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Triumph Motorcycles
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Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturer, originally based in Coventry. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd based in Hinckley took over the name rights after the collapse of the company in the 1980s and is now one of the world's leading motorcycle manufacturers.
company began in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann emigrated to Coventry in England from Nuremberg, part of the German Empire. In 1884 aged 20, Bettmann founded his own company, the S.
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Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturer, originally based in Coventry. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd based in Hinckley took over the name rights after the collapse of the company in the 1980s and is now one of the world's leading motorcycle manufacturers.
Origins
The company began in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann emigrated to Coventry in England from Nuremberg, part of the German Empire. In 1884 aged 20, Bettmann founded his own company, the S. Bettmann & Co. Import Export Agency, in London. Bettmann's original products were bicycles, which the company bought and then sold under its own brand name. Bettmann also distributed sewing machines imported from Germany.
In 1886, Bettmann sought a more universal name, and the company became known as the Triumph Cycle Company. A year later, the company registered as the New Triumph Co. Ltd., now with financial backing from the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. In that year, Bettmann was joined by another Nuremberg native, Moritz Schulte.
Schulte encouraged Bettmann to transform Triumph into a manufacturing company, and in 1888 Bettmann purchased a site in Coventry using money lent by his and Schulte's families. The company began producing the first Triumph-branded bicycles in 1889. In 1896 Triumph opened a factory in Nuremberg for cycle production in Bettman's native city.
In 1898, Triumph decided to extend its own production to include motorcycles and by 1902, the company had produced its first motorcycle - a bicycle fitted with a Belgian-built engine. In 1903, as its motorcycle sales topped 500, Triumph opened motorcycle production at its unit in Germany. During its first few years producing motorcycles, the company based its designs on those of other manufacturers. In 1904, Triumph began building motorcycles based on its own designs and in 1905 produced its first completely in-house designed motorcycle. By the end of that year, the company had produced more than 250 of that design.
In 1907, after the company opened a larger plant, production reached 1,000 machines. Triumph had also launched a second, lower-end brand, Gloria, produced in the company's original plant.
Confusion between motorcycles produced by the Coventry and Nuremberg Triumph companies led to the latter's products being renamed Orial for certain export markets. However there was already an Orial company in France so the Nuremberg motorcycles were renamed again as "TWN", standing for Triumph Werke Nürnberg.
World War I
The outbreak of World War I proved a boost for the company as production was switched to support the Allied war effort. More than 30,000 motorcycles - among them the Model H Roadster aka the "Trusty Triumph," often cited as the first modern motorcycle - were supplied to the Allies.
Bettmann and Schulte fell out after the war, with Schulte wishing to replace bicycle production with cars. Schulte left the company, but in the 1920s Triumph purchased the former Hillman car factory in Coventry and produced a saloon car in 1923 under the name of the Triumph Motor Company. Harry Ricardo produced an engine for their latest motorbike.
By the mid-1920s Triumph had grown into one of Britain's leading motorcycle and car makers, with a plant capable of producing up to 30,000 motorcycles and cars each year. Triumph also found its bikes in high demand overseas, and export sales became a primary source of the company's revenues, although for the United States, Triumph models were manufactured under license. The company found its first automotive success with the debut of the Super Seven car in 1928. Shortly after, the Super Eight was born.
1930s
When the Great Depression hit in 1929, Triumph spun off its German subsidiary as a separate, independently owned company, which became part of the Triumph-Adler Company. The Nuremberg firm continued to manufacture motorcycles under the Triumph brand until 1957. In 1932, Triumph sold off another part of the company, its bicycle manufacturing facility to Raleigh. By then, Triumph had been struggling financially, and Bettmann had been forced out of the chairman's spot. He retired completely in 1933
In 1936, the company's two components became separate companies. Triumph always struggled to make a profit from cars, and after going bankrupt in 1939 was acquired by the Standard Motor Company. The motorcycle operations fared better, having been acquired in 1936 by Jack Sangster, who also owned the rival Ariel motorcycle company. That same year, the company began its first exports to the United States, which quickly grew into the company's single most important market. Sangster's formed the Triumph Engineering Co Ltd largely led by ex-Ariel employees, including Edward Turner who designed the 500 cc 5T Speed Twin - released in September 1937, and the basis for all Triumph twins until the 1980s. Contrary to popular belief, however, this was not Triumph's first parallel twin. This honour falls to the Val Page designed, but unpopular, 6/1. After Turner arrived, in his usual brusque manner, the 6/1 was dropped, later to be replaced with Turner's design. The 6/1 engine later resurfaced, somewhat modified, as the BSA A10. In 1939 the 500 cc Tiger T100, capable of , was released, and then the war began.
World War II
Motorcycles were produced at Coventry until World War II. The town of Coventry was virtually destroyed in The Blitz (September 7 1940 to May, 1941). Tooling and machinery was recovered from the site of the devastation and production restarted at the new plant at Meriden, West Midlands in 1942.
