Hinckley triumph moving production overseas

Pushed it n rode it said:

My partner is a southerner who thinks everything made came from the anus that is London, I do my best when something pops up on TV with the comment made in Coventry, Birmingham, Lancashire and all the other manufacturing parts of the country that wasn't made of wind and P..s like she thought it was. Maybe HS2 is going to be for a quick escape route out, not into London.

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I don't think very much is made in London
There's money made in London but that's about it!
Having spoken to quite a few Hinckley Bonneville owners I hadn't realised how many didn't know where their "British bike" was made!!
Quite astounding really

I did the factory tour year before last, and it was interesting, a lot of QA testing done on site and R&D. Obviously a assembly line with components from all over the globe.

Well I still don’t get it to be honest. MCN says that only 10% of the bikes were produced here anyway.

They sell more than that in Europe, is it’s actually very sensible indeed to make the things in Europe. Add to that that the R&D is still in Hinckley and the benefits of having an assembly facility close by the engineering dept are very well proven.

Unless, of course, they’re planning on moving the R&D out too....

There haven't been any huge problems with the new Bonneville line but there have been a few glitches that required recall.
Unfortunately, every one pointed back to the UK design work, not to the assembly work done in Thailand.
I say this because those who are critical of the Thai production very badly want to find fault. Some try to lay blame for these small glitches on the Thai workers, which is completey wrong.
I'm sure Triumph knows who has screwed up and who has done their job correctly.
It also occurs that given how these were a complete ground up redesign with a lot of electronic gadgetry included, it has gone pretty smoothly for them overall.
I suspect they are very happy with the UK design team and accept that there will always be some small issues to contend with.
Even Yamaha has to go through this with new models.
I bought the first year Thruxton 1200r despite dire warnings from an 865 owner that these new bikes would be nothing but junk for a few model years. He felt it was wiser to purchase a used 865 then blow it out to 1100 ccs for a mere $15 k US in modification costs.
Since the new Thruxton 1200r was 11 k US with full warranty , needed no power, handling or braking (Brembo Monobloc) mods,looks nicer and is about 60 pounds lighter than the old AC line, I did not follow his advice.
It's the best bike I've ever owned.


Glen

I agree with Glen, I brought 2016 a old stock Thruxton 1200S new and got $3,500 off the original price as well with the fairing kit fitted, yes it has had 3 recalls but for only minor things the last one to replace the side stand spring, another one to put a sticker on and one for a upgrade fueling download, I ride it hard all the time and as Glen also said its the best new bike I have ever owned, all I have done is a decat with a Meerkat Xpipe and open up the stock mufflers, this bike preforms great with lots of torque and handles pretty good, after 2 years of ownership and a lot of long distant riding and our usual Sundays rides we clock over 500kms every time its hasn't missed a beat, as well my 2013 865 Thruxton was the same with over 50K on it and its going the same if not better since I rolled it out of the show room floor, the more miles you do on these Triumphs the better they go, these motors are bullet prof and they are so reliable.

Ashley

I have no doubt how good or reliable the bikes are
The point is they have triumph written on the tank

My ag tractor has John Deere written on the hood but the damn thing was built in Mannheim, Germany. Some US and Canadian farmers hated the idea of a German built John Deere when they first arrived in North America, circa 1970.
The Mannheim John Deeres have turned out to be tougher than the US built ones, and the US models were very good.
Now the Mannheim machines bring a premium in the used market.


I guess if the " made in" label is all important to you, you won't buy a new Triumph.

I just want the thing for riding. Also, at the end of a day's ride, or in the winter when stored in the shop, I quite enjoy looking at it.

Glen

I read in latest RealClassic that John Bloor put £80 million of his own money
into Triumph before it started to make a profit. Shame about move to China,
but perhaps a bit of respect is due.

worntorn said:

My ag tractor has John Deere written on the hood but the damn thing was built in Mannheim, Germany. Some US and Canadian farmers hated the idea of a German built John Deere when they first arrived in North America, circa 1970.
The Mannheim John Deeres have turned out to be tougher than the US built ones, and the US models were very good.
Now the Mannheim machines bring a premium in the used market.


I guess if the " made in" label is all important to you, you won't buy a new Triumph.

I just want the thing for riding. Also, at the end of a day's ride, or in the winter when stored in the shop, I quite enjoy looking at it.

Glen

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We are talking about motorcycles here not tractors, motorcycles are bought for more than just utility reasons. I own a VW T5 and it's the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned, I like it a lot, but It's not a bike or something to treasure.
Triumphs should be made in the UK, end of story.

worntorn said:

My ag tractor has John Deere written on the hood but the damn thing was built in Mannheim, Germany. Some US and Canadian farmers hated the idea of a German built John Deere when they first arrived in North America, circa 1970.
The Mannheim John Deeres have turned out to be tougher than the US built ones, and the US models were very good.
Now the Mannheim machines bring a premium in the used market.


I guess if the " made in" label is all important to you, you won't buy a new Triumph.

I just want the thing for riding. Also, at the end of a day's ride, or in the winter when stored in the shop, I quite enjoy looking at it.

