Triumph Motorcycles Ltd
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Triumph Motorcycles Ltd is the largest UK-owned
motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
manufacturer, established in 1983 by
John Bloor John Stuart Bloor (born 16 June 1943) is a British billionaire businessman. His business, Bloor Holdings, owns both Bloor Homes and Triumph Motorcycles. Early life Bloor was born in a small Derbyshire village. His father was a coal miner. He ...
after the original company
Triumph Engineering Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the ...
went into receivership. The new company, initially called Bonneville Coventry Ltd, continued Triumph's lineage of motorcycle production since 1902. They have major manufacturing facilities in Thailand. During the 12 months preceding June 2017, Triumph sold 63,400 motorcycles.


History

When
Triumph Engineering Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the ...
went into receivership in 1983, John Bloor bought the name and manufacturing rights from the Official Receiver. The new company's manufacturing plant was outdated and unable to compete against the technology from Japanese manufacturers, so Bloor decided against relaunching Triumph immediately. Initially, production of the old Bonneville was continued under licence by Les Harris of Racing Spares, in
Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...
,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, to bridge the gap between the end of the old company and the start of the new company. For five years from 1983, about 14 a week were built at peak production. In the United States, owing to problems with liability insurance, the Harris Bonnevilles were never imported. Bloor set to work assembling the then-new Triumph business, hiring several of the group's former designers to begin work on new models. The team visited Japan on a tour of its competitors' facilities and decided to adopt Japanese manufacturing techniques and especially new-generation computer-controlled machinery. In 1985, Triumph purchased a first set of equipment to begin working, in secret, on its new prototype models. By 1987, the company had completed its first engine. In 1988, Bloor funded the building of a new factory at a site in
Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...
,
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
. The first Hinckley Triumphs were produced for the 1991 model year. Bloor put between £70 million and £100 million into the company between purchasing the brand and breaking even in 2000. At the same time as production capacity increased, Bloor established a new network of export distributors. He had previously created two subsidiary companies, Triumph Deutschland GmbH and Triumph France SA. In 1994, Bloor created Triumph Motorcycles America Ltd. At 21:00 on 15 March 2002, as the company was preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary as a motorcycle maker, half of the main factory including the assembly area and stores was destroyed by a fire which began at the rear of the facility. At the height of the blaze, over 100 firefighters with 30 vehicles were tackling the fire. Nevertheless, the company, which by then employed more than 650, quickly rebuilt the facility and returned to production by September that year. In May 2002, Triumph began construction on a new sub-assembly manufacturing facility in
Chonburi Chonburi ( th, ชลบุรี, , IAST: , ) is the capital of Chonburi Province and Mueang Chonburi District in Thailand. It is about 100 km southeast of Bangkok, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. Its name means 'city of water'. Chonb ...
, Thailand to make various components. A second factory was opened in 2006 by
Prince Andrew, Duke of York Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger brother of King Charles III and the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince ...
where a wet painting facility and assembly line have been established. A third factory was opened in 2007 to include high pressure die-casting and machining, and Triumph announced that they were expanding to increase capacity to over 130,000 motorcycles. Triumph Motorcycles (Thailand) Limited is a 100% UK owned company and now employs about 1000 staff. In June 2009
Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham Digby Marritt Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham, (born 28 October 1955), known as Sir Digby Jones between 2005 and 2007, is a British businessman and politician who has served as Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) fr ...
, the former Minister of State for Trade, became chairman and the
Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...
twin-cylinder cruiser was announced. In early 2011 Nick Bloor, John Bloor's son, took over from Tue Mantoni as CEO of Triumph Motorcycles and in 2017 Triumph opened a new £4 million visitor centre, along with a collection of Triumph motorcycles, memorabilia, and a factory tour. In February 2020 it was announced that Triumph would be moving the remainder of large scale motorcycle production, including the Tiger 1200 and Speed Triple production lines to their Thailand factories, leaving only the specialist Triumph Factory Customs and prototype builds remaining in the UK. Whilst the R&D department remains within the UK (and 20 additional staff have been taken on in that department), substantially larger redundancies were announced amongst production staff. In a press release dated 20 July 2021, Triumph announced a factory off-road competition programme to create new
motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...
and
enduro Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a ...
machines. In the same release they announced the participation of seven time AMA motocross and five time supercross champion Ricky Carmichael and five time enduro champion
Iván Cervantes Iván Cervantes Montero (born 2 May 1982) is a Spanish motorcycle enduro racer from Cambrils (Tarragona) and a four-times world enduro champion. Career Cervantes started out as a motocross rider, a discipline in which he holds five Spanish natio ...
in the development of the new bikes.


