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Triumph Motorcycles Triumph Motorcycles is a manufacturer of motorcycles based in Hinckley, in the United Kingdom. History The company's roots began in 1883 when Siegfried Bettmann moved to Coventry, England from Nuremberg, Germany. Reference - http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycles/triumph/
Motorcycles were produced at Coventry until the Blitz during WWII when the town of Coventry was virtually destroyed. Tooling and machinery was recovered from the site of the devastation and production started back up at the new plant at Meriden. The Speed Twin designed by Edward Turner before the war was produced in large numbers after the war. Efforts to settle the lend-lease debts caused nearly 70% of Triumphs post war production to be shipped to the United States. To satisfy the American appetite for motorcycles suited to long distance riding, Turner increased the capacity of the Speed Twin to 650 cc. The new bike was named the Thunderbird, (a name Triumph would later license to Ford for use on a car), and only one year after it was introduced a hot rodder in Southern California mated the 650 thunderbird with a twin Carb head originally intended for GP racing and named the new creation the wonderbird. It went with a few gallons of Nitromethane to the dry lakes and Bonneville and the rest is history. That 650 cc motor, designed in 1939, held the world's absolute speed record for motorcycles from 1955 until 1970! External link Internal Links
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