Triumph Motorcycles (The Early Years)

Triumph Motorcycles is a two stage story..The
company now operating under the name of Triumph
is not the original company. The first Triumph motorcycle
was the brainchild of German Siegried Bettmann.. At the
age of 20 he came to England and started a bicycle company in 1885 in the
township of Coventry. Bettmann got a lot of early help
from the Dunlop Tire Company and by 1902 outfitted his
bicycles with a Minerva engine that was imported from
Belgium. The bikes were so successful that by 1903 he
had already sold over 500. 1905 saw the entire bike
being built at the Coventry plant,..engines, tires, and
frame. World War I was a boom for Triumph as they supplied
over 30,000 motorcycles to the allies. The 1920's saw
the Triumph plant split between the manufacturing of
motorcycles and a new small automobile. By 1927 the
sales of Triumph motorcycles was greater in the United
States than it was in England. The Great Depression saw
Triumph sell off the bicycle plant to a company that
would become the Raleigh Bicycle Company. In 1937
Triumph was sold to Jack Sangster, an engineer with
the company. Sangster developed an engine that was
immediately put into production. It was a 500cc twin-
cylinder design and Triumph would produce this engine
until 1980. Triumph sold off the automobile plant to
avoid bankruptcy in 1939, but World War II would be
hard on Triumph. The Coventry section of London was
heavily bombed by the Germans during the war, so in
1942 Triumph moved to Meriden to resume production.
The post-war years for Triumph were the best. In 1948
Americans wanted more speed from their motorcycles,
and Triumph led the way with a new 650cc model called
the 'Thunderbird'. Ford Motor Company liked the name
and bought the rights to the name from Triumph to use
on an automobile they had planned for 1955. Triumph got
a lot of publicity from the 1953 movie "The Wild One" as
Marlon Brando rode across the screen on a 1950 Triumph.
The new Triumph Bonneville was so impressive in sales
and performance that Harley-Davidson had to introduce
a new model to compete with the Bonneville...it was called
a 'Sportster', a model still being produced by Harley. In
1969 Malcolm Uphill rode a Triumph Bonneville to victory
in the Isle of Man race and became the first rider to average
over 100 mph around the course. The 1969 Bonneville is
still considered by many as the best Triumph motorcycle of
all time. That same year 50% of all motorcycles in the United
States were Triumphs...BUT the U.S. Government sided with
the Japanese on the standardization of gearshift on left and
brake on the right dispute. The British bikes were just the
opposite and to re-configure would result in massive costs.
When Honda came out with the 750cc 4-cylinder inline engine,
Triumph and BSA had nothing to compare and lost thousands
of sales. By 1972 both Triumph and BSA were heavily in debt
and were sold to a conglomeration headed by the Norton-
Villiers Company. New emission control standards were also
among the nails driven into the casket that once was TRIUMPH.