I don’t intend to waste your time repeating what I’ve said in the full video review that’s further down this page, so I won’t. A couple of areas didn’t make the edit though, so we can talk about them and give you a bit of an idea about the new bike. Let’s start with a very quick history lesson.
The Trident name is one that you’ve probably all heard of. One of the original cast members of the old (pre John Bloor era) Triumph line up. The Trident name appeared in 1968, the platform was a sports bike, 740cc in capacity and triple cylinder in configuration. The Trident was built hand in hand with the BSA Rocket 3, at the time both Triumph and BSA fell under the Birmingham Small Arms Company umbrella.
Production ready from 1965 but not available to buy from ’68 until 1975, the Trident pre dated the Honda CB750 and Kawasaki Z900, both of which have been arguing over who was the ‘original superbike’ for decades. The Trident name disappeared from the register until 1990 and the Hinkley era for Triumph.
Reborn as a 750 or 900cc triple cylinder machine, the Trident lived on as a pre cursor to the Speed Triple platform and was fairly popular back in the day. Essentially, a naked sports bike before that category really existed, the Trident lived on until 1998 when it disappeared once again from the line up.
So here we are in 2021 and the Trident name has been reborn again. This time round, it’s being pitched as the ideal first ‘big bike’. It combines an un intimidating amount of power with an incredibly well balanced chassis that can cope with anything you choose to throw at it. Suspension is simple yet quality (by Showa) and the Nissan two-piston sliding calipers have everything you need in terms of performance. Don’t confuse the modern lines with Street Triple aspirations, this is not a naked supersport machine.
It is however, great fun to ride. In road mode (rain is the other choice), the throttle connection is very clean and it’s only in the last half of the rev range that I felt like I was losing out. Bottom and mid range torque is strong and I soon got into the groove of feeding it gears rather than chasing revs when I wanted to make the most progress.
Like I said, there’s little point repeating what I’ve said in the full video review, but for those of you that don’t want to watch it, the cornering experience is incredibly stable. I get the feeling the chassis could cope with a fair dollop more power, possibly at the expense of the brakes and suspension fitted. This would have a knock on effect with the price though and when you consider that the target market isn’t one focused on out and out performance, it’s easy to understand why the bike’s performance is as it is. If you’re new to big bikes, you’ll have fun with the speed while you learn lots about managing bigger bikes in the twisty bits. I had a lot of fun riding the bike in a mix of conditions. We took in everything, rain, lots of rain, dry roads and the odd patch of ice, up at altitude where power was sapped a little.
The star of the show after the chassis composure was the traction control. It was super soft and didn’t get in the way at all. Again, another plus point for riders making the change from small to big. If it was possible to pick a bike to lose your TC virginity with, this one is the gentle hand holder, rather than smacking you about a bit. It cares about the rider and that’s nice.
The competition for this bike is fairly fierce. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Ducati all offer an equivalent in terms of power, weight and price. It isn’t my job to tell you which will suit you the most, that’s down to you and the test rides you book. I’d recommend riding them all, ideally on the same roads and on the same day if possible. Watch the full video review here and decide if you think the 2021 Triumph Trident is worth £7195 of your money. I think this bike deserves to sell like hot cakes, it’s a little beauty. Watch the full review here, thanks very much.
The 2021 Triumph Trident will be available in dealers from late February. I’d express interest now if you want a test ride, the dealer demo bikes will be busy I reckon.
Words: John Hogan. Images: Kingdom Creative