Triumph has taken the unusual step of presenting a "design prototype" of its upcoming Trident, a neo-retro middleweight roadster that presumably uses the outstanding 765cc 3-cylinder engine from the Street Triple.
The Trident name harks back to a bike produced between 1968-75, jointly developed by Triumph and BSA. Triumph sold it as the Trident, BSA as the Rocket 3, and its 58-horsepower, 740cc inline triple made it a sophisticated and high-performing bike for its day, and a genuine contender for the "first superbike" monicker that eventually stuck to Honda's CB750. It returned for a bit in the 1990s as a fairly unassuming 900cc triple roadster.
This new Trident evidently aims to take the terrific performance and handling characteristics of the harder-edged, racier-looking Street Triple and put them in a friendlier, more accessible package with the kind of softer, retro design features that seem to be sticking around as extremely popular choices.
Triumph claims it'll be a "competitively priced" "entry point" into the roadster lineup, that the eventual production design will be "a pure, minimalistic form, with clean lines and uncluttered features ... with signature tank knee indents and key cues from our iconic Speed Triple's muscular poise."
The back end is certainly clean and uncluttered without any indicators or license plates on it. The tubular frame is not unattractive, and highlights the engine nicely, but certainly doesn't give the same sense of curvaceous majesty as the one at the heart of the Speed Triple design. The tank as seen here gives perhaps too much an echo of the R NineT for our liking, but that bike has been a monster seller for BMW. Headlight purists will enjoy the simple round headlight, and the small circular dash looks nice, too.
Due to hit dealerships in Spring 2021, with more information to come in the interim, this looks like a lovely entry-level mid-sized motorcycle, something perhaps to go up against Yamaha's popular XSR700. It does feel a few years late to the party, but then the neo-retro thing doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. We look forward to seeing how it looks in production form.
More photos in the gallery.
Source: Triumph Motorcycles
