Biking days out don’t come much better
Make a date with Triumph’s visitor experience – you’ll love it
There are many reasons why Britain’s leading bike manufacturer, Triumph, are making the news: their bikes feature in the new James Bond film and they’ve just unveiled the new Tiger 900 while their engines are proving a big hit in Moto2.
But one of the best and most accessible reasons of all is the huge success of the Triumph Visitor Experience and accompanying Factory Tour, which gives fans not just a great day out but also a fascinating insight into the brand. Opened by HRH the Duke of Cambridge in February 2018 and recently celebrating its 100,000th visitor, the Experience is essentially a motorcycle museum but with added modern features which give an insight into the development and creation of Triumph’s bikes.
It’s beautifully and impressively done, too. Located in the right-hand corner of the huge ‘Factory 2’, which also includes Triumph’s head offices, in Hinckley, Leicestershire, there’s a sense of occasion from the moment you arrive. The dedicated car park is landscaped, bold ‘Triumph Visitor Experience’ signage marks the entrance and ‘The Avenue of Legends’, the path leading to the entrance is marked, Hollywood Boulevard style, with the names of Triumph greats such as Gary Nixon and Peter Hickman.
Inside, the experience is split over two levels. On the right there’s the impressive and spacious ‘Triumph 1902 Café’, decorated with racks of Triumph engines and memorabilia and where, before or after your tour, you can refuel on snacks and barista-style coffee. There’s also a Triumph store where you can buy Triumph clothing and accessories.
While on the left, after passing the special, Union Flag-painted fuel tank created to commemorate Prince William’s visit, and under the suspended 1959 Bonneville and modern Speed Triple, two of the stand-out bikes of the Triumph story, you enter the main hall. Here you can amble past dozens of immaculately restored (by renown
‘A must for any bike fan, there’s nothing else like it’
Triumph collector, Dick Shepherd) bikes which, in chronological order and supported by storyboards and memorabilia, tell the whole Triumph story from 1902 to date.
There’s the 1936 Speed Twin and 1950s Thunderbird, Tiger and Trident then the move into the modern Hinckley era exemplified by the first Daytona, Speed Triple and T595.
Then it gets sophisticated. Different zones celebrate different aspects: a ‘Performance’ area including the ‘Texas Ceegar’ landspeed record streamliner and Moto2. ‘Icons’ includes Mission Impossible II’s Speed Triple and Steve McQueen/The Great Escape’s legendary TR6. While a temporary display, at the time of our visit chronicling the evolution of ‘the Scrambler’, explores different themes to keep the whole experience fresh.
It’s much more than ‘just’ a museum, too – as Triumph are keen to emphasise. Upstairs (there’s a lift) the ‘Experience’ takes you on a journey through the Triumph design and manufacturing process. There’s a disassembled and painstakingly displayed Speed Triple. A prototype Rocket III is used to explain the development process. Swathes of painted tanks show the expertise and variety of Triumph’s paint shop. CAD designs and CNC raw parts show Triumph’s impressive engineering processes at their best.
While the cherry on top is undoubtedly the Factory Tour itself. Although the ‘Experience’/ museum is free to enter, the Factory Tour requires booking online and costs £20 – but is absolutely worth it. This takes small parties at designated times on a fully-guided tour of Factory 2 and takes you from concept to manufacturing to, for me, best of all – final assembly, where the bikes are brought together by Triumph’s skilled assembly technicians on the production lines.
You can even buy a ‘Full Works’ package for £225 which gives a party of four a private, fully-guided version of all the above complete with breakfast, dedicated VIN plate key ring and a copy of Triumph: The Art of the Motorcycle personally signed by company CEO Nick Bloor, all for £225.
But whether you just do the free Experience, add on the Factory Tour or go for The Full Works, a Triumph visit is a unique ‘must’ for any Brit bike fan – there’s literally nothing else like it.