The Triumph Trident

Triumph Motorcycles released the new Trident onto the market and it seems it has taken the motorcycle world by storm. Having just had the privilege of riding about on the Trident for the past ten days, I can absolutely see why.

If like me, you are used to riding bigger engine bikes, you will be surprised at just how quick and powerful the Trident is. The Trident is a 660cc 80bhp bike with a liquid-cooled, 12 valve, DOHC, inline 3-cylinder engine which you may look at and think it is going to be low on power and speed. I can tell you it is not lacking either of those attributes. It has a lot of low down grunt and a lot of torque.

I had the Trident at the beginning of March so the roads were cold although during the time I had the bike, I was lucky enough to only get one day of rain which I think is pretty good for the time of year.

When the bike first arrived, I spent ages just looking at the bike and noticing the little details such as the single round headlight with the Triumph logo in the centre, the single round tft instrument display clock which you can play around with to display different settings (I may have spent a little bit too much time fiddling but it was quite interesting – well, to me anyway!).

The rear brake light under seat area I think is a breath of fresh air, in my opinion this looks really cool especially as the number plate and indicators have been mounted off the swing arm and sit at the rear of the bike over the back wheel. That is sooo cool. I think a tail tidy mounted under the seat would spoil the whole look of the rear bike.

So having drooled for a while, I donned my bike gear and went for a ride. The Trident is light enough for me to manoeuvre quite easily (to me it feels of a similar weight to my Z900 and lighter than my CB1000R) and by the time I was at the end of my road I knew I was going to like it. The Trident is incredibly easy to ride and the seating position is extremely comfortable.

The Trident has two riding modes, rain and road and I had it set on road mode the entire time I had the bike. If you have read some of my previous articles you will know I am not a fan of modes anyway, and if there had been a sport mode I would probably have left in that to be honest but that is a personal thing.

I was really pleased to see that the Trident comes with Michelin Road 5 tyres as standard. I run these tyres on all my bikes and for someone that rides all year round in most weather conditions (I avoid ice and snow) I personally find that they are brilliant tyres. I know tyre choice is a very personal decision but I was happy. Michelin describe the Road 5’s as “Offering you the best wet grip versus its main competitors without compromise on dry roads” and I’m a real fan.

As I progressed out of the town and onto open roads, I opened the bike up a little. I was surprised by the amount of low down torque it has as when I dropped it a gear and overtook a couple of cars, the thing went like a rocket and effortlessly passed the cars and with the triple engine, it sounded good whilst doing so. By the time I got back, I was seriously impressed with the Trident.

Over the period of ten days that I had the Trident I rode to work on the bike and then went home the really, really long way or some days off for a few hours riding. I was also out both days at the weekend, just riding around town on the Saturday and managing a five hour ride out on the Sunday (this did include two coffee stops and quite possibly a cake may have appeared but not for very long).

I honestly could not get enough of riding the Trident. At every opportunity I was on the bike, it is just such a joy to ride and I found myself grinning whilst riding along.

The Trident was averaging just over fifty miles per gallon, so by my calculations, and please do check them, I reckon you could get approximately 150 miles to a tank of petrol (it has a 14L tank) which is pretty impressive.

The Trident is A2 licence compliant meaning that it can be restricted and could be described as a great first big bike. It is easy to ride, comfortable, easily fills you with confidence in the handling and agility and extremely fun in the twisties but to me, describing it just as a great first big would be doing the Trident an injustice. It is way more than that.

The on the road price for the Trident is £7,200. You are getting stacks of bike for your money and if you’re in the market for a ‘big’ bike, do yourself a favour and take a Trident for a test ride. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, please do not be put off by the horsepower figure, in the real world it seems much quicker due to the low down torque.

The only thing I would change on the Trident would be a louder exhaust but again, that is personal choice as I personally like a loud exhaust.

Other than that I wouldn’t change anything on the bike, I love it as it is and I really struggled to find the garage door key when Triumph turned up to collect the bike. If I could, I would have kept it 🙁

Thank you Triumph for the loan of the Trident, it was a privilege to ride 🙂

BK

https://www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/motorcycles/roadsters/trident

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