I am currently doing 900 miles a week on my Tiger so I decided to treat it to some new exhausts as the old ones have been full of holes since I bought the bike over a year ago.  Triumph wanted around £300 per exhaust which are made of plain old steel with just a dash of stainless steel at the end and another extra stainless plate for a heat shield.  Looking around, I was able to find Trident Exhausts offered a selection of exhausts for the Tiger and I decided on the carbon and stainless steel option.  Peter Corlett was very helpful on the phone and the exhausts were around £80.00 cheaper than the Triumph offering with a lot more going for them.

The exhausts took a little over a week from order, to be custom made, and to eventually arrive at the door.

I was a little disappointed with some aspects of the exhausts; One of the baffles was dented to the one side, the pipework were of different lengths and – this is a little picky as I am happy with the finish – but the stainless pipework does not look as polished as the website pictures:

Dented BaffleTrident pipework of different lengths

Having read various reviews of people fitting Trident exhausts to other Triumph models, I had anticipated that installation was likely to be tricky.  I was not disappointed.  The first thing I noticed straight away, was that the standard fittings for the cans were not going to work.

Standard Trident fittings from aboveStandard Trident fittings from the sideStandard Trident fittings from the rear

The cans were touching the bodywork and frame and no amount of effort was going to make them align correctly.

Fortunately, I had some spacers lying around and these were able to shift the top of the can braces far enough out for the exhausts to sit vertically.  The photos below only show one spacer fitted, but I ended up using two.

Trident fittings with one custom spacer fittedSingle spacer as viewed from the rear

Great, I can move on to fitting and finishing the installation.  Alas, not so simple, as this is where I hit my next hurdle.  The cans only came with one slit below the clamp for them to attach to the pipework.  When trying to clamp the cans to the pipework, I couldn’t get the clamp to tighten up and grip the pipework.  I took the cans off and examined the cans and discovered that the single slit was not working.  When I had tightened the clamps, the metalwork had deformed on one side rather than compressing evenly all the way around.

Left can deformation under the clampRight can deformation under the clamp

Well, this one was easily solved – though I don’t understand why this wasn’t done by Trident, surely they have made enough exhausts for them to realise this was an issue?  I broke out the Dremel and cut more slits into the cans where the clamps would tighten against the pipework.

Extra slits cut into the cans

With that done, it was really time to complete the installation.  The spacers kept the cans away from the bodywork and allowed them to sit vertically, the slits cut into the back of the cans allowed them to grip tightly against the pipework and it was only 45 minutes or so before the bike was ready to roll.

Rear view of fitted Trident exhaustsSide view of the completed Trident exhaust installation

I have to say, I am extremely pleased with the sound.  I don’t think I will be removing the baffles, but it is nice to know that I can.

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