Timeline
– 1902 to today
The roots of Triumph motorcycles go way back to the late 19th century when founding entrepreneur, Siegfried Bettmann, settled in Coventry, England and capitalised on a ripe English bicycle market. Bicycles soon became motorcycles and the evolution of one of the most famous names in motorcycling had begun.
1930'S
John Young Sangster
While Bettmann was making the decisions that would lead to his firm’s demise, others, such as John Young Sangster, were learning the ropes of the bike industry. Known as Jack, John was the son of Charles Sangster, who until his death in 1934 had headed a large engineering company, Components Ltd. Components Ltd owned Ariel, a firm with a reputation for building top quality motorcycles. Like Triumph, the Great Depression was draining Components Ltd of cash and in 1932 the company folded but Jack, through his own intuition, networking abilities, private wealth and application of Schulte-style values (rationalisation and concentration on fewer models) turned the Ariel business around.
1938 Speed Twin
Triumph in the meantime was struggling, with cars in particular proving extremely difficult to turn a profit. Bicycles and motorcycles, which were still produced under the Triumph Cycle Co guise, were held up for sacrifice. The pedal bike plant went first, in 1932 and then four years later Jack Sangster purchased the motorcycle division. Ironically, Val Page, an ex-Ariel man and extremely talented engine designer had joined Triumph in 1932 and had set about designing a brand new range of bikes.
Sangster immediately installed two of Page’s Ariel ex-colleagues at the new Triumph Engineering Co Ltd; Edward Turner became Works’ Manager and Bert Hopwood was appointed designer. 1937 proved a landmark year for Triumph with the launch of a range of revamped singles (known as Tigers) together with the remarkable 498cc Speed Twin (T100).
1937 Tiger
This model revolutionised motorcycling – it started well, ran well, had a reported top speed of over 90mph and simply defined everything a modern motorcycle should be.
