Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/949296
CYCLE NEWS CRUISER BUYERS GUIDE What a great motorcycle. FOR ME TO RIDE ON. Triumph 2018 Line up I tried hard to resist the reference joke but what can I say? I like both Triumph and the cigar-chomp- ing dog puppet that shares its name. Both are quick on the gas but it's a lot more fun to ride one on a public street than the other. Triumph touts itself as the oldest continually-pro- duced motorcycle manufacturer in the world. It originated as a bicycle company in the late 1800s and in 1898 Triumph took the next logical step of moving into motorcycle production. By 1902, it produced its first motorcycle: a bicycle powered by a Belgian Minerva powerplant. For the first two years the company based its work on those of oth- er motorcycle companies but in 1904 they started producing their own designs. By the end of 1905, Triumph had manufactured over 250 motorcycles designed entirely in-house. Production boomed. Come 1907, the company produced 1000 motorcycles from its new larger manufacturing plant. In the decades that followed, Triumph survived two world wars, then started exporting its iron overseas to the United States and other countries. Demand for their motorcycles outpaced supply. Hollywood took notice. The British manufacturer received a fair amount of publicity in the United States when Marlon Brando rode a 1950 Thunder- bird 6T in the 1953 film, The Wild One. Ten years later, Steve McQueen would ride a 650 cc Triumph TR6 Trophy in the 1963 World War II POW movie The Great Escape. The 1960s were really good to Triumph and in 1969 Malcolm Uphill won the Isle of Man Production TT race on a Bonneville, averaging 99.99 miles per hour per lap, as well as clocking the first lap ever at more than 100 miles per hour by a production motorcycle. To many Triumph enthusiasts, the 1969 Bonneville was the best Triumph model ever created. This wasn't lost on the company. Bonneville models have been in and out of production with the latest run starting in 2001. Unlike the Bonnies of old, the modern take wasn't meant to be as speed-oriented. They're more of a direct competi- tor with motorcycles like the 883 Sportster. At the far other end of the cruiser spectrum there's the Rocket III with its huge 2294cc with its very distinct headers. It could teach the porn industry a thing or two about "big sexy package."