THE POWER OF THE past

Back in 1975, the T160 was hailed as being everything the British bike industry needed ... seven years earlier. If the first Trident had been this competent, said Bike magazine, then 'there wouldn't be half as many Honda fours on the road now.'

Ouch.

Swing a leg over a disc-braked electric-start T160 and you immediately understand that this is no traditionally svelte Brit single or one ofTurner's pint-size twins. The Trident never lets you forget that it's a big bike, weighing over SOOlb with half a tank of fuel. The 740cc engine sits quite high in the race-bred steel frame, so it boasts decent ground clearance but feels hefty - not unlike the first generation of Hinckley triples, in fact.

But while some machines manage to minimise the impression of mass as soon as they start rolling, a Tl 60 doesn't feel especially agile at slower speeds. Its