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It's important to understand that there was a nearly a decade between the closing of the Meriden factory and the opening of the Hinckley facility. During that period Motorcycle technology elsewhere advanced at a rapid pace. Also, the Meriden and even earlier Coventry-built Triumphs were well known for tempramental electric systems and carburetors. Basicly, the marque was known for being good motorcycles that nevertheless required a lot of maintenance to stay on the road. Of course, that opinion in America was strengthened by the difficulty in getting repair parts from England - especially after "old" Triumph went out of business. So when Bloor restarted the company, he knew that merely building the old models wasn't going to cut it. Having a classic name goes a long way, but it's not enough to build a sucessful buisness upon. By concentrating on the reliability of the new models, and by producing a series of new models with similar engines and suspension systems the new Triumph minimized thier startup R&D costs while dispelling any lingering doubts about reliability. The downside is that the first generation of the new bikes did not offer as high performance as the competition from Japan.
[ This message was edited by: ChiefTBS on 2007-04-12 17:15 ]
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