Trident conical hub drum brake converted to disc

A question for the Trident owners amongst you. It concerns a 1972 Trident with a conical hub. The owner is not happy with the drum front brake and would like to convert to a disc. As I understand it, we basically need a T150V front end, including wider triple clamps. I've ridden Tridents with the twin disc conversion and the brakes were brilliant. However, has anyone any thoughts of using a single stock disc and sleeving down the 5/8" bore Triumph master cylinder or using a different 12mm or 13mm master cylinder?

A viable alternative to twin discs is the Norman Hyde big disc kit.

The Drums convertable to hydraulic . as theyre Humber 80 1961 brake shoes !

Longer hub levers are a std. mod . a non stoplightswitch cable . And use the END of the brake lever , foist twofingers .
And get a mans job . Lumberjack , caber tosser or suchlike .

Yep some twin thin light big disc setup'd be fingetippy .
The rignal discs were in the era off oil leaked greasy roads , rain cold etc , and shite tyres . So didnt want to STOP the front wheel .

mucho bedda .

Fast Eddie said:

A viable alternative to twin discs is the Norman Hyde big disc kit.

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Ah, thank you! Just had a look at the Norman Hyde website. Yes, that sounds viable alternative...

daveh said:

Ah, thank you! Just had a look at the Norman Hyde website. Yes, that sounds viable alternative...

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Before I put twin discs on mine it had a Hyde big disc kit and it was very good, it was only because I got the twin calipers off Paul Smart's Rob North that I changed it.

Changing to a smaller master works well just as it does on a Commando. Probably best to go to two
lighter disc and calipers just to prevent any twisting the legs on these bikes are not all that beefy.
Not to forget the stock rotor and calipers are way heavy.

daveh said:

A question for the Trident owners amongst you. It concerns a 1972 Trident with a conical hub. The owner is not happy with the drum front brake and would like to convert to a disc. As I understand it, we basically need a T150V front end, including wider triple clamps. I've ridden Tridents with the twin disc conversion and the brakes were brilliant. However, has anyone any thoughts of using a single stock disc and sleeving down the 5/8" bore Triumph master cylinder or using a different 12mm or 13mm master cylinder?

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IMHO, there is no need to sleeve - they stop way better than Norton stock. My rider is all stock. One I just sold had a new Girling Master Cylinder and new Girling Floating disk and it stopped slightly better than my rider. Converting to dual disks is easy, just need the second disk slider, disk, and plumbing.

BTW, there are two front end arrangement on a T150V. Has to do with the headlight mounting. Many are trying to sell T140/T150V fork ears for the later T150V. T140 and later T150V for ears are not compatible.

I have a Magura 13mm master cylinder, Grimeca caliper and standard disc and the brake is more than adequate, and this is the way my T160 has been for the last few years. Also, it retains the (more or less) standard non fussy look .....in my opinion.

I have also had twin big discs with a Grimeca calipers and 13mm master cylinder. With this set up (as you might expect) the brake lever had a lot of travel and there was no "feel" at the lever

Thank you for your contributions. I do like the idea of a smaller master cylinder. I used the RGM re-sleeve kit on my Commando, which already had a 10 inch disc and AP caliper but with the stock master cylinder, it felt wooden and lacking in power. Re-sleeving the stock master cylinder made the world of difference. I'm leaning towards the single disc and smaller master cylinder with a Grimeca caliper. Thanks for the heads up on the two different headlight mountings on the T150V. If the stanchions on the conical hub and T150V are the same, I would retain the conical hub style headlight mounting, if that is possible.