Three’s No Crowd
Oh my, a T150! In my slightly unusual motorcycle world, the sight of a Trident awaiting the placement of my posterior upon its padded bottom perch is always a welcome sight. More than that, the sound of a Trident idling on three cylinders is even more welcome, if a little less common. Why the welcome vibes? Because I always enjoy riding Tridents, particularly Tridents belonging to someone else. My experience of actually living with the UK’s best effort at a 1970s superbike has been – shall we say – patchy. But if their idiosyncrasies are someone else’s problem, than hooray and off we go.
And of course this is an unusual Trident. Not that they aren’t all unusual, almost by definition, but this one is a 1972 T150V with a drum brake up front. I simply knew that was all wrong, and when my friend Chris offered the bike as a borrower I was compelled by smugness to reveal that all 5-speed Tridents had disc front ends. The reasoning behind this brash announcement? I’ve never seen – or at least never ridden – such an animal.
Although there is a Triumph Hurricane in The Shed which has both five gears and an unusually effective drum front anchor, my reasoning was that this is actually a BSA, really, so does not count. In any case, Chris simply regarded me with the tolerance which all traders develop after decades of dealing with misinformed idiots and threatened me with a cup of his very own, very special coffee. How could I refuse?
Ah, pride and a fall. Which is of
