Originally Posted by Mickey D

I can never keep the big show straight ... Milan/Cologne ... I can never remember ... I thought it was Munich? If I lived in Europe I'd pop over and check it out. We have nothing even close to that show and your BMF show is 10 times better than our annual Cycle World show. (I attended BMF in '03)

I should have specified US market with my "in the toilet" comment. But I'm really surprised at Triumph's numbers in the UK, I knew they were claiming good numbers but didn't realize they were breaking records. Can Triumph survive on the UK market alone? Funny, the old Meriden BSA group did the same thing right before they folded in the late 70's "... oh, things are going smashingly chaps" then they grabbed all the money and slipped out the back door and left it with the receivers. (UK taxpayers)

How are they doing world wide I wonder? Germany have always been big Triumph buyers (at one point, Triumph's #1 customer) Any figures on Triumph sales in Germany the last year? The US dealers I know are not happy with Triumph in general. Neither in my area are wild about the Rocket lll or Thunderbird ... but they do admit selling a few 'Birds at least.

The UK handled the market crash/bank meltdown with far more intelligence than the US and your recovery reflects this. (Nationalization of certain banks and other policies the US did NOT do) Since you have no auto industry (apart from F-1 !!), you didn't have to worry about putting out of work 250,000 Auto workers and the thousands of ancillary industries that support the industry.

But the worst of this may be yet to come .... Still lots of fiddling behind the scenes from what I can tell.

No question the OEM's are looking at China and India, and too right, the US market is presently dead. No credit available for younger riders, Insurance too high, prices WAY up for everything.

But the US still can figure big in Triumph's future if things ever do turn around. But the Baby Boomers are getting old and there is really no next generation to replace them in any where close to Boomer numbers.

While its good news that Triumph sales are booming the UK I seriously doubt Triumph can survive on the tiny UK market alone. France have 5 times the number of bikes on the road the UK do. Germany and Italy show more bikes sales than the UK.

Triumph claim to have only have 2% of the US market. When sales in the US pick up again the US could easily be the number one market for Triumph products.

Triumph have done a poor job with their dealers in the US, but at least they are still advertising and the bikes are more well known than ever and very highly regarded. Getting Americans to actually BUY is the trick.

Industry stats for the US show the Adventure/Dual Sport segment one the few areas where sales are not totally dead. So good move for Triumph. I hope they handle it well and hope they can take back a piece of BMW's sales in the Adventure class.