When Triumph were designing the Rocket three at a meeting a new inline engine was proposed The capacity had not been finalised. Mr Bloor looks at them and asks what is the biggest bike in production, which from memory was a Honda cruiser of 1800cc..designers were thinking of 1900cc. Bloor asks what would be absolute maximum we could go- about 2500cc - “ well..do that then”. Another time he was being bullshitted by a “ demographic survey” that had cost a lot of money, he was being told that the market was driven by thirty- forty somethings- “ I’ve got a factory full of thirty somethings- have a show of hands in the canteen” Lots of the colour schemes have been chosen by the staff or suggested by the paint shop ( the Tiger stripe tiger was one..) . I told the technical staff that we had a lot of 595s/ Sprints etc coming in with lose battery’s - the strap went over the over the battery allowing it to rock from side to side which worked the terminal lose- I suggested putting the strap the other way to stop this. Got a call to say that in 600 bikes time my strap would be standard fit across the range…didn’t give me a penny
. Unlike Edward Turners day- Triumph always asked us what we thought - tech guys were very much if it works we will do it.
Seems he had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted , and how to go about things ...... just best not to disagree with him , maybe ... ! ...
Being in charge of a large house building company gives you a good grounding in any business venture you decide to participate in , whether it`s making motorcycles , or making washing machines , I guess ........
Although Edward Turner did have a reputation of being difficult to communicate with ( to the extent of very few people daring to question his decisions at all ) , he did have an inbuilt ability to understand what appealed to young motorcyclists , witnessed by his re invention of the Triumph singles range in the mid `thirties , re naming them Tiger 70 ; 80 ; and 90 , to reflect their top speeds ........ and the success of his Triumph twins , especially over in the USA , during the `fifties and `sixties .........
To most enthusiasts , a Triumph was a motorcycle designed and built by Edward Turner at his factory in Coventry ...... and that was that ........
An interesting insight into his personality was a story told by Bert Hopwood ....... There had never been much in the way of industrial strife at Meriden , but there was a period when the workforce were becoming increasingly uneasy about some management decisions that were being taken ......
During all his time at Meriden , Turner had never once met the Union shop stewards , and obviously they had never had any direct dealings with him .......
In an effort to try to head off any possible confrontation , Hopwood suggested a meeting between Turner and the Union shop stewards , which surprisingly , Turner agreed to ......
Both sides started off with feelings of suspicion toward each other ....... but Turner soon got into his groove , talking passionately about the thing which was dearest to his heart ( ie The Triumph Engineering Company Limited ) , and everyone left the meeting with all their fears allayed .......
You see , he could do it if he tried .........
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