Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Trident Update

I've been busy re-designing the Trident pipes to avoid confusion as even I couldn't tell them apart from another brand..
Here's what I've come up with: we surveyed a group of owners and most said the long pipes were too long and the short to short so we've gone in between to give a good visual length

They are pure 304 stainless steel, mirror polished to perfection so will never rust or dull.
They have an easily removed baffle which allows you to choose between race and road level noise
Of course they fit perfectly every time as they are precision engineered

But - as you guys seem to be one of the biggest groups of owners around, before I go ahead and finish the new design and get some pictures and (yes ok just for you) sound files done I thought I would ask you if there are any specific requirements you have for pipes?
Obviously we all want a nice sound etc which we believe we have and will try to record for you when done (though my earlier comments about how accurate these things are still stand we will try as so many asked)
But if there are things you have noted on other brands that you like or problems you have encountered that need solving please let me know here so that we can hopefully make the perfect pipe for these beautiful bikes.
As it stands we expect to be able to do these for £279 ($390) plus shipping which is less than before but hey, there's a recession on so we can buy material cheaper..

Please let me know your thoughts here or privately at peter@trident-exhausts.com

Thanks

Hi, Peter. I'm not in the market for pipes at the moment but my suggestions (to start the discussion) would be:

no heat-shields
different sizes of baffles (for tuning of the sound)


Regarding the sound clips, you're right in that, on their own, they're useless but...
if you were to record a stock set of pipes (or TORS, as I think most people have heard these) at the same time, with everything in the same position, it would give a much better idea of the tone.

Just a thought.

Thanks
We hadn't planned to use heat shields as they aren't needed - we might be able to do something with the baffles though - say open for full race, a muted race and a fully legal - shouldn't add too much to the cost but you're right it would be a good idea. That puts me on the dyno for a day or two though making sure the tunes work....
Good idea on the sound recording too - thank you

I would prefer not to have to replace the fibreglass packing of the baffles as most seem to have besides Stainintunes.

Scepters have stainless steel packing too, not fiberglass. It does make more sense to use it.

The price seems pretty good for a set of these Tridents.

Stainless steel packing is much better and lasts longer but can burn off eventually. There's a very good ceramic based material which should last forever that we can use... I'll look in to it

3-4 different baffels would be great so you could tune the sound to your liking.

Another thing I would love to see is ceramic coating/ color option. If you could get them in either polished or black. Maybe even black with a 2" polished tip, that would be phenomenal, even if it would be at an extra cost it would be worth it and it would set your pipes apart from the rest.

There is no reason why we could not add a black coating as an option - a high temp black ceramic powder coat would be easy to do on an individual basis and would add around £60 to the cost.

baffle options would be great, and maybe some dyno numbers on the pipes

Frank

Another thing I was thinking about, if you want to change them up a bit is perhaps having different end cuts. Instead of them all being slash cut maybe a straight cut or something.

If you do heat shields then maybe some cool cut outs in them, or even changeable heat shields like you can get for HD after market. Like skull, flame , rose , tribal , spade, and stuff like that.

Great to see a British manufacturer who realises chrome is not really an option on our roads. Some attachable ends for the pipes - fish tails, peashooters, reverse cones a small grub screw type of fitting allowing the ends to be interchangeable. This would allow amore custom styling.

I would love a 2 into 1 exhaust with a straight through pipe slash cut!

Peter's been kind enough to send me (i bought em) some new style Trident exhausts and they arrive at mine today (though likelyhood is i won't get to pick them up until tomorrow)

Once i get back from Bruge (next tuesday) i'll fit them mid week and get some preliminary pictures and sounds to you guys.

Anyone in Birmingham with TORS free next week to record TORS and Tridents in the same environment on the same basic recording gear? (shouldn't take more than 15 minutes or so to record).

(assuming i don't lose the bike off the back of the ferry of course!)


Ant

I will be intersted to see that comparison, and nice to have another option in the UK.

On a side note make sure you strap the bike down well on the ferry. This tanker broke free on a crossing to N Ireland recently.

I hope someone comes up with some idea's really soon, I am buying in the next week, so would like to narrow my options down some what. I looked at Tridents web site last week, and was interested, but at that time they still showed almost $500 with shipping. $441 for the pipes and roughly $60 for shipping.

They are $469 delivered at today's exchange rate

Put the Epcos on, Greg, and I'll come down with my TORS. We can do a 3-way comparison.

If you've got a couple of sets of earplugs i'll come for the ride with my mod'd tors... 4 way...

