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/126000
'The ~hole Industry Is lust waiting lor us to lall on our laces ... ~e're not going to.' Norton-Triumph '5 Terry Tiernan By Gary VCIl Voorhis For years the names Yamaha and Terry Tieman were synonymous. To many people, both in an d out of th e motorcy cle in dustry, Tieman was Yamah a and man y of the ideas and programs that were respo nsible fo r Yamaha's rap id rise in sales and th eir racing successes cam e about during' what was referred to as, "the Tiernan regim e. " Suddenly, a little more than three mon ths ago, Tieman resigned fr om Yamaha and a short tim e later signed on with Norton Triumph. Th e shock waves from tha t have yet • to settle. "We 'll be starting fireside m eetings with d ealers in a f ew days and we sh ould have a lot of positive feedback by th e time we're through. The dealer reacti on has been very good in the m eetings I've had alread y. The main concern has been f or more models, low er prices and getting a firm organizational stru cture. A major part of th e problems in th e past were at dealer level. They have been given promises for years, and regretfully, many have not been fulfilled. What we 'ue got to do no w is pro ve to th em that what w e say is wha t we inten d t o d o. In that resp ect I believe tha t our VM s now . have th e horsepo w er to get th e changes mad e tha t are needed. .. Terry Tiernan, a little over two month s into h is new jo b as Vice Presid ent/Mark et ing for Norton Triu mp h corporatio n was talking as we sat in the co mfo rtable offices of Eastern Regio nal Manager Bill Mason. It was a whist le stop interview , a quick two h ours or so sandwich ed in before an oth er plane flight and ano ther m ee ting in an other p art of th e U. S. It had been a hect ic two mo n ths since Terry joined No rton Trium ph and, alth ough h e had n 't even really had ti me to get his f eet wet, th e answ ers flow ed unh esitatingly. CN : What d o you fo rsee as the fut ure of No rto n-Trium ph in t he U.S .? IT: I' m very, very opt imist ic about the f ut u re o f N o r t o n -T riumph. After visiting t he fact ory in En gland a coupl e of ti me s an d talking t o t he people there I believe we 've got so me o utstanding products an d a first rate engineering staff. They know what 's hap pen ing. I thi n k (in the past ) that t hey have been given so me strange info rmation on U.S. marke ti ng as t o what was need ed in t his mar ket. We now ha ve a good lin e of co m munication and I beli eve we 'll see so me int eresting developments. We've: got so me o utst an di ng products o n the drawing board ; so me in engi neering co nc ep t and o ne o r two into p ro t o typ e st ages that are really what we need . O ur j o b right no w is t o get t hese from co ncep t and proto ty pe into th e de aler' s sho wroo ms and get t he T riu mph -Norton image back to where it was a few years ago . CN: What ab o ut im me di at e plan s? IT: 0 u r p lans righ t now co n cern projecting a time sp an ( whic h we are working o n right now ) in which, as soon as is po ssib le, Tri um ph will aga in have a co m p lete line o f motorcycles and Norton will ha ve three or four mo del s also . It 's the o nly wa y a dealer can survive. CN: Triump h riders are b ra nd lo yal, but in the last two years spares have be come almost non-e xi ste nt. WiII the settlement of the Meri den facto ry st ri ke make parts readily available again? . TT: T he Meriden sit ua tion, whereby th e fac tory that produc ed all the tw in cy lind er Triumphs was close d fo r 18 mon th s, de fin it el y c a use d m an y hardship s for both the deal er a nd th e o wne r . The fa ctory is now ba ck at work and under their contract wi th NVT t hey h a v e t o s u p p ly part s prior t o mo torcycles . Happily , I ca n say there are parts on the water right now co mi ng ove r for t he twin s. They 've ke pt t rack o f all th e b ack o rders and th ey are now being filled as we rec eive the shipmen ts. 10 CN : It seems that one of Trium p h's weaknesses wa s poor d istribution . Are there plans to correct this ? IT: We have a lot of pl an s fo r th e future. They dep end on sales and when we ca n make some of these models we are w orking on availa b le. As soon as we can attai n a volume to justify i t , we 're definitel y going to mak e cha nges to improve o ur distribu tion wi th better warehousing to su pport the dealer networ k i n a c o m p le te l in e of mo t o rcy cl es. CN: A lo t of p eo p le defin e th e Triumph as a classic mo t orcycle. pri ces st arted rising and the energy cri sis was ab o ut to happen and people were looking fo r a go od twin cylinder street bike they quit producing the 500 t win . A series of misjudgernents lik e that caused problems and I think that these are mod els that, under refined conditions, should come back and fill t he gap. A good 500 twin, provided we IT: If you lo o k back over t he yea rs in the 19 50's and ' 60 ' s when yo u wanted a b i g ge r machine you a lmost always th o ught o f Trium ph. The gu y down th e street had o ne. The Bonneville was what you wanted to mo ve up to. But now, d uring the last five years with motocross b ecoming so b ig and nothing in t hat line fro m Trium p h being co mp etit ive all the yo ung