Post-war era
The Triumph Speed Twin designed by Edward Turner before the war was produced in large numbers after the war. Efforts to settle the lend-lease debts caused nearly 70% of Triumphs post war production to be shipped to the United States. Post War, the Speed Twin and Triumph Tiger 100 were available with a sprung rear hub, Triumph's first attempt at a rear suspension.
Privateers put wartime surplus alloy barrels on their Tiger 100 racers, and won races, inspiring the Triumph GP model. By 1950 the supply of barrels was exhausted, and the GP model was dropped. The American market applied considerable pressure to reverse this backward step, and a die cast close finned alloy barrel was made available. The alloy head made the valve noise more obvious, so ramp type cams were introduced for alloy head models to reduce the noise.
Another motorcycle based on the wartime generator engine was the 499 cc TR5 Trophy Twin, also introduced at the 1948 Motor Cycle Show. It used a single carburettor, low compression version of the Grand Prix engine. Britain won the prestigious 1948 International Six Days Trial. The Triumph works team had finished unpenalised. One team member, Allan Jefferies, had been riding what amounted to a prototype version.
To satisfy the American appetite for motorcycles suited to long distance riding, Turner built a 650 cc version of the Speed Twin design. The new bike was named the Thunderbird (A name Triumph would later license to the Ford Motor Company for use on a car). Only one year after the Thunderbird was introduced a hot rodder in Southern California mated the 650 Thunderbird with a twin carb head originally intended for GP racing and named the new creation the Wonderbird. That 650 cc motor, designed in 1939, held the world's absolute speed record for motorcycles from 1955 until 1970.
The Triumph brand received considerable publicity in the United States when Marlon Brando rode a 1950 Thunderbird 6T in the 1953 motion picture, The Wild One.
The Triumph Motorcycle concern was sold to their rivals BSA by Sangster in 1951. This sale included Sangster becoming a member of the BSA board. Sangster was to rise to the position of Chairman of the BSA Group in 1956.
The production 650 cc Thunderbird (6T) was a low compression tourer, and the 500 cc Tiger 100 was the performance bike. That changed in 1954, with the change to swing arm frames, and the release of the alloy head 650 cc Tiger 110, eclipsing the 500 cc Tiger 100 as the performance model.
In 1959, the T120, a tuned double carburettor version of the T110, came to be called the Bonneville. As Triumph and other marques gained market share, Harley became aware that their 1 litre-plus bikes were not as sporty as the modern rider would like, resulting in a shrinking share of the market. The Triumphs were models for a new, "small" Harley Davidson as a result: the now-fabled Sportster, which started out as Harley's version of a Triumph Bonneville. With its anachronistic V-twin, the Sportster was no match for the Bonneville, but it proved a solid competitor in US sales and eventually also in longevity.
In the 1960s, despite internal opposition from those who felt that it would dilute the macho image of the brand, Triumph produced two scooters; the Triumph Tina, a small and low performance 2-stroke scooter of around 100 cc with automatic clutch and a handlebar carry basket, and the Triumph Tigress, a more powerful scooter available with either a 175 cc 2-stroke single or a 250 cc 4-stroke twin engine for the enthusiast.
In 1962, the last year of the "pre-unit" models, Triumph used a frame with twin front down-tubes, but returned to a traditional Triumph single front downtube for the unit construction models that followed. The twin down tube, or duplex frame, was used on the 650 twins, as a result of frame fractures on the Bonneville. Introduced in 1959, for the 1960 model year, it soon needed strengthening, and was dropped in 1962, with the advent of the unit engines for the 650 range. The 3TA (21) was the first unit construction twin, soon followed by the short-stroke, 490 cc "500" range.
From 1963 all Triumph engines were of unit construction.
In 1969 Malcolm Uphill, riding a Bonneville, won the Isle of Man Production TT with a race average of per lap, and recorded the first ever over lap by a production motorcycle at . For many Triumph fans, the 1969 Bonneville was the best Triumph ever.
American sales had already peaked, in 1967. In truth, the demand for motorcycles was rising, but Triumph could not keep up.
In the 1960s, 60% of all Triumph production was exported, which, along with the BSA's 80% exports, made the group susceptible to the Japanese expansion. By 1969 fully 50% of the US market for bikes over 500 cc belonged to Triumph, but technological advances at Triumph had failed to keep pace with the rest of the world. Triumphs lacked electric start mechanisms, relied on push-rods rather than overhead cams, vibrated noticeably, often leaked oil, and had antiquated electrical systems; while Japanese marques such as Honda were building more advanced features into attractive new bikes that sold for less than their British competitors. Triumph motorcycles as a result were nearly obsolete even when they were new; further, Triumph's manufacturing processes were highly labour-intensive and largely inefficient. Also disastrous, in the early 1970s the US government arbitrarily mandated that all motorcycle imports must have their shift and brake pedals in the Japanese configuration, which required expensive retooling of all the bikes for US sale.
