Classic Motorcycles The Triumph Trident

The Triumph Trident or BSA Rocket 3, (the main difference being that the BSA's cylinder block slanted forward) was designed by Triumph and launched in 1968 in response to the emerging Japanese multi cylinder machines, which threatened the whole British motorcycle industry.

The Trident was really the British motorcycle industry's first foray into multi cylinder machines, over and above the standard twin cylinder models which were standard at the time.

The bike boasted an air cooled 750cc, overhead cam, pushrod 6 volt in line triple, producing 58bhp at the wheel, drum brakes front and rear and a top speed of 125mph.

Triumph really thought they were onto a winner with this machine, but things did not go quite according to plan.

Firstly, the styling was thought to be a little "off". The bread bin style tank with integral rubber mouldings was not to everyone's taste in both style and appearance. In fact Triumph remodelled the tank at the request of the American market, replacing the rather unsightly rectangular bread bin shape for one of the tear drop variety.

However, this was not enough. Early bikes gained a reputation for unreliability, not the sort of start Triumph wanted or needed if they were to maintain their position as world leading manufacturers.

The other problem was that the bike was expensive when compared to the well established twin cylinder machines.

Triumph were proved correct in thinking that the future of motorcycling manufacturing success was dependent on developing large capacity multi cylinder machines. Unfortunately, with their first steps in this direction, they got it wrong.

Whether it was complacency, or simply an underestimation of their competition, of which those at the top of the then world leading British motorcycle industry confidently predicted that the Japanese would never enter the big motorcycle arena, the Trident turned out to fall short, not by much, but enough to start the company's demise.

In October 1968, just a few months after the launch of the Triumph Trident, Honda unveiled their CB750 at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show.

Four cylinders, each individually fed by their own carburetor, four exhaust pipes an electric start, as opposed to the Triumphs Kick starter, and indicators!

The Honda was a model of class leading technology. Indeed in many ways, it created, or redefined the 750 class we now know.

Even despite the fact that the Trident could handle well and was still a fast machine compared to its competition into the mid seventies, it was technically way behind the Honda.

The Japanese had done nothing new, four cylinder machines had be around since FN, a Belgian firm had produced a longitudinal inline four cylinder machine in 1904, and the well known Ariel square four first started production in 1931.

What the Japanese and particularly Honda had done, was to simply take the best of design and leapfrog the competition by offering an almost piece of exotica, for the masses, and at the same time delivered a blow to Triumph, from which it never really recovered.