Sounds groovy to me all.
Just got back from Bruge (it's like a fairytale apparently) just now - bloody knackered (never done a trip that long). I'm away in Switzerland next week and then finally back for some time after the 25th.

Weekends are pretty sketchy, though some Sundays are okay.

i'll fit the Tridents tomorrow and get a preliminary recording done, but it'd be really cool to do a comparison!

Ant

just realised that made no sense..really knackered

what i meant to say was it'd be really cool to meet you guys and we can do some proper comparisons (plus i can show off the new rear fender)



Ant

Okay, preliminary review time!

I only had a little time today to take a few basic pictures and a video. Pictures are uploaded at :

http://www.eden-cabal.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=6&pos=1

(i haven't inserted them into this page yet as they appear pretty large and i'll need to crop them).

Short version : very very happy with the sound.

Took about 20-30 minutes to swap out my old stock tapered exhausts (also pictured in the same archive) for the Trident ones.

They look well made, Stainless Steel (not Aluminium as i originally put) and have a really nice shine to them. I'll take more detailed pictures when we get a bit more sun but suffice to say everything fit together smoothly and with no fuss (baring in mind i'm an amateur at this kind of thing).

Firing up the engine and good gods is it loud!
Not ear aching loud, but certainly loud enough to hear you coming (and probably a bit too loud for my quiet neighbourhood). still it's probably comparable to any number of after market sports cans out there and from my weak memory louder than TORS.

The sound is gorgeous, a real deep tone that doesn't make it sound like any old Harley out there but rather emphasises the characteristics of the Triumph engine, injects it with steroids and gives it some grunt.

most importantly (to me) it doesn't sound like its farting, but has a real roar when you get it going.

Peter is kindly sending me an additional set of baffles which will fit inside the existing ones to quiet them down a bit - I purposefully went for something a little outside of street legal for a first run and with the additional baffles they should bring the volume down to a more social level without (hopefully) losing any of that beautiful tone

this means in short there will be three baffle configurations. No Baffles (which i havn't tried yet, i'll give that one a go when i have a little more space - i assume that'll rock the nuts off my ears), the current baffle (which is aftermarket can loud, depends on your definition of loud of course) and acceptable to most places i would imagine apart from particularly quiet neighbourhoods and hopefully this additional baffle which will bring it down to a more 'social' riders level.

the baffle looks like it's removed by a simple allen key type affair, will take pictures when i get a chance.

In short i'm very happy with them so far (i keep on going to the garage to check the sound), they will be 100% perfect if i can bring the volume down a few steps towards legal (at which point i won't worry so much about riding around Birmingham).

Once i get the additional baffles through and a bit of sun i'll take some pictures and some better audio for you to listen to.

(i'll post an updated link once i upload the video that i've taken)

I should just note that they are all stainless steel mate, not aluminium!

arp! sorry! brain wasn't firing properly! Edited the post now.

really happy with the sound

+1

I ride all the time with no baffles in the short TORS... I use earplugs because it is very loud, but I don't think I've found my earnuts yet...

Just a quick update - i've uploaded the video's so you can get a first impression. Because of the equipment i used...i.e. a phone cam it _won't_ give you a true impression of the volume change (see ear nuts comment earlier ) but it should give you an approximate idea of the tonal shift.

I've got a mate on the blag for some professional recording equipment which will hopefully capture a more accurate sound.

before
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-702279393289218027&hl=en-GB

after
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=726301699309166657&hl=en-GB

to put it in perspective, the second clip could be heard well down the block and no doubt further.

I'll put a third 'rough' clip up once the extra baffles arrive and once i've got proper recordings i'll try and put a bit more of a complete review up.

All the best,

Ant

They sound good! Do they look similar to Scepters? Any chance of a side view?

Not sure if they look like Scepters (i've not seen Scepters up close before).

From the picture i would say that they are similar but a little shorter (by a few inches)

a selection of (again grotty phone camera) photo's is on

http://eden-cabal.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-9

and should give you an idea.

Ant

Yeah, that is a similar design to Scepters. They look great!

OMG the stock pipes sound so very very bad - and what a glorious sound with the Tridents - but that is the first time I have ever heard stock pipes on these and no wonder we sell so many after market pipes!!

Thanks for the write up and pics Jester - looking forward to your full review and recordings
By the way - last street baffles will be in the post Monday for you

Sound really good to me, nice deep tone.

I like the sound of those a lot, good job Peter!

It is a woven ceramic and fibre mix which is rated for at least 30,000 miles but it's only used in the baffles - in the main muffler everything is stainless steel

hi peter just wondering where your based in the uk what region and what is the turn around on a set of pipes as we all no bikers are inpaceint people
cheers steve