The Triumph Trident and BSA Rocket 3 was a technically advanced, high-performance roadster (or standard) motorcycle made by Triumph Engineering and BSA (both companies part of the Birmingham Small Arms Company) from 1968 to 1975, and sold under both the Triumph and BSA marques. Alongside the Honda CB750, and later the Kawasaki triples, it brought a new level of sophistication to street motorcycles, marking the beginning of the superbike era. The Honda CB750 overshadowed the Trident to be remembered as the 'first superbike', in spite of the Triumph Trident actually debuting before the Honda by a few weeks. It had a , air-cooled OHV unit construction straight-three engine, with four gears and a conventional chassis and suspension. The engine had less vibration than the existing 360° twins. The Rocket 3/Trident was part of Triumph's plan to extend the model range beyond their 650 cc parallel twins. It was the last major motorcycle developed by Triumph at Meriden, West Midlands, created to meet the demands of the US market. Although BSA experienced serious financial difficulties, 27,480 Rocket 3/Tridents were produced during its seven-year history. Development The Triumph Trident was designed by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele. The Trident's three-cylinder design was developed from Triumph's 1959 5TA unit-construction 500 cc parallel-twin (which had origins in Edward Turner's 1937 Triumph Speed Twin). The Trident has an extra cylinder and, following Triumph practice, its OHV pushrod engine has separate camshafts for the inlet and exhaust valves. Although the prototype was ready by 1965, the factory delayed for years for a cosmetic redesign which meant that its eventual introduction was overshadowed by the apparently more modern Honda CB750, introduced in 1969. Unlike the CB750 and other Japanese superbikes which had horizontally split crankcases, the Trident engine was essentially a vertically split parallel twin with a separate central chamber to accommodate the third cylinder. Whereas the Speed Twin was a traditional British twin with a 360° crankshaft, this new triple had crankpins offset 120° and so inherently had much smoother primary balance, albeit with a rocking couple. Although most British motorcycles used a wet multiplate clutch, this triple had a dry single-plate clutch in a housing between the primary chaincase and the gearbox. Mounted on the end of the gearbox mainshaft (where the clutch would be expected) was a large transmission shock-absorber. Test engineers developed the chassis' handling characteristics by affixing lead weights on a standard