January 2021
A riding mate had expressed a desire to own a rather more modern triple than his 70's jobs. This was mostly down to his observations during our joint tours to distant parts of New Zealand when he had felt that while we others were treating our more modern triples gently, he was feeling that he was 'thrashing' his 1970's triples.
That was an astute observation.
I had felt exactly the same since we had brought our touring mounts back from our extended tour of the USA, and so these bikes had become our touring machines. This was partly because of their capabilities, and partly because of their built-in luggage capacity. Purpose designed panniers are convenient and logical.
In response to his desire I passed him on to the owner of a 90's Trident which I had been asked to value a year or so earlier, and which was not worth a great deal because of it's current state, even though it was low mileage and very tidy. It was going to cost at least a thousand dollars to put it on the road.
It still looked good though, so he bought it in the knowledge that we could get it back on the road with mostly labour but some legalities and some parts.
There were fork seals which required a special tool to be fabricated in order to fit, plus a complete clean of the carbs, attention to brakes and the airfilter housing, plus many incidentals that do not occur to one when purchasing a bike that has been off the road for a long time, but must be dealt with before putting it back on the road.
He dealt to all this, but after eventually coaxing it into life, we found that there were still problems.
The carbs had been adversely effected by old fuel residues, and even though we had spent much time in their cleaning, more was needed.
We invoked the use of an ultrasonic cleaning bath, plus some soaking in acetone, which seemed to yield results.
After this the subject of legalities was addressed in the form of a compliance test which the bike completed successfully, and was then pressed into service.
Subsequently in February 2021 a tour to the northern parts on the South Island of NZ was undertaken, and while the bike was initially well behaved, it then began to exhibit symptoms of fuel blockages in at least one carb.
The problem was managed for the duration of the tour, after which the carbs were pulled off again and further cleaning undertaken. It was apparent that previously clear jets had in fact blocked again. It would seem that our modern fuel has some most undesirable tendencies when left to it's own devices.
The Trident has been behaving nicely for some time now, and is a delight to operate. Hopefully all of it's niggles are now dealt with, and it is proving to be a very capable machine in a number of roles.
Nice conclusion.