'3' cyl. engine

[Robert Harris]

If I remembers correctly, the Trident is a four cylinder engine with one
cylinder lopped off.  Vibrates like crazy, sounds puke sick and then
screams when it comes on the cam about 2500 - 3000 rpm. Been there done
that, would do it again - dearly loved eating Honda 750's lunch out from
under them.  The low center of gravity allowed one to lay it over almost to
the pavement at any speed above walking.  You will however, learn to love
oil leaks and keep a rag to wipe up the piddles that always occur.

Check the timing on your firing. If my feeble memory is still working
should be  normal four cylinder firing with one cylinder not there.  If
that be the case, almost any four cylinder stuff should work - just don't
hook up the missing cylinder.

On electricals, unless someone has cleaned it up, you will have two wires
going everywhere - one carrying + and the ground return back to the
battery.  Save yourself a lot of midnight grief - ground everything to the
frame and lose the lucas wiring scheme.  Get a good battery.  I cheated on
mine and used a capacitor battery eliminator, but I had carbs and magneto. 
If the battery is big enuff
(check out gel cells) electrically, you may be able to coast thru hi demand
periods before cycling it too low.  

Now if you were a real propeller head, you would steal from Smokey and put
a fan into the airstream and make it a generator at any reasonable speed. 
He got away with it for a few races before he was caught.

Do enjoy - after the crazy guy at Abiogenic Engineering (long defunct) in
Ocean Beach was done with mine, it could go faster with me sitting straight
up than I had courage to do.  Because the frame was so low at the seat (eat
your heart out rice burners) one of my favorite stunts (after both me and
the bike were properly fueled) was to stand up, get about four grand, dump
the clutch and let it smoke underneath me. Then just squat on it to go.
Best done on a cool damp night - it can really ruin your day and seriously
mess with your love life if you get too much traction too soon.

If the first ingredient ain't Habanero, then the rest don't matter.
Robert Harris <bob at bobthecomputerguy.com>


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