The British marques were poorly equipped to compete against the massive financial resources of Japanese heavy industries that targeted competitors for elimination via long-term plans heavily subsidized by the Japanese government. Triumph and BSA were well aware of Honda's ability but while the Japanese were only making smaller engined models, the large engine market was considered safe. When the first Honda 750 cc four cylinder was released for sale to the public, Triumph and BSA were facing trouble. A 3-cylinder engined motorcycle was developed to compete against the Japanese fours: the BSA Rocket 3/Triumph Trident.
The 1970 Tiger/Bonneville re-design and taller twin front downtube oil tank frame met a mixed reception from Triumph enthusiasts at the time, and was insufficient to win back those already riding the Japanese bikes that had hit the markets in 1969; the Honda 750 Four, and the Kawasaki 500 Mach 3. The Triumph 350 cc Bandit received pre-publicity, before being quietly shelved. Triumph was still making motorcycles, but they no longer looked like the bikes Triumph fans expected. The Trident attracted its own market, but the Japanese bikes were improving more rapidly.
The parent BSA group made losses of 8.5 million pounds in 1971, 3 million for BSA motorcycles alone. The British government became involved. The company was sold to Manganese Bronze Holdings, which also owned Norton, AJS, Matchless, Francis-Barnett, James-Velocette and Villiers.
Norton Villiers Triumph
A new company called Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT), managed by Dennis Poore, emerged in 1977 when the BSA group collapsed under its debts/ Government help led to a merger with the Manganese Bronze Holdings subsidiary Norton-Villiers. The three remaining brands to be produced by the company were combined to create the new group name of Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT). However, this restructuring would result in a number of closures and redundancies, due to the withdrawal of the Conservative government aid (as an inducement to Denis Poore to take on Triumph) by the then Labour Minister, Roy Hattersley. After many consulations with the factory personnel explaining the consolidation necessary to face the Japanese challenge, in September 1973 NVT Group chairman Denis Poore finally announced the closure of Meriden works effective February, 1974. Of 4,500 employees, 3,000 were made redundant. Faced with unemployment and having their products handed over to a rival firm, the workers at the Meriden factory demonstrated against a move to Small Heath, Birmingham, the BSA site and staged a sit in for two years. With political backing of the newly-elected Labour government and, in particular, the then-minister for trade and industry , Tony Benn, the Meriden worker's co-operative was formed supplying Triumph 750cc motorcycles to its sole customer, NVT.
The Meriden Motorcycle Co-Operative
After the collapse of NVT in 1977, the co-operative bought the marketing rights for Triumph with more government loans, later becoming Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Limited. The venture, with only two 750cc models, the Bonneville and Tiger, started well with a successful variant, the 1977 Silver Jubilee Bonneville and by 1978 was the top selling European motorcycle in the vital USA market.
Introducing emmissons compliant models in 1978/9 such as the alloy-wheeled Triumph T140D Bonneville Special and T140E Bonneville to the USA could not attract buyers to a product now made prohibitively expensive by a strong UK pound. Moreover, despite updating the model such as by introducing electric starting and a faired Triumph Bonneville Executive with luggage, by 1980 Meriden's debt reached £2 million pounds - additionally above the earlier £5 million loan. In October 1980, the new Conservative British government wrote off £8.4 million pounds owed but still left the company owing £2 million to Britain's Export Credit Guarantee Dept.
Meriden introduced several new models such as the TR7T Tiger Trail and 650cc Triumph TR65 Thunderbird in its last years but none were able to stop the decline, heightened by a UK recession and a continuing strong pound harming their US market. However, the Triumph Royal Wedding T140LE Bonneville celebrating HRH the Prince of Wales' nupitals was a popular collector's item for 1981 and that year a 750cc TR7T Tiger Trail won the Circuit Des Pyrennees on/off road rally. Large orders for police motorcycles from Nigeria and Ghana were won at critical moments thereby saving the firm in 1981 and 1982 respectively. 1982 was the last year of "full" production, with the custom Triumph T140 TSX and 8-valve Triumph T140W TSS model launched – although a porous cylinder head made by external contractors was the TSS's death knell.
In 1983, the company with no money briefly looked at buying the bankrupt Hesketh Motorcycles, and even badged one as a marketing trial &ndash. Despite also touting a 900cc prototype water-cooled twin at the 1983 National Exhibition Show to attract outside investment, Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Ltd itself went bankrupt on 23rd August 1983.
Triumph Motorcycles (Hinckley) Ltd
Triumph Motorcycles (Hinckley)Ltd is the largest surviving British motorcycle manufacturer. When Triumph went into receivership in 1983 John Bloor, a former plasterer turned wealthy English property developer and builder became interested in keeping the brand name going. and bought the name and manufacturing rights from the Official Receiver. The new company (initially Bonneville Coventry Ltd) ensured that Triumph has produced motorcycles since 1902, winning it the title of the World's longest continuous production motorcycle manufacturer. A short licensing agreement granted to pattern spares manfacturer, Les Harris, kept the Triumph Bonneville in production until 1988 until Triumph re-launched a new range in 1990/1. Triumph now makes many motorcycles reviving the model names of the past including a newly designed Bonneville twin.
See also
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