The Triumph Trident is a three-cylinder motorcycle of either 750 cc or 900 cc capacity. These bikes were produced from 1991 to 1998 at

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbo ...

, Leicestershire, England, by

Triumph Motorcycles Ltd Triumph Motorcycles Ltd is the largest UK-owned motorcycle manufacturer, established in 1983 by John Bloor after the original company Triumph Engineering went into receivership. The new company, initially called Bonneville Coventry Ltd, conti ...

, the successor business to the defunct

Triumph Engineering Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the ...

at Meriden Works,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, England.

Overview

A range of new 750 cc and 900 cc triple-cylinder bikes (and 1,000 cc and 1,200 cc four-cylinder bikes) were launched at the September 1990 Cologne Motorcycle Show. The motorcycles used famous model names from the glory days of Meriden Triumph and were first made available to the public between March (Trophy 1200 being the first) and September 1991. The Trident uses a modular liquid-cooled

double overhead camshaft An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...

(DOHC) engine design in a steel frame (shared with the four-cylinder bikes) with a large-diameter backbone design. The modular design ensured that a variety of models could be offered whilst keeping production costs under control—an idea originally proposed, in air-cooled form, in the early 1970s by Bert Hopwood but not implemented by the (then) BSA-Triumph company.

Frame and cycle parts

The high-tensile steel tubular frame has a large diameter spine based on that of the

Triumph Bonneville T140 The Triumph Bonneville T140 is a standard motorcycle with a capacity engine that was designed and built by Triumph Engineering at Meriden near Coventry. The T140 was the second generation in the Bonneville series developed from the earlier ...

, though engine oil is not held in the frame. Japanese companies supplied cycle parts including Nissin (hydraulic disc brakes) and Showa or Kayaba for the front

telescopic fork A telescopic fork is a form of motorcycle front suspension whose use is so common that it is virtually universal. The telescopic fork uses fork tubes and sliders which contain the springs and dampers. The main advantages of the telescopic for ...

suspension.

Development

The modular range of engines lent itself to the creation of further

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

, including the Sprint (a sports tourer), Daytona (a fully faired sport bike), and Daytona Sprint (a café racer). In 1993 a twin-headlight cockpit fairing was added to create the Trident Sprint, by 1994 the Trident name had been exchanged for 'Sprint S' and at the end of 1996 this model became the 'Sprint Sports'. The final development of the Trident range was the 'Sprint Executive' of 1998 which featured a hard luggage system. The Sprint was in due course succeeded by the Sprint ST.

Reception

Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspaper". The title was founded in lat ...

'' declared in a 2010 review that the reborn Triumph Trident 900 "was one of the best of their early machines. The three-cylinder motor was distinctive, flexible and robust, the handling, though tall, better than the average roadster, and it was comfortable".

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{Triumph motorcycles Hinckley

Trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other mari ...

Standard motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in 1991