generation o f 18 and 19 year ol ds h ave n o incen t ive t o go Triump h as in the years I men ti on ed . T rium ph is no lo nge r a big th in g. And No rto n. No rto n is on e of the best kep t secr et s in th e motorcycle ind us try. It 's a goo d b ik e. What we've got to d o is ge t th e mys t ique b ack that t he old Bonneville had . It 's hard to do with one model. We de fin itely have t o get a (m odel) lin e and get some im age buildup around th e marque that the young bike riders go ing to the st reets now will look up to an d have t he d esire to bu y . CN : It see ms t o me that oftentimes wh at th e mark et needs is not wh at th e ma rk et ge ts . You ask for ap p les t o sell and yo u ge t o ra nges . .. TT : And everyo nce in aw h ile a lemo n . It 's a pe rsona l feeling, b ut I think there's a m arket in th e U .S. fo r a good 50 0 cc tw in and a 5 00 cc single di rt mach ine. I th ink there will always b e. The Eng lish we nt into it righ t wh en the d irt m arket rea lly started ; t he y had t he RSA 44 1 Victor and a 5 00 cc sing le an d just when t he market opene d up the y stop p ed producing th e bikes and took the m off the market. Just wh en gas are co mp et itively pri ced, has a definite market. There' s a defini t e mark et for th e Bon neville 75 0 twin as we ll as a larger machine. We 've got t o ge t into the sup erbike market . It wo uld be difficult t o c o m pe te wit h t h e J apan ese tech nology and pricing in the under 5 0 0 cc mar ket. O ur p lace , if we put a cc o n it , w ould be in t he 5 0 0 and up cat ego ry. CN: Your Top Gear ac cessory line ha s been on e of t he strongest points of Tr iu mp h. Do you see Top Gear's involvement becoming even stronger? IT: Very m u h so . Tom Cat es is in c ch arge of Top Gear no w an d it has become a p art o f t he sa les division. It's alway s been su rprisi ng t o me t hat when you lo o k back t he re was a ti me you could ge t sp eed eq uipme nt, ca ms , pipes, th e whole package o f what is no w ca fe sty le. Now yo u can ' t. We wa nt to get b a c k in t o t hat a n d the r el at ed accesso ries. In fact we 've j ust put in orders for a co uple of co m pa nies to supply us with so me cloth ing accesso ries t hat will be un ique t o th e T op Gear lin e. I b elieve that so me of th e items will be exclusive in the industry . These mov es will en hance the Top Gear franchise . Tom is aggre ssive in wh at he w an t s for Top Gear and has b een in th e fiel d for 20 years . He kn ow s what t he dealers need and , w ith rec o mmendatio ns from our district man agers based o n de aler input , we're d efini t ely go ing t o m ak e Top Gear o ne of THE top accessory o u tfits go ing. CN : Wi 11 th e Ric km an motorcycl e rem ain in the No rto n -Triump h line ? IT: I don't forsee us selling any m o re R ickrn an s o nce o ur stoc k of t hes e ma ch ines h as been so ld. Righ t no w we h a ve R i c km an s in stock and the maj o rity are the Mon tesa VR engi ne equipped model. They 're a superior machine, what with the Rickman frame and handling. Our marketing situation with Rickman is that they now supply only th e frame and some of the accessories. They no longer are in the complete motorcycle business. So, when these machines are sold , that will be it . ; We will have parts and everything to servi ce the machines we've so ld , but we will not sell complete motorcycles after that. CN: In the past, racing, and the publicity derived from it, did a lot to keep the Triumph name in the news and on buyers'minds. Is there to be a gre ater racing effort put forth in the future ? IT: I to t ally agree with your statement on racing. The m ystique of Triumph in past yea rs was which Triumph will win . Look back at some of th e cham pio ns we had-Gary Nix o n, Dick Mann, Gen e Rom ero. They all be came (AMA) Grand National Champio ns on British b ikes. We 're loo ki ng at a racing pro gram d own t he line t hat will be co m pe ti tive wit h wh at 's o ut there now . Har ley -Davidson really pu ts some mo ney and expertise into their effort and the J ap an ese are very th o ro ugh . I think we can be very co m petitive in the dir t and IT eve n ts.we will b e d o ing heavy racing in t he fu ture . C N : D e ve lop m e n t wor k o n the Cosw orth-Norton has b een go ing on fo r some tim e no w . Will we see it on the track soo n? IT: We are hoping th at , if eve ry t hing goes well with th e Form ula On e (a nicknam e referring t o t he Co sworth engine since it power s th e m ajorit y of F l race cars o n th e GP ci rcu it) t hat it will be race read y for Dayt on a '7 6. Th at s ho uld g i ve th e fo ur-st roke fan s so mething to chee r about. T he re 's a lot of w ork to be do ne b et ween now and th en , but D enni s P o or e, T ri u mp h -No rton's Ch airm an of th e Board. is an ou tstanding ind ividual an d wa nts to get the fou r-st ro kes goi ng again in a co m petit ive natu re. An d , I beli eve we will be co mpetitive . CN : Just what d oes th e de aler have to lo ok forw ard to ? IT: We have a lo t of thi ngs in the works that I wish were availab le rig ht n ow , b ut are not. Co nsequently we ar e at a po in t where we have to develop a ne t wo rk to abs o rb these bikes before we have th em. We ' re on a set -up ca mpaign righ t now.