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| Luxury Lifestyle: Autos & Vehicles, Motorcycles, Triumph |
| cars - motorcycles - vintage |
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| Triumph began in 1884 when Mr. Siegfried Bettmann emigrated from Nuremberg, Germany to London, England and founded an imp-exp company of bicycles. After 3 years the company changed name in Triumph Co. Ltd. and became a bicycles manufacturing company opening also a subsidiary in Nuremberg. After a few years Triumph Co. Ltd. decided to start producing also motorcycles, using a bicycle frame with a engine built in Belgium. During the first world war the production of motorcycles increased to more than 30.000 pcs. In the 1920's Triumph purchased a car factory and start producing both motorcycles and cars well appreciated also overseas. Because of great depression of 1929, Triumph had some problems, and sold the Nuremberg company that anufactured motorcycles till 1960. In 1933 the founder, Mr. Bettmann had to retire and Triumph sold the manufacturing bicycle company to Raleigh. A few years later, Triumph went bankrupt, the car company was acquired by the Standard Motor Company, and the motorcycle was acquired by Ariel Motorcycle Company. |
| The name was changed into Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd, and the company began to export to the USA. During the second world war, the company moved to West Midlands in order to save factory devastation. After the war more than the half of Triumph production was exported to the USA. To satisfy the American client needs for long distance, Triumph manufactured a 650cc motorcycle named Thunderbird. |
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| Thanks to this 650cc motor, Triumph got the world's speed record for motorcycles till 1970. Triumph became very popular after the movie "The Wild One" where Marlon Brando rode a Thunderbird. In 1959 was born the Bonneville, the most famous model by Triumph, and sales in the USA increased a lot, becoming a strong competitors for Harley Davidson. For years the half of the 500cc motorcycles USA market belong to Triumph. But in few years Triumph motorcycles became obsolete lacking electric start mechanisms, vibration, and leaked oil, compared to Japanese motorcycles that improved their bikes, adding advanced high technology solutions and electrical systems. Triumph developed a 3 cylinder engine and introduced a 5 speed gearbox to compete against Honda that launched on the market the first 750cc 4 cylinder. Despite the success of the Trident and Bonneville new design, the group made losses of 8 million pounds in 1971. |
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| To avoid bankrupt, the government decided to create a new group named Triumph including the 3 UK motorcycle companies in 1973 was launched the new Bonneville powered by a 750cc engine. NVT stopped the Trident production in 1975, and all best engineers left the company. After 2 years the company went bankrupt, and the brand rights were sold to the Meriden Cooperative. After several years, a new investor Mr. John Bloor, re launched "Triumph Motorcycles Ltd". In 2006 the Triumph Group announced sales of 37,400 units with a range of modern motorcycles using famous model names from the past. |
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