I’m sure most of us will have seen Tritons (or at least pics) with a different engine to the usual bonnie variants- the Trident 3-cylinder. Indeed, there was an extremely well-engineered example at the Oxford Branch “Caff Racer” day a few years back.
Well, on a trip to the NMM earlier this week with my granddaughter, I saw a different variant on display- a Trident lump in an otherwise standard-ish Commando frame- hence the moniker! It was the 1975/76 Norton 900cc Trisolastic prototype.
According to the blurb next to it “the Norton twin was coming to the end of its long and honourable life, and one of the ideas for a replacement was to fit a Triumph Trident 3 cylinder engine into a Commando frame. The engine was stretched to 900cc and the machine was constructed at the Kitts Green workshops. As a works prototype it had some raw edges where standard parts had been quickly modified, and even the front forks were hybrid consisting of Norton tops and Triumph slider.”
Of course by then, Norton was in one of its periodic death-spirals, and it never saw the light of day, “passing into private hands” (ahem!) in 1978.
A promising idea, I wonder if there are other attempts at something similar out there? Sounds like a bike with a lot of potential, and a real mile-muncher to combat the Jap multis….
Thanks for posting an…
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My one abiding memory of the…
My one abiding memory of the Tridents is, back in the 70's as the Marshalls bikes at the TT, hearing that glorious sound out of the rayguns as they gave it some real welly, as only the Marshals can do!
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Trisolastic
I've seen the machine at the NMM a few times. It seems a good concept but I do recall reading somewhere that the isolastic system doesn't really suit the Triple. It works well with 360 Parallel Twins due to the mainly up-and-down vibration pattern which the isolastic design can easily cope with. From experience, the Triples don't vibrate as much as the 360-degree Twins and what there is is a rather more 'rocking' motion which isolastics weren't designed for (I assume it would exert a twisting action). If the three-cylinder motors were to be 'smoothed' I would have thought a simpler rubber-mounting system would be better. Triumph produced an anti-vibration system for the Bonneville towards the end of its life-span (denoted 'AV'). I gather it was a far simpler system compared with the Norton Isolastic design and was reckoned to be better - can anybody advise?
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Laverda introduced rubber…
Laverda introduced rubber mountings for the 120 degree 1000cc triples - pretty much just large encased metalastic bushes. Works well in limiting high frequency vibration without allowing too much flex to compromise rear drive chain alignment.
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Thanks for posting an interesting mix and a tempting one.
I had lots of memories with a Trident and especially doing an indicated 120 mph on the M4 in outside lane when the engine seized - middle rod through the cases, yikes !