hello! New T150v owner

Welcome to the club Toby, hope you enjoy the new ride.

George

Hi Toby. Welcome to the club! Yep…. T150V’s were being made & trundled down the line at the same time as T160’s. It’s a job to tell from your really tiny low res pic, but if its like mine – one of the last – it’ll have the well know crossover parts like T160 kickstart, gearbox casing with sloping filler, primary case with un machined boss to take left foot gearchange amongst others… Enjoy your bike! cheers..

Toby, it’s worth persevering with the standard set up to be honest. Try just replacing the pads with EBC HH which is easy quick & cheap to do. They made an improvement on mine once bedded in. But, bear in mind this is an olde bike & roadtests back in the day often remarked that brakes could be a bit err… diffident. I don’t think i’ve ever locked up the front wheel – deliberately – under heavy braking! Give it time to bed in & ride accordingly & things might get better with time…..

Oh yes…. hoses…. Get Goodrich braided. They can help too….

If the engine numbers are JK it would have been made August 74 . The second letter denote the model year. The 75 model year started in August 74.

My T150V is KK numbers, and same T160 parts as yours. Yes the brakes are hopeless compared to modern bikes. I fitted the lightened disc, ebc pads and Goodridge braided hose and this is a big improvement once it beds in. Reading the road and in particular other vehicles is essential and part of the fun.

According to some deluded enthusiasts there were numerous 100mph bikes before 1960, none having anything more than an 8″ drum with fixed pivot flat cam spindle between leading and trailing shoes.   To take up wear one cut shims of steel to pack out the slippers.   I used to test my grip on bathroom scales and am no blacksmith but even he could never slow a bike as well as the Morris 8 in front.    My friend, used to 7″ drum, fell off a lent Ducati at first junction by locking the wheel….    I tried a new T160 about 1976, and thought it magnificent.   It is also lighter than twin 12″ discs.   But on broken tarmac fatter fork stanchions feel safer.    If you ever try TLS drums you will like the single disc because it works in reverse too, useful on steep hill starts.

I will point out that as with the sensibly supported single plate dry clutch, our brakes came from Automotive Products, not the abysmal bike makers.   Note too that Lockheed had given us screwdriver adjustment of drum brake, that had been beyond our posh bikes, though Ariel had provided fulcrum adjustment by spanner circa 1950.    The Trident was a very good effort by the serfs of a dud industry.

My mate owned that, he traded it in for a Slippery Sam Replica. He didn’t own it for long but says he thinks it has an 860 kit on there. It is a nice bike.

Rich

Toby, you shouldn’t be having that sort of panic stop problems with the front disc. i suggest you check that the caliper & master cylinder pistons are working freely etc and give it a good looking over. Renewing the disc and pads may not be the  solution check out the caliper and the master cylinder first.

I came to a T160 after a few years enforced break from bikes but my last previous were double disked Honda/Kawasaki of the 80s and i didn’t find the standard Lockheed set up that bad

True you can improve things, once the caliper and m/cylinder work, get a machine shop to grind off the chrome on the disc and fit HH EBC pads

There were plenty of late T150s left unsold in showrooms once the T160 came on song so its not unusual to find N and P reg bikes. Some would say that these were the best Tridents (even more so now that you can upgrade to some of the T160 embellishments)