CB750 & Triumph Trident

[flatfour]

David, I do now use a piece of decking board to help me to put the bike on the stand in the garage. When I'm out, the side - stand (which is a long, solid lump of iron) is used. Many thanks for the reminder though!

Bryan, mine is the T150V which has the five - speed gearbox (albeit with the gearchange lever on the right!). My limited understanding of these things is that the specs were very mixed at that time, I assume because the co-operative were were building the bikes, however the U.S market was given the five - speed version to promote more relaxed high speed cruising. Likewise some bikes had disc front brakes, whilst others (mine included) kept the conical hub drum brake, which does actually work very well.

I have also learnt that not all bikes had the crank shaft balanced in production, some were, but the balance factor applied seems to vary almost bike to bike.

In terms of fuel taps, I understand that the left - side tap has a shorter protrusion into the tank to provide a reserve of sorts, however both taps should be on for sustained high speed running.

The sun showed its face in Norfolk around an hour ago, and I've just returned from a run on it, which makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks everyone for your interest.

[Laverda Dave]

Very interesting story, thank you FlatFour for posting. The bike is a stunner as well.
When I began riding NVT were selling off the final batch of Tridents. Obviously I couldn't afford to buy one or pay the insurance if I did (and I hadn't passed my test anyway!). By the time I had moved onto bigger bikes the Trident was long out of production. I eventually bought my dreamed of triple in 2001, a Jota with its unique triple exhaust sound like ripping calico.

[Multiman]

Just caught up with this.
Very interesting to read of T150V.
Lovely bike you've got there and sounds like its pretty sorted now.
Having a light clutch points to it being well renovated as they are notoriously heavy if not put together correctly, all possible but knowledge required.
As Roo has said I've got a pretty tatty T160 which is an American re-import that I hope to do a full restore on as time and dosh allows.
The good news is it has less than 6000 miles on the clock, the less good is that some of the work done hasn't been done well which is a concern.
As far as I can tell the engine has never been apart, we shall see.
Whatever it should be fun to do.
The good folk of this forum often describe their latest projects as money pits, I think I shall be skirting round the edge of a nearby financial black hole!

[flatfour]

I thought that I would offer a short update on life with the Trident as I've now ridden almost 2,000 miles on it, mostly during the better weather days through winter.

So far, no real problems to report, I'm pleased to say. Since I last did a write - up, I've experienced two minor issues, the first being following a brisk run of around 30 miles, I suddenly found that there was no real power on twisting the throttle. A hurried glance at the oil pressure gauge showed over 75 p.s.i. so not a mechanical problem I thought, and pulled into a garage forecourt that I was anyway intending to visit for fuel. Looking down, I found that the twist - grip was simply sliding around on the throttle tube. A few sharp prods on its end tightened things sufficiently to ride the two miles home. The throttle tube is metal rather than plastic and, after removing the grip was found to be quite smooth, so emery cloth and glue sorted things out!

The second issue again involved a reduction in performance, although slight this time. The points controlling the left cylinder closed up due to sudden wear of the heel that operates them, retarding the timing on that cylinder. This prompted me to fit "Tri Spark" electronic ignition, not least because a feature in the owner's club magazine that happened to drop through the door the same day featured a bike exactly the same as mine, including its colour, that the owner had named "The Purple Piston Eater" following similar experiences!

Otherwise nothing to report out of the ordinary.

I have just changed the engine oil, primary drive oil and gearbox oil, once again cleaning or replacing all filters(3) as appropriate. There was no sign of debris anywhere and the oils were clean. Final drive chain adjustment has only been needed once in 2,000 miles, and the primary chain has not been adjusted at all as yet.

This is the first classic bike that I have not need to protect with ACF50 or similar as the finish is completely untarnished from winter, although I do pick my riding days carefully.

Overall I'm very satisfied with this, my first British classic!