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