Glen

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It is very important to me that it's got a label saying made in the UK and it's made in Thailand

baz said:

It is very important to me that it's got a label saying made in the UK and it's made in Thailand

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Fair point Baz.
I would love to source and buy goods made in the U.K. but as you know our manufacturing capability is just not there for goods that the average consumer wants to buy. Add to that the reliability issues and quality issues (oil leaks etc) associated with British built bikes and you have products that the majority do not want to buy, especially when they can buy better and more reliable goods made elsewhere. My modern built mini has Union Jack emblems all over the car, including the rear light cluster but I am under no illusion that this is a car built outside of the U.K. - it is the smallest car made by BMW assembled throughout the EU.
The new Norton commandos were lovely machines but faced serious image issues through unreliability and quality control problems which led to many looking for built in the U.K. turning away and buying elsewhere. As has been said elsewhere on the forum, in order to make the 961 reliable required owners to make it illegal by removing the cat, replacing pipes, deleting o2 sensors, changing the fuel map - and still it was not right!
Built in the U.K. does not always equate to quality products and the reputation for U.K. built bikes is poor when talking to motorcyclists who are not Norton or Triumph(Classic) riders.
John

John, Triumph already have a factory in England that produces bikes of good quality (as good as the others at any rate)... so most of your points about manufacturing ability and leaky old ‘pre Bloor’ Triumphs just aren’t valid to this particular discussion.

And the majority of Minis are still made in Oxford. If BMW ever close that plant then the same level of disgust at using Union flag emblems would be correct. But currently, with their huge factory in Cowley, Oxford, churning them out, they earn the right to use the flag!

Whatever we think about machines made in China, there appears to be an inevitability to Chinese made bikes appearing in a showroom near you....
I am not promoting Chineses made as I have the same concern as many others in regard to quality but especially to working conditions and human rights abuse....
Just saying

From Bike magazine April 20



Edit: further in Bike it is reported that Triumph have forged a deal with Indian company Bajaj to produce smaller capacity “Triumphs” to target Indian and Indonesian markets. Bloors comment translates to “we want to shift a lot of small bikes but they won’t be pants”

Fast Eddie said:

John, Triumph already have a factory in England that produces bikes of good quality (as good as the others at any rate)... so most of your points about manufacturing ability and leaky old ‘pre Bloor’ Triumphs just aren’t valid to this particular discussion.

And the majority of Minis are still made in Oxford. If BMW ever close that plant then the same level of disgust at using Union flag emblems would be correct. But currently, with their huge factory in Cowley, Oxford, churning them out, they earn the right to use the flag!

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Nigel
I know about the two factories you mention - my two triumphs are one from Thailand and one from U.K. - both are the same quality.
My point is that U.K. made does not carry the same kudos as people think it does for the reasons I stated - prior manufacture damaged the reputation of many companies in the U.K. and once lost it is hard to regain and the same claims being made against Chinese made could apply to U.K. made in some circumstances - out of choice I would avoid goods from China simply on the human rights aspects.
BTW my mini has a plate stating that it was assembled in Belgium!

Well, now you’ve mentioned the kudos of Britishness...

This is actually my main point / issue (I have no issue at all with the bikes themselves)...

If Britishness has no value, then drop the British branding. Simple!

If Britishness does have value, and a company wishes to exploit it, they should at least have the decency to honour it. Equally simple!

Exploiting Britishness in their marketing and branding, whilst blatantly becoming an exclusively Far Eastern manufacturer is just wrong.

Agreed!

When I worked in both Auto makers and later an Auto supplier, where you make the part has no effect to the Automaker, we had weekly visits from OEM's and the topics covered always included 'Why are your prices not the same as the Chinese'. It was drip drip at first but then became a waterfall. The cost base is too high in the UK for manufacturing unless you invest huge sums in automation to drive the labour hours out, that gives its own issues. Automate too much and it becomes very volume sensitive and new model tooling costs are higher.

If you put a dog in a barn it dosent become a horse does it!!

It's a similar thing to people putting a BSA badge on a Yamaha it's still a Yamaha
Each to their own I guess!
I spoke with a Hinckley Bonneville owner two days ago , he said he couldn't care less where his bike was built
Cheers

baz said:

It is very important to me that it's got a label saying made in the UK and it's made in Thailand

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I've looked all over mine for a made in UK label, haven't found one.
Where is the Made in UK label located?

Glen

trident sam said:

We are talking about motorcycles here not tractors, motorcycles are bought for more than just utility reasons. I own a VW T5 and it's the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned, I like it a lot, but It's not a bike or something to treasure.
Triumphs should be made in the UK, end of story.

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Farmers are as fervent about tractors as we are about motorcycles. They might even be more opinionated. Maybe that comes with a large investment in a hunk of iron. A new 100 HP JDtractor is about $125,000 .
Lots of Brand Religion there too.

The very worst are the machine tool forums, you can almost see the spit flying onto the keyboard when the Asian brands are in discussion.

I've seen many threads locked on a Welding forum over hatred of Asian made Tig welders. And the hatred does not come from those using them, it comes from Welders who have never owned or used an Asian brand. The ironic thing is that the guts of their US brand Miller, Lincoln etc is made in China. Only the tin box with its flag decal is US made.

Thankfully, this has been a civil discussion( so far)!



Glen