Financial performance

In 2017, Triumph's revenue increased by 22 per cent to £498.5 million and this increased pre-tax profits to £24.7 million from £16.6 million the previous year. Over 85 per cent of motorcycles are now sold in overseas markets, but the 9,400 motorcycles sold in the UK in 2017 represents a record for the company. Bloor invested over £80 million in Triumph Motorcycles before it first broke even in 2000. During the 2008 recession, Bloor Holdings – which controls Triumph - breached its banking covenants but was able to re-negotiate its loans with lenders.


Model range

A range of new 750 cc and 900 cc triple-cylinder bikes and 1000 cc and 1200 cc four-cylinder bikes were launched at the September 1990 Cologne Motorcycle Show. The motorcycles used famous model names from the glory days of Meriden Triumph and were first made available to the public between March (Trophy 1200 being the first) and September 1991. All used a modular liquid-cooled DOHC engine design in a common large diameter steel backbone frame. The modular design was to ensure that a variety of models could be offered whilst keeping production costs under control—an idea originally put forward, in air-cooled form, in the early 1970s by Bert Hopwood but not implemented by the then BSA-Triumph company. The first models, known generically as the T300s, all used a common piston diameter (76 mm) in a common wet cylinder liner. Basic engine variations were achieved through the use of two specifications of piston stroke: 65 mm to create individual cylinder capacity of 300 cc, and 55mm to create a 250 cc individual cylinder. Two 750 cc models were released – and the Daytona and Trident 750 triples (3 x 250 cc). There was one 1000 cc model – the Daytona 1000 four (4 x 250 cc). Two 900 cc models were the Trophy 900 and Trident 900 triples (3 x 300 cc). The Trophy 1200 four was the largest model (4 x 300 cc). All were remarkably smooth running. The three cylinder models were equipped with a contra-rotating balance shaft mounted at the front of the engine. The four cylinder models benefitted from twin balance shafts – unique at the time – mounted beneath the crank shaft. Contemporary road tests noted the solidity and smoothness of performance as positives but the weight of the machines as negatives. For brand new machines produced by a totally new concern, there were remarkably few early problems. These were an insecure oil pressure switch and a longer-lived problem with the starter (or
sprag clutch A sprag clutch is a one-way freewheel clutch. It resembles a roller bearing but, instead of cylindrical rollers, non-revolving asymmetric figure-eight shaped sprags, or other elements allowing single direction rotation, are used. When the unit ...
). The cosmetic finish on the first machines was simple and not very robust. Revisions to crankcases for the three-cylinder models in 1993, together with a move to high pressure casting, reduced engine weight considerably. All painting and plating operations were brought in house in 1993, as the Hinckley factory benefitted from further investment after the initial success of the range. The result was improved quality and durability of finish, added to the basic engineering integrity of the engine and chassis, made for a long-lasting and robust motorcycle. The range was largely revised in 1997 with the release of the T500 range, followed by a light-weight four-cylinder 600 cc sports TT600. The 600 was a major design departure and initially received a poor press: "unpleasant at low revs due to a lethargic and unpredictable throttle response, with anonymous styling". As sales built, the big fours were phased out of the lineup and parallel twins and triples became the marketing and development focus of Triumph's marketing strategy. Triumph also decided to exploit demand for retro motorcycles with modern engineering. The Triumph Thunderbird 900 exploited the styling cues of the 'old' Triumphs legendary designer, Edward Turner whilst retaining the modern triple engine. The 790 and 865 cc versions of the
Triumph Bonneville The Triumph Bonneville is a Types of motorcycles#Standard, standard motorcycle featuring a Straight-twin engine, parallel-twin four-stroke engine and manufactured in three generations over three separate production runs. The first two generation ...
and Thruxton look and sound original but internally they have modern valves and counterbalance shafts. For their contemporary range, the triple is Hinckley Triumph's trademark, filling a niche between European and American twins and four-cylinder Japanese machinery. The triple Rocket III cruiser was introduced in 2004. The first 300 Rocket III models were already sold before they were produced, and there was a long waiting list for Rockets into 2005. On 21 July 2008, Triumph held a Global Dealer Conference where new models for 2009 were launched, including the official announcement of the parallel twin-cylinder Thunderbird. Triumph's best selling bike is the 675 cc Street Triple. In 2010 they launched the Triumph Tiger 800 and Tiger 800 XC,
dual-sport motorcycle A dual-sport motorcycle is a type of street-legal motorcycle that is designed for both on and off-road use. The terms ''all-road,'' ''on/off road,'' and ''dual-purpose'' are also used for this class of motorcycles. Dual-sports are equipped with ...
s, which uses an 800 cc engine derived from the Street Triple, and is designed to compete directly with the market leading BMW F800GS. In 2012, the Tiger 800 was joined by the shaft-driven
Triumph Tiger Explorer The Triumph Tiger Explorer (marketed as Triumph Tiger 1200 since November 2017) is a dual-sport motorcycle that was announced by British company Triumph Motorcycles at the EICMA show in November 2011. There are currently two model series avail ...
.


