A less aggressive riding position and a sweet, very competent inline triple that is built for the masses.

Triumph’s first triple, the Trident 750, appeared the year before Honda’s legend-ary CB750 Four hit the market. While the two machines were quite different, they shared one thing: high performance. The CB750, however, had electric start that the Trident lacked, and it was more affordable. It also launched a new era of performance bikes from Japan. Struggling to compete, Triumph dropped the Trident in 1975, and with the onslaught of affordable high-performance Japanese motorcycles throughout the 1970s, Triumph eventually called it quits and went into receivership in 1983. History has proven that this was a very good thing for the British bike maker, because when it happened, John Bloor picked up the remnants of the company, and in the four decades since, has put together a team that has turned the company into a juggernaut. 

After a 15-year gap in triple production, Triumph re-introduced the Trident in 1990, but this time it was a completely redesigned bike with a 900-cc liquid-cooled inline triple that eventually prompted Triumph to produce a variety of triples in multiple categories. The latest is the Trident 800, which we rode at the bike’s launch in Cyprus. 

But why introduce the Trident 800 when there’s already a number of naked middleweight triples in Triumph’s line up? Well, because it now fills the gap between the track-focused Street Triple 765RS and the budget-oriented Trident 660. This gap in the lineup would have normally been filled by the Street Triple 765R, which is still available for now, but has been discontinued for 2026.

ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE

The Trident’s styling is less aggressive than the Street Triple’s, and it has less of a nose-down attitude — clues that it is designed to be a friendlier, more accessible motorcycle. It’s a logical step up from a smaller bike and makes a much more sensible all-around naked bike than the super-sporty Street Triple 765RS; not everyone needs or wants to pay for wheelie control, track modes, high-end suspension components and superbike-spec Brembos. 

The Trident advanced electronics that include three ride modes (Sport, Rain and Road), single-touch cruise control, a bi-directional quick shifter, self-cancelling turn signals, and a six-axis IMU that enables adjustable (via ride modes) lean-sensing ABS and traction control. Ride modes and trip info are displayed in a 3.5-inch round instrument panel that incorporates an LCD and a TFT screen — not my favourite setup (I prefer old-school analogue gauges). but it is highly functional. The Trident also includes MyTriumph Bluetooth connectivity, which among other things displays…