Triumph 900 Trident

Well it all began early in '93, I'd been through nearly 40 bikes in the last 14 years, of which the last half a dozen or so were new Japs. I'd already owned various tatty Bantams, Cubs and the like and I'd always hankered after a decent Brit bike since I saw a shiny Bonnie belonging to a neighbour of mine when I was a nipper. So I thought 'F..k it, if I don't do it now I'll never do it.' Anyway, the new generation Trumpets were said to be on par with the Japs so I shouldn't have any problems with reliability. So I went ahead, sold my 1000EXUP, and bought a brand new, gleaming black and red 900 Trident.

Well the first 600 miles went fine until I decided to take a trip to show my new bike to my mates in Dundee. By the time I got there the Trident and I were covered in oil! Did I get the piss taken out of me or what! All the usual Brit bike jokes from my mates, even the old man said 'I told you so!' Well, it turned out that the grommet holding the igniter cable in the crankcase had gone AWOL leaving a nice half inch hole for the oil to come out ! It wasn't that bad in the end, once it was sorted I never had any trouble like that again.

Since I've had the bike it's been through various phases - from cafe-racer with clip-ons and the like, through to its current incarnation: Sports Tourer. I've made various mods over the past five years which I reckon have cured any shortcomings which the bike initially had.

The original front brakes, which were 2-pot floating calipers and solid discs, have been replaced with GSXR750 4-pots together with two stainless brake lines direct from the calipers to master cylinder, and the larger Daytona floating discs. A larger bore master cylinder is not essential, but may be fitted at a later date to reduce lever travel. These all bolt straight on and have improved the braking tenfold. It has totally cured the brake fade which used to occur when thrashing the bike, or when two-up touring over long distances. The 4-pots are also less prone to seizure.

The suspension has also been uprated to cure the wallowing and fork dive which occurs once everything gets hot during a good thrash. I have replaced the fork springs with ZX10 uprated items along with 15W oil to suit. The forks have also been dropped through the yokes by 12mm to quicken up the steering. I also junked the rear shock in favour of a fully adjustable item with a stiffer spring (Quadrant Dynamic).

This has tightened up the handling no end and the bike now feels far more planted and stable, as well as having improved steering. I also fitted a Rear Hugger to protect the rear shock and rear brake master cylinder from any crap thrown up by the rear wheel.

The original headlight has also been replaced in favour of a Sprint Manufacturing twin Cibie half fairing, along with early Triumph Sprint bars. This has reduced rider fatigue dramatically enabling a higher cruising speed on motorways, as well as reducing fuel consumption by around 4mpg at 90mph. The twin cibie's are also a great improvement over the original light.

I've also got a set of Triumph panniers which I fit when touring, which apart from making life a lot easier also help increase stability at high speed (no more floppy bags fixed on with bungee cords).

Performance-wise, I've also made a few much needed mods. The original silencers have been replaced in favour of lighter stainless Muller Technic race cans. The restriction in the down pipes (taper at the end where the silencers slip on) has also been removed, along with the baffles in the airbox. A K&N filter fitted and the bike set up on a dyno.

These mods have greatly improved throttle response as well as smoothing out the power curve and giving an extra 10 bhp at the top end, without any losses at the bottom end or mid-range. The only down-side is that the average fuel consumption has been reduced from 43 to 37 mpg, which I reckon is a reasonable trade-off, considering the improvement in performance. The bike also sounds the dog's bollox with open cans fitted!

Here's a few hints and tips which I'll also pass on. Always dyno a bike if fitting race cans. Even Dynojet kits aren't that accurate and the bike should be set up on a dyno as soon as possible after fitting such a kit. Better still, f..k the Dynojet kit and just get the bike set up on a dyno, and save yourself at least 90 quid in the process. The Dynokit supplied for my bike left it running dangerously lean at the top end, whilst being over-rich in the midrange (wrong type of needles and size of jets!).

If rebuilding Triumph brake calipers use early CBR600 caliper kits/parts for the early two-pots, and early GSXR750 kits/parts for the four-pots, this will save you a lot of cash. For example, Triumph don't supply replacement pins or boots for their floating calipers, whereas Honda do for exactly the same caliper!

Don't bother with ordinary NGK plugs, go for the fancy ones as they last longer and give a better spark. Go for sintered pads to prevent brake fade, not the eco-friendly 'green' ones. When fitting new brake lines junk the 'splitter' and run both lines up to the master cylinder, this will reduce the cost (2 lines as opposed to 3) plus reducing sponginess and making bleeding a lot easier.

Use decent oil, not cheap stuff, and change it regularly. My bike's done 60,000 miles and doesn't require top-ups between oil changes, and it's been thrashed to death! It averages 37 mpg, running better on leaded petrol (don't ask me why!). It does 4000 miles to a rear tyre and 6000 on the front, Bridgestone Battlax rubber works best.

The chain & sprockets last around 10000-12000 miles, using Silkolene chain lube which seems to stay on the chain the best (I'm considering getting a Scotoiler to improve chain life!). The clutch pushrod oil seal lasts for around 36000 miles (remember to turn around the pushrod when replacing the seal, so that the ridge worn on it does not reduce seal life).

The fork seals and stanchions will last forever if you fit gaiters, use motocross items, shortening them to suit. Last winter, I replaced all the bearings in the swinging arm after finding that the seals had perished, so check them out and save yourself some cash. The same goes for the steering-head bearings.

Also, if using WD40 in the winter to keep the salt from lifting the paint on the engine, keep it away from the inlet stubs because I went through 4 sets before discovering what was causing them to perish and split in half!

Don't forget to keep an eye on the wiring loom because it's prone to corrosion if neglected, try to clean and WD40 all the connectors at least twice a year, before and after the winter silly season.

Well that's all the tech stuff out the way, what's it been like to own for the last 5 years or so ? F..king alright that's what ! It's managed to fill the role of commuter/tourer/scratcher admirably. I've done everything from two-up touring to Europe for 3 weeks or more, through to thrashing the bollox off it - easily competing with (and sometimes burning off!) ZXR's, GSXR's and the like down the back roads.

Mind you, as most of us know, in the real world on bumpy back roads covered in gravel and cow shit (well at least they are up here in Elgin), most well set-up bikes will perform the same regardless of their age. The most outstanding feature of the Trident must be the stonking mid-range, enabling you to leave most Jap bikes for dead exiting corners, plus making touring so much more mellow and relaxed without having to do the gearbox shuffle like you do on so many other bikes when two up with luggage.

It's also got that solid planted feeling like it's on rails, much like an old Rickman CR1000 I used to have. It doesn't suffer from that twitchiness that you get on a lot of more modern bikes on bumpy roads. Yet you can still scratch with the rest, the ground clearance being much improved since sorting out the suspension.

It's also supremely comfortable two up, no numb-bum or aching arsehole like you get on other bikes. The wife even manages to nod off on the back when travelling down south on the M6 ! Can easily manage 600 miles or more in a day without feeling like you've done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson!

Am I going to get rid of it soon? Not f..kin' likely! There would be no major advantage in a new bike now I've got the Trident how I want it, plus I'd spend a load of cash that would be well spent fixing up my other 3 bikes (Dnepr outfit, 500 Bullet and my trusty old Z200), or beer of course !

Finally, thanks must go to Trev at Sprint Manufacturing for the cheap but quality spares and all round good attitude. Highly recommended. Also thanks to Russ and Co at Pro-bike, Inverness for the dyno work. Also well recommended.

Tim Fowler