SV650.org - SV650 & Gladius 650 Forum - Today I have mostly been...

...on a tour of the Triumph factory at Hinckley:smt041

Went with a bunch of peeps from the 675 site.

The derision I had to endure in the office, because I was going on the bike and it was cold and raining:roll: Including from the fairest of fairweather bikers, who shall remain unidentified:D 's obvious innit - visit a Triumph motorcycle factory, turn up on a Triumph motorcycle.

Met Andy S (from the 675 site) at J1 M54, onto the M6 - 50 limit and specs cameras but they were backward facing;) but lanes so narrow that we couldna get past. Like that to Wolverhampton, then heavy traffic to just past the M42, next 15/20 miles to the M69 well we had to filter for England. First time I've done it on a motorway.

Got there just in time. Went into their video room for a short vid about Triumph history, then onto the factory floor with ear defenders with radio receiver so we could hear Steven, our guide. First impression - it's so clean that you could eat your dinner off of the floor. I mean, spotless. No oily rags, no piles of empty boxes, no junk, everything has its place.

Started in the machine shop, where they machine odd looking lumps of metal into precision engine components, and then powder coat them. It's really awesome, all these high tech machine tools. Fantastic results - they have some on display, a typical unmachined camshaft that vaguely might be something, and the intermediate stges, and then the finished product complete with oil holes and everything:cool: The factory output is limited by what they can machine. The shop is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Machining engine bits doesn't sound that exciting, but the transformation is amazing:cool: and then they quality check them with laser guides, and anything less than perfect goes in the reject pile.

And then we went into the production area. This is just fantastic, forkies bring the machined parts from the machine shop into the production line. They have two engine lines. Why only two? It's because they use sequential production, ie they manufacture different engines in sequence on the same line. So we saw Thunderbird, Rocket, Striple and 1050 engines being assembled, all on the same line. Watching the technicians building these was fantastic. And then the engines go into the frames, and bit by bit all the parts are added on, until it finishes in the dyno area where they do a short test of the bike. Guide Steven told us everything that was going on, I didn't want it to end.

They had thousands of bikes in boxes on pallets, stacked 7 high - they are gearing up for spring sales. The factory was very busy, no sign of Triumph bikles not selling. Steven put this down to Triumph building excellent quality bikes (I have to agree:D) with targeted products (twins and triples) and top notch marketing.

What a fantastic afternoon. It costs £10, you have to book ages in advance. It's well worth it:thumbsup: I wish we could have seen the R&D department!!!

Cold and miserable ride home on the A5 from Hinckley but I'm so on a high from the factory that I've all but forgotten that my fingies near fell off;)