In their peak period, they sold more motorcycles than Harley Davidson in the United States (photo: manufacturer website)
We are used to the traditional wish of longevity on birthdays as "up to 120 years", but in the case of a triumph, it is worth resetting the count.
The British motorcycle manufacturer that has been producing motorcycles since 1902 has already entered its 121st year and a look at its history and present reveals that it has never been more energetic.
True, she went through some difficult births and two bankruptcies along the way, but hey - show us someone her age who hasn't replaced a body part or two.
The truth is that Triumph as a company is even older than the motorcycles themselves, going back to 1897 when the German Siegfried Battmann settled in England and founded his bicycle company.
But it makes its huge leap forward in the First World War, when 30 thousand pieces of the Model H Roadster are used as link motorcycles to transmit messages at the front, from the war it returns with a nickname - "Trusty" meaning - reliable.
With the beginning of the 20th century, Triumph also becomes a manufacturer of motorcycles or motorized bicycles to be more precise (photo: manufacturer's website)
With the public sympathy for the motorcycle that served the motherland, the momentum carries it even through the 20's when it starts to produce even cars (and later the companies split) and in the 30's a name appears for the first time that will accompany it for years to come "Tiger" with small and fast tools that earn it a successful reputation is very.
And if it was the first world war that launched it, it was the second that crushed it - in the first stage after the nationalization of the factory in Coventry by the British government and then its physical destruction during the German blitz on British industry.
The return to production is slow, and the company is unable to reproduce its great achievements.
Despite everything, rival motorcycle manufacturer BSA believes in her and buys her in 1951 and then everything explodes.
More in Walla!
The intriguing process of recycling metal packaging
In cooperation with the Tamir Recycling Corporation
The fifties and sixties were its golden age (photo: manufacturer website)
The 1950s and 1960s were the greatest golden age of the motorcycle industry in general and the British one in particular.
Part of it was fueled by war veterans who found the motorcycle a means of escape from social conventions, part of it from the need of Europe, which was in a bad economic situation, for cheap and simple transportation, and in the 60s it was an entire culture of riding clubs and a fringe culture of motorcycle gangs that more or less rebelled against everything established.
This was the birth of the cafe racer fashion in which the young people competed between cafes, of the rise to greatness of the professional Grand Prix motorcycles.
For Triumph it was also the great film period (which continues to this day) - Kilant Eastwood, Marlo Brando, James Dean, Daniel Craig as Bond in "No Time to Die", Prince William has one and David Beckham, and of course the greatest of them all - Steve McQueen - everyone Ride a Triumph.
Evil Cannibal jumped the Caesars Palace extension in Vegas with him.
In 1968, Triumph sold more motorcycles than Harley Davidson in the United States.
And this is also my first stopping point in the story and the encounter with the motorcycle that preserves that moment in time - the Bonneville 100T.
McQueen on Triumph, that's it, there's no more sound than that (photo: manufacturer's website)
It's early morning in the valley, the day and night shifts, the Bonneville T100 and I are racing through the fields in clear, cool air.
For a moment I'm Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" racing to freedom, he also did it on a Triumph twin.
In this edition which is a tribute to the stunt rider BUD EKIN (the man who invented Baja racing), it's a full circle, he was McQueen's permanent double.
Below me beats a liquid-cooled twin engine with a volume of 900 cc, its power, 65 horses will make modern and powerful engines laugh, but here I am with a smile on my face. Triumph carries the twin engine proudly, it does not pack it in a cast metal cube and is expressionless, but inside Two sculpted heatsink grooves This is a heritage motorcycle and a reminder of where it came from.
Loyal to the design and riding experience - Bonneville T100 (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
This Bonneville has a riding experience that is so much fun to find on a motorcycle in 2022.
Analogue moments of a motorcycle from the past.
No ego and power games, no speed and technology that ran fast fast forward.
A state of mind that soothes and also makes you forget that you will find neither power nor refined road behavior here.
The whole business is aimed at comfort.
The engine prefers gentle squeezes of the throttle, the steering and the chassis will really appreciate neat and long turning lines and the brakes, they don't like to be overdone either.
