Last month, Triumph America had a 58 percent sales increase in the U.S. over March of 2005. Primary movers were both the new Triumph 3 cylinder 675 and the new 900cc Triumph Scrambler. Triumph also noted the sales boom carried over as sales grew for every one of their continuing models, too. Triumph is once again the largest retailer of European road bikes in the U.S.
It’s nice to see Triumph doing well. The Triumph name was a particularly well known and loved brand with a loyal following when they went out of business in 1983, unfortunately, love and loyalty didn’t pay the bills. Coming back in ’91 with the new Hinkley factory under the ownership of John Bloor, Triumph has had varying degrees of success but it’s been more up than down and more recently has picked up the pace with the very well received Speed Triple, the Bonneville and the Rocket 3. The new 675 and Scrambler are finding lots of friends in the motorcycle press and obviously more than a few buyers, too.
I was reading the mostly positive May 2006 Cycle World cover story on the new Scrambler where a couple of the mag’s writers marked it down a point or two for being a little soft on performance, coming dangerously close to using the back handed compliment of “adequate.” It was nice to see the point raised that a few aftermarket parts and basic hand tools could fix whatever they thought ailed it, a thought to which I’d agree while also giving the owner a chance to make the bike a little more his own after all, that strategy seems to work for Harley. You can even order an “ISDT package” for the full retro look, very cool.
Triumph seems to be following the path of building its own market instead of confronting Japan head on, looks like it’s working. Nice.
source for sales info: Powersports Business
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mark says
It’s nice to see Triumph getting a little more attention. They really are great bikes. My 2001 Bonneville handles great in the twisties, it’s lots of fun to ride, it looks great, and it’s got pretty decent aftermarket support. It’s a lot easier to perform fairly extensive mods (both performance and appearance) than most modern bikes. And it’s a lot more distinctive than most bikes on the road.
I still want a Daytona 675 though.
todd says
Just goes to prove that you shouldn’t listen to Cycle World. Sure I’m a subscriber but one month they will tell you that a 250 has blistering performance, another month they’ll say a 900 is a little soft on performance. I really don’t think they know what they’re talking about.
-todd