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.
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1980'S
The Meriden factory closed its doors in early 1983. The cash had simply run out and liquidation followed along with the sale of the company assets. The Meriden site was bulldozed into rubble in ’84 and houses built. It seemed like the end of Triumph and, with it, the British motorcycle industry.
Fortunately it wasn’t.
Property developer and self-made millionaire John Bloor rescued the Triumph name and a new, privately owned company - Triumph Motorcycles Limited - was born. Initially Devon-based firm Racing Spares (who’d previously been making parts for Triumph) were licensed to build the final incarnation of the Bonneville, principally to keep the Triumph marque alive, while the new company laid plans for Triumph’s return to the world stage.The designs on the table from the co-operative were outdated and pretty much unusable so the new company returned to the drawing board. From 1985, for three long years while Racing Spares built Bonnies, the new Triumph company put plans in action in total silence and secrecy. During this time a new factory was built in Hinckley, Leicestershire and a range of models were developed. Featuring three and four cylinder engines, with water-cooling, four valves per cylinder and double overhead camshafts, these were quite unlike anything Triumph had built before.