Is this true

Saying that Triumphs are not British is a load of Bollocks some of the heavy casting is done in Thailand but all the finishing and assembly is done at Hinckley.
It's like saying that Ducatis are not built in Italy as the have Brembo brakes and Ohlins suspension and all the bearings are from Sweden.
Who ever told you this needs a slap and all fairness you need to have a ride on the bike as they are a great handling bike with a very linear engine and a character that are lacking in anything that comes from Japan or Germany.

 

You might want to plough your way through this Where is my Triumph made? - Triumph Forum: Triumph Rat Motorcycle Forums

In short, it seems that some bikes are made in Thailand and some are made here and you can dig out the details from the thread.

Whether it makes any difference to you is another thing....

 

How I understand it there is a sticker or a stamp on the vine plate on the steering head or under the seat with a F 1- 5 printed or stamped

F 1 or 2 is a Hinckley assembled machine F 5 is definitely Thailand. My Tiger is F 5 its also back at Triumph with a failed stepper motor at 800 miles.

Have to say it did not put me off buying and am sure they screw the things together as well over there as they do here; just slightly annoying as I only live 15 minutes away from the Hinckley factory.

I took the Street Triple R out on the Triumph demo day last Sat and it is a great bike to ride...... sound is fantastic although they have made first gear quite tall compared to the old Street my wife owns and doesn't seam quite as wheelie happy. It breaks the national motorway speed limit in first Without the foreign factories and labour you would not be able to get such a great bike for the low price they are asking compared to rivals and hope the is it British built or not thing will not put you off.

 

There still seems to be all sorts of theories re VIN number or under the seat or whatever.
Lots of rumors all I have been told is that the rough casting is done in Thailand and the rest is done in Hinckley.

Also the Speed Triple R has so many trick parts with suspension brakes wheels ect it would make sense to build them in the UK instead of sending all those european parts to asia only to have them come back again.

That Rat forum post was bloody confusing anyway there was talk of them being built in Taiwan even

 

I can confirm when I did the factory tour during the last Triumph live I saw with my own eyes the new Trophy, Explorer, Speed Triple, and Rocket all on the Hinckley production line. I saw machines making and machining cranks, and saw Several engine types on the production line.

Think I am still proud of the Triumph brand where ever they make their bikes. John Bloor is still heavily involved at Hinckley, his house building headquarters Bloor Homes is 5 mins away from me in Measham and without this man's drive and determination non of us would be riding a Triumph.

 

There are 2 factories in Hinkley and 3 in Chon Buri (Thailand). A lot of the frame manufacture is carried out in Thailand and some sub-assembly. Production lines that have been debugged over several years in Hinkley are often moved to Thailand to reduce labour costs. But there are a team of highly skilled British engineers based in the Thai factories which control the production and the Thai engineers are also extremely competent. I'd be more concerned if they were made in China than Thailand.

I'm very proud to ride a British bike, and if some sub-assemblies or other parts are manufactured abroad, so what, as long as the quality is to the British standard. As others here have said, many parts of other bikes (and cars for that matter) and manufactured all over the world these days, but it's still a British product in my eyes.

 

The Japanese love buying Japanese cars that have been assembled in British factories. They are more desirable for being finished here despite being made from Japanese parts. The Japs know their stuff.
Doesn't matter how good the parts are if the finished article has been assembled by a chimpanzee. Ask a Bennelli owner.

 

Really??? Does anyone remember the nightmare that was British Leyland!! Because they were built in Britan would you want a Morris Marina or a Maxi, a Vauxhall Viva or a Rover that had one side longer than the other. From memory the mark 4 and 5 Cortina's were not that great either. Stuff like the Datsun 180b and the Toyota corolla that were made in Japan were miles better at the time.

 

I agree. I'm talking about the cars made in Britain now, not the garbage knocked together 40 years ago under communism. And I should know, I had a Marina. Well two actually. You needed two - one to run and one for spares. I believe many of the Jap cars made in Britain today are also designed here. To all intents and purposes they are British cars. At one time the cars from UK plants destined for Japan's home market went out with little Union Jack badges on them. Don't know if they still do. The Japanese loved that. A car built in a British plant was considered superior and more desirable than other versions and they would sell for higher prices.
But then, we know how good British automotive design can be - we ride Triumphs.

 

I ride a Rocket and for me the important thing is that the design is British, everything else is not important to me, even though the assembly is here anyway...to me it's British because it's designed by the British

 

Fair point as the two cars I own are both Toyota's (Wifes Avensis estate and my Corolla)
Actually a little while ago there was a bit on the news about the manufacturing industry in the midlands and most of was about JCB and some other outfit and very little mention of Triumph motorcycles. I think this was very unfair as Mr Bloor has done a unbelievable job bringing the UK motorcycle industry back from the dead to the largest seller of over 125cc motorcycles in the UK and bikes that have still retained a British Character with the triple engine which now even the Japanese have attempted to emulate somewhat poorly (Yamaha MT07)
It is a company that seems to have made the right choices at the right times and the bikes have great usability and reliability along with character and good customer service.

At the end of the day there is only one bike better than a British Bike and that is the Britten (and I'm never going to be able to afford one of those) :biggrin:

 

Its true that beyond the world of motorcycling Triumph don't get the credit they deserve. In Top Gear's Made In Britain automotive cavalcade a while back they barely got a mention. The Hinkley Triumph story is remarkable when you think about it. It wasn't a takeover or an excise in re-branding or inward investment but a complete ground-up new company that has gone from nothing to a world beater in twenty years without a hitch and with no lemons. In fact, with the Speed Triple they have created a modern classis first crack out of the box. The Daytona is runaway class leader in a hyper-competitive sector and they're even taking Harley on a their own game and scoring hits. Its a hell of a record. If the Government wants a standard bearer for high profile British export manufacturing they need look no further. The resurrection of old marques is usually a tortuous business leaving a trail of bankruptcies, bailouts, buyouts, relaunches and flawed products before collapsing altogether or being swallowed without trace by a corporate giant (OK, Ducati excepted.) Triumph have shown how it should be done. I guess the secret is Triumph is a company which employs engineers but is run by a businessman rather than the other way round.
I would dearly love to see Moto Morini achieve the same success. A noble badge and stupendous bikes but they haven't had an auspicious start. In my lottery winner's dream garage there'd definitely be a place for a Corsaro Veloce next to the Speed Triple.

 

Honda originally decided to have a factory in the UK because of their venture with Rover in the late '70's. Nissan & Toyota, have their factories here not only for the highly skilled British engineers, but also to give them a perfect entry path into the European market. Cars built in Japan tend to be sold in the Far-East (so I'm told).

 

What like one of these?

Moto Morini

Not sure if it's really my sort of thing but it's about £12000 so not cheap then :wink:

There hasn't really been any of the old names in motorcycling that have come back in a big way apart from Triumph and possibly to a lesser extent MV Agusta as Norton have only got one bike (or varitions of one), Indian should do ok in the States but not sure about anywhere else as they are very traditional bikes and it's still a little be early to really tell how they are going to get on and Laverda which was owned by Aprilia until they got taken over has has now been scrapped which was a shame as the 1000 SFC looked like a really nice bike. I see there is talk of Hesketh and Brough Superior both starting off again but that will only be a very low number of bikes made due to the costs.

If I had my choice of bikes that I would like to see be relaunched it would have to be the Vincent and the AJS / Matchless bikes, A modern version of the Black Lightning and the 7R or G50 would be one hell of a bike if they were done properly instead of some rip off rubbish from China with a AJS badge.