Motor Triumph

Motor Triumph, currently known as Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, is a British motorcycle manufacturer that has been producing bikes, in one form or another, since 1902. Registered as the New Triumph Co. Ltd in 1887, the company began as a manufacturing facility for bicycles and motorbikes after German-born Seigfried Bettmann partnered with fellow German Moritz Schulte.

By 1907, Triumph was producing 1,000 motorcycles a year. This number skyrocketed with the advent of World War I, as thousands of Triumph’s Type H roadsters were produced to fulfill the needs of the Allied war effort. Nicknamed the “Trusty Triumph,” the H was one of the last bikes that Bettmann and Schulte would produce together.

Citing disagreements in the direction the company’s expansion should take, Schulte left Triumph in 1919. Bettmann was able to keep the company afloat despite the drain in sales brought on by the Great Depression, but it was his insistence that Triumph branch into car manufacture that proved his undoing. After a string of failed attempts to popularize Triumph automobiles, Bettmann retired in 1933.

Triumph’s Coventry factory was destroyed during 1940’s London Blitz, but was rebuilt in the village of Meriden in 1942. As new bikes rolled out through that decade and the next, Triumph shaped its brand to appeal to both European demand for smaller, lightweight bikes and the increasing American desire for larger cruising vehicles. The company enjoyed a prosperous decade in the cycle-happy 1950’s, especially after Marlon Brando rode a 1950 Thunderbird 6T in his film “The Wild One,” released in 1953.

Although the 60’s saw the premiere of Triumph’s incredibly chic and popular Bonneville model, the company began to fall behind as advanced Japanese cycles swept through the international market in the latter part of the decade. This downward slump continued through the 1970’s. Despite Triumph’s new three-cylinder motor beating out foreign competition on the racetrack, the company ran out of money and closed its doors in 1983.

Wealthy entrepreneur John Bloor took over the Triumph name shortly thereafter, and put into action a plan for the company’s reinvention. After years of secrecy, the new Triumph line of cycles were introduced in September 1990. Although the unveiling was a success, it wasn’t until the premiere of the Triumph Speed Triple in 1994 that the company saw its star begin to burn brightly once more. A muscular throwback to the height of motorcycle culture, the Speed Triple recaptured the magic the company name carried 50 years prior.

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