Current Line Up


Adventure

* Tiger Sport 660 * Tiger 850 Sport * Tiger 900 GT * Tiger 900 Rally * Tiger 1200 GT * Tiger 1200 Rally


Roadster

* Trident 660 * Street Triple *
Speed Triple The Triumph Speed Triple is a series of motorcycles produced by Triumph Motorcycles. The 1994 Hinckley Triumph was one of the first motorcycles produced in the streetfighter style (a modern sport bike or race replica motorcycle without an ae ...


Sport Bike

* Daytona Moto2 765


Classic

* Street Twin * Bonneville T100 * Street Scrambler * Speed Twin * Bonneville T120 * Bonneville Bobber * Bonneville Speedmaster * Scrambler 1200 * Thruxton RS


Power Cruiser

*
Rocket 3 Rocket 3 may refer to: * Triumph Rocket III, a motorcycle by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd * Triumph Rocket 3, the successor of Triumph Rocket III * BSA Rocket 3/Triumph Trident The Triumph Trident and BSA Rocket 3 was a technically advanced, high- ...


E-Bike

* Trekker


Triumph Factory Custom motorcycles

In December 2018, Triumph said they were developing a new range of high spec limited edition motorcycles, called Triumph Factory Custom (TFC). The first model was the Thruxton TFC, with production run limited to 750 units. In May 2019, the second model, the Rocket 3 TFC, was introduced at a motorbike show at Shoreditch, London. In November 2019, Triumph announced a third TFC model, the Bobber TFC, at the
EICMA Motorcycle Show EICMA (''Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori''), or the Milan Motorcycle Shows is an annual trade show in Milan, Italy featuring motorcycles A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-w ...
in Milan.


Racing

From 2019 season onwards for a three-year term, Triumph were awarded the contract to be the controlled-engine supplier for the FIM
Moto2 Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start of ...
World Championship. This was extended in 2021 for at least another three years. All Moto2 teams changed from a Honda CBR600 unit to a 765 cc triple-cylinder engine supplied by Triumph that was originally developed from the Street Triple RS engine, but with additional race tuning that creates at least 138PS peak power. Engines are prepared by ExternPro, an independent business based in Spain.Triumph enters Grand Prix racing as Moto2 engine supplier
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The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'', 18 December 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2019


Marketing, product placement, and brand management

In 1995, Triumph began selling the Triple Connection clothing and accessories range of products, designed by Triumph rather than licensed. In the 21st century, Triumph marketed lines of clothing with endorsements or likenesses of celebrities associated with the brand in the past, including
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, and the deceased
Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
,
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, ''Rebel Without a Cause' ...
, and
Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...
. McQueen's name and likeness were particularly put to use, such as naming a special edition Bonneville after him.


See also

*
Triumph Cycle Triumph Cycle Co. Ltd., based in Nottingham, England, was a bicycle manufacturing company. History The genesis of what would become Triumph Cycle Company began during 1884 when Siegfried Bettmann emigrated to Coventry in England from Nurember ...
(1884–1930) original Triumph, founded by
Siegfried Bettmann Siegfried Bettmann (18 April 1863 - 23 September 1951) was a bicycle, motorcycle and car manufacturer and initiator of the Triumph Motorcycle Company. In 1914 he established the Annie Bettmann Foundation to help young people start businesses. Tr ...
*
Triumph (TWN) Triumph-Werke Nürnberg AG or TWN, was a German bicycle and motorcycle company. In 1886, Siegfried Bettmann founded the Triumph bicycle factory in Coventry, England, and in 1896 he founded a second bicycle factory in his native Nuremberg, Ger ...
(1896–1956) German manufacturer also founded by Bettmann *
Triumph Motor Company The Triumph Motor Company was a British car and motor manufacturing company in the 19th and 20th centuries. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann of Nuremberg formed S. Bettmann & Co. and started importing bicycles from Eu ...
(1930–1936) precursor to Triumph Engineering (1936–1983) *
Triumph Owners Motor Cycle Club Triumph Owners Motor Cycle Club (TOMCC) is a motorcycle club for owners of Triumph Motorcycles based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1949 in South London, the club had expanded nationally to a membership of circa 6,000 members by 2006. The clu ...


Sources


External links

* {{British motorcycle manufacturers Motorcycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Leicestershire Motor vehicle assembly plants in the United Kingdom English brands British companies established in 1984 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1984