Purposely waited for a trident ride to Pasir Ris from my house
yesterday and I took this bus which was my favorite trident in my
school days.
As expected, 9672C's aircon is still doing ok, unlike many of
the 968x series. And at leats that horrible humming sound when the
bus picks up speed has been solved.
Overall it was a horrible ride though, because:
1. The BC was playing with the gears, refusing to let it touch
3rd causing the gearbox to hunt between 2nd and 3rd throughout the
TPE stretch.
2. The new EDS clearly does not fit into the space of the holder
and throughout the ride, keeps banging against the holder. Made
worse by the vibrations when the trident stops. You would have
thought the bus is going to suffer a catastrophic failure when it
stops!
3. By no fault of the trident, the bloody stop-bell. My ride was
punctuated by the sharp BEEP/BEEEEEEEEEP! everytime a cuckoo holds
the stop-button. When will they learn??
4. The ultra-bouncy suspension. Never did like that.
Contrast it with my ride home on 9842D (88). I reckon both rides
make for good comparison considering both BCs were going slow and
both buses are made for the same low-floor DD market.
1. At least the BC was comfortable with the VSO. Mantaining a
light pressure on the pedal throughout the ride, letting the VSO
shift comfortably between the gears. The trident BC gave me the
impression of being uncomfortable with the trident. And no wonder.
Raw power and the bouncy suspension probably made it a nightmare
for the old man behind the wheel. Young BCs definitely prefer the
trident.
2. Better suspension. Definitely.
3. Nice aircon!
Overall, a better ride afforded although the VSO is definitely
noisy, slower, and has that stupid BEEEEP! also.
haha! i didn't really like the Tridents too, due to the soft
suspension. and yeah, the CoolAir EDS in 9672C looks like those in
the KUBs, same model, i guess, as in the pictures, i see some space
between the holder and the EDS itself. but comparing the specs of
VSO and Trident, the Trident has a stronger horsepower than VSO,
and both of them uses the same gearbox. i admit that VSO is slower,
but comparing a ride of VSO from Hougang all the way to Woodlands
(161) vs a Trident ride from Hougang to Sengkang (89), i'd rather
go for a VSO than a Trident if both comes together at the same time
at Hougang Ctrl Int.