It is a motorcycle that is aimed precisely at the soft underbelly of nostalgia, the one that clouds judgment when a price tag of about NIS 90,000 is attached to it, an amount that without a great deal of nostalgia is unthinkable to ask for a fairly basic motorcycle.
Taking his time, everything is easy with him (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
And when it reaches its peak in the late 1960s, introducing its first triple engine in 1969 - the trouble begins.
For a decade that lasted from 1972 to 1983, the company received slap after slap.
It was everywhere;
Difficulties in the supply of engine components, problems and technical malfunctions in the production lines, the merger of the owner BSA with Norton creates a kind of new company that each of its arms pulls in a different direction without direction.
Downsizing leads to unrest among the workers who shut down the main factory and the situation reaches such a point that in fact in 1974 almost no motorcycles are produced, another decade of bleeding cash, government supervision, halting development brings the company to bankruptcy in 1983 the mythical factory in Meridian is destroyed, a neighborhood is built in its place Villas, the streets in which are named after Triumph models.
When the British car industry was at its peak (photo: manufacturer's website)
The name has been bought and Triumph is heading towards a re-establishment.
The reestablished manufacturer is returning to its roots, with new tools from the ground up, modular, huge investments in research and development.
The investment is huge but no one is in a hurry to release a new model until they are sure that it will also justify the name and the price and then it explodes.
At the 1990 Cologne show, the Triumph stand has six new models from the ground up, sharing components with historic names such as Trident (fork) with volumes of 750 and 900 cc, Tropic (trophy) with a 1,200 cc engine and Daytona (named after the American race track) with volumes of 750 and 1,000 cc. The engines, 3 and 4 cylinders use the modular arrangement of the same engine that the increase in volume is done by adding another cylinder. The
first half of the 1990s illuminates the face of a triumph that keeps coming back to itself, with increasing sales numbers and with the desire to break through out with models that are more than competition for something existing but truly exceptional.This is our second stop - get the Street Triple.
The Street Triple was a hammer in the world of Japanese knives (photo: manufacturer's website)
In 1993, Ducati and Miguel Gallozzi present the mythical Monster, a naked and muscular motorcycle that takes the world by storm and saves Ducati.
Triumph realizes that the Italians are onto something and in 1994, again in Cologne, Triumph drops a bombshell on the motorcycle market - the Speed Triple is released and it doesn't look like anything else.
A vessel that is all bare muscles, with no attempt to hide or cover up its brutal appearance, with its most prominent element being a pair of large round headlights that look like a curious insect.
A tool that looks like it was built in a warehouse and is intended for the rough streets.
With a three-cylinder engine that the Mozark later had (a first for the manufacturer).
Not only does it prove to be a hit and a motorcycle that leaves the press and riders with its wild and fun nature, it is also responsible for the surge of muscular streetfighters that has excited the industry for years and even to this day.
If the Monster was an artistic naked motorcycle, the Speed Triple is the hardcore version.
One of the branches that came out of it is the Street Triple, here in the RS version.
It also comes with the same minimalistic approach, with a pair of insect headlights and very minimal plastics.
Also inside its chassis is a three-cylinder engine, with a volume of 765 cc with 123 horses. Packaged in a chassis made of aluminum in the front for a light front and a metal alloy in the back for rigidity.
The Street Triple RS: an agile and aggressive amusement vehicle (photo: Kenan Cohen)
From the moment you drive it, the motorcycle itself seems to be working so that you will be satisfied.
It is enough to roll two meters on it to get the feeling that it simply "disappears" under you because it is compact.
what is needed?
Start in the city?
There is a flexible engine, small dimensions and a generous side angle.
winding roads?
It just waits for a light steering command to attack turns and execute its list of super quality assemblies - SHOWA front fork, ohlins rear shock and Brembo brakes front and rear.
In between super fast gear shifting with quickshift up and down, 5 riding modes and controls to prevent unwanted wheel swing.
Going out of town?
Yes, you will eat gravel if you ride above 140 km/h because there is not even minimal wind protection, but power is not lacking. It is almost all the thrill you want from a sports bike without the compromises of the extreme riding position.
It is, and very clearly a motorcycle that requires compromises and commitment.
Even with the soft shocks it is still relatively stiff and on a road that is both winding and bumpy it is not a safe combination and it is definitely not a motorcycle suitable for high climbs, certainly not for long periods of time.
