1974 Triumph Trident
1974 Triumph Trident Background & History
The 1974 Trident was essentially much the same as the 1973, other than paint schemes and minor details. Trouble was brewing at Triumph that saw the workers union shut down their Meriden plant, where Triumph's best-selling Bonneville and all other twins were produced. This crippled the company, and even though the Trident was built at parent-company BSA's Small Heath factory alongside its stablemate, the Rocket 3, the company’s woes slowed production to a crawl. Hence very few ’74 Tridents were built.
By the time business resumed, under the newly-formed, worker-owned Meriden Co-op, the 1974 model year was over and it was time to concentrate on the ’75’s. Fortunately, the scrappy Brits were slightly ahead of the game and had all the engineering prepared to change the Trident over to left-foot-shift, now required by US law. It was a big move and masterfully pulled off, considering they had almost nothing to work with. The 1975 Trident also got an electric starter (long overdue) and BSA Rocket 3-style forward canted cylinders and a whole new name: T160.
So, the 1974 Triumph Trident is sort of a “tweener”. It fell between the pivotal 1973 (which brought the bump t0 750cc, a 5-speed and front disk brake) and the all new 1975 T160 Trident. Underproduced and largely overlooked today, the 1974 Trident was the last of the right-shift Tridents. And the last Trident made by the old Triumph company (prior to the Meriden Workers Co-Op). And the last of the kick-start-only Tridents also. Long overdue and much anticipated, the T160 starters very quickly developed problems. Yep, you guessed it, Lucas, the Prince of Darkness. They only started intermittently. This problem has been solved in modern times.
Triumph had followed its age old practice of starting with a good design, and constantly refining and improving in incrementally over many years or even decades. Hence by the time the 1974 Triumph Trident had come out, the Trident as a whole had been through years of nurturing and it had evolved into a fine machine. Reliability and durability issues had been dealt with, and any foibles fixed. They ran great, were very fast and handled fantastic. And that sound! There’s just nothing else like the wail of the big triple singing at full song going through the gears! Few cars sound this good. A Ferrari certainly, a modern Mustang with the Voodoo V-8 (with flat-plane crank) perhaps. The only thing that sounds better is a Trident with a 3-into-1 header.
Tridents became racing legends on the tracks at the hands of Gene Romero and Gary Nixon. On the street, a well-tuned Trident or Rocket 3 would give a Honda CB750 a run for its money, maybe even beat it on a good day. But that’s stoplight-to-stoplight. In any sort of handling course, the two British triples would have left the big Honda in the dust. At the time, in the early to mid-1970s and before, it was well known that Japanese bikes didn’t handle well, and that British bikes were the best-handing motorcycles in the world. And the big Trident was no exception, despite its hefty 460 pound curb weight.
ABOVE: The new Lockheed front disc brake looked great and stopped well.
Starting in 1971, the Trident used this luscious aluminum conical brake hub in the rear. The front hub was also conical until the front disc brake replaced it in the 1973 model year.
1974 Triumph Trident Specifications
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Model designation Engine type Displacement Bore & Stroke Compression Carburetors Primary drive Clutch Final drive Gearbox Ratios, overall: 1st, Bottom 2nd 3rd 4th 5th, Top Wheelbase Ground clearance Seat height Suspension, front Suspension, rear Brake, front Brake, rear Wheel, front Wheel, rear Tire, front Tire, rear Weight |
T150V Air-cooled OHV inline 3-cylinder 741cc / 45ci 67mm X 70mm / 2.67″ X 2.751″ 9.5:1 3- Amal Concentric 3/8″ Triplex chain X 82 links Single plate, dry, diaphragm-type 5/8″ X 3/8″ chain X 104 links 5-speed constant-mesh, right foot shift 12.9:1 9.21:1 6.97:1 5.93:1 4.98:1 57.0" / 1448 mm 6.5″ / 16 cm 32.0″ / 81 cm Telescopic fork, oil damped Swing arm, 2 coil-over hydaulic dampers 8″ Hydraulic disk brake 7″ SLS drum in conical hub WM 2-19 (19″) WM 3-19 (19″) 3.25″ X 19″ 4.10″ X 19″ 460 lbs / 209 kg |
1974 Triumph Trident Books
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