rpm), and put the speedometer just north of your crotch, so you won't be looking at that either. Again, any potential interest went to zero during the test drive.
I'd be curious to sample the new one, once the non-TFC standard production version comes out. Triumph axed the Touring model a couple years ago due to poor sales, so who knows if the new one will get a touring variant or not.