This triple is about to be replaced by a new generation, so an exact price is difficult to attach to it.
The importer has a few more tools and from anywhere in the 100,000 shekels segment it is really high next to the Yamaha MT09SP as a daily smile machine.
Doing some sports (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Throughout the 90s and into the current millennium, the Speed Triple in its incarnations alongside tools like the Daytona, retro models that brought back the Bonneville name and in 2004 the presentation of the monstrous "Rocket 3" pumped new gasoline through the company's veins.
It was not always at its peak, and sometimes the assembly, reliability or both were not exactly exemplary.
But along the way she was also alert enough to understand where the market is going and what needs to be done to have an offer that continues to change according to the audience's taste.
And in the last two decades, as in the car, also in the two-wheeled market what is going to sit high - what we knew as two-wheelers became Adventures and in Triumph they pulled the name "Tiger" from the unknown.
It's a name the company used from the 1930s when they started as the smallest of the bunch until the 1980s when there were versions of the T bikes that simply wore off-road tires and got longer suspension travel.
In the 90's it was also attached to a Yamaha Tenera-style dash,
The tigers as we know them today returned to the wild only in 2012, the one from which the current, modern era of this manufacturer can be defined.
And from this family I sample the Tiger 900GT, the intermediate model between the Tiger 660 and the huge Super-Tiger 1,200.
Tiger 900, at the exact point of a great adventure but useful on a daily basis (photo: Keinan Cohen)
The 900 that replaced the 800 is located exactly in the hot category of adventure motorcycles.
Everyone has a representative there - from BMW, Ducati, Yamaha, KTM and more.
These are the intermediate volumes that allow, on the one hand, long-term weekend trips on the asphalt and gravel, and on the other hand, they are not heavy and cumbersome beasts that are difficult to deal with in everyday life. The riding position is excellent, with an upright angle of the back and an excellent view around, and still a very reasonable seat height of 810-830 mm.
Although the GT version is the basic one in the range (despite the price), here you will find a detailed digital dashboard but too low in its position, 12V and USB sockets, heated handles, cruise control and more.
Its 888cc engine has the great character of triple engines - flexibility at low rpm and then it becomes combative and wilder at high rpm. Wild but not threatening or explosive, 93 horses is not a lot and if you like him you prefer smooth action than Power "bombs", you will fit in. The business is connected to a gearbox that suits it well,
Despite the height, it gives a very confident feeling on the road (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Its high sitting position together with long-travel shocks make it a very efficient tool in the city when you need to get on and off sidewalks.
Its very effective wind protection and the smooth-running engine also give it very nice inter-urban capabilities - in fact, it is exactly the dimensions that suit Israel.
Even on the winding road, he gains a lot of confidence in his ability to handle turns, whether it's a calm ride in the assembly, or when you're rushing home because it suddenly starts raining here (true story).
At NIS 125,000, the Tiger 900 GT Pro is not cheap, but that can be said for almost all Triumph models if you haven't realized by now.
What it does do is offer a package that doesn't fall significantly short of any of its competitors (although it's more expensive than the excellent Yamaha Tracer 9), a British vinnik for those who want to feel special but ride "like everyone else has".
The future is in electricity, also in Triumph with the 1-TE (photo: manufacturer website)
The Bonneville, the Street Triple and the Tiger 900 are three motorcycles that are currently sold in the Triumph showroom, but there is something else interesting here - try to think of a manufacturer that in 2023 presents three models that are so different from each other in their most distinct sense and yet each of them is connected to history of the manufacturer, or at least represent a significant period in it.
And we haven't touched on them all, the scramblers, the bobbers, the rocket, the speed triples, the speed twin and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few more.
In 2020, the manufacturer presents its TE-1 electric project and at the end of that year signs a collaboration with the Indian two-wheeled giant Bajaj, in 2021 its first independent prototype from 1903 is revealed as a complete surprise and last year it announced the production of the millionth motorcycle Her and future entry into the field with motocross and enduro motorcycles.
So sometimes history repeats itself, this time let's hope it's here to stay.
vehicle
Two-wheeled
Two wheeler news
Tags
triumph
motorcycles
Two-wheeler
