Norton Villiers triumph

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norton Villiers triumph
legal form
founding 1972
resolution 1978
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Andover + Meriden + Small Heath ( Birmingham ) + Wolverhampton , United Kingdom
management Dennis Poore
Branch Motorcycle manufacturer

Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) was a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Andover , Meriden , Small Heath ( Birmingham ) and Wolverhampton from 1972 to 1978 . The company was founded by the British government at the time to successfully pool the activities of the ailing British motorcycle industry, but ended up unsuccessful.

formation

Historic shares of Norton Villiers Triumph Limited from 1973

Triumph had belonged to the BSA group since 1951 , but in mid-1972 it ran into serious economic difficulties. The policy of the British government at the time included bailing out strategic industries with taxpayers' money, and since the BSA group had won the Queen's Awards for Export a few years earlier , this company seemed suitable for financial support. The conservative government under Edward Heath decided to take on the guarantee for this company, but on the condition that it would join forces with the Norton-Villiers group, which was also in financial difficulties , in order to better withstand competition from Japan .

The merged company was established in 1972/1973, with Manganese Bronze selling motorcycle production from Norton-Villiers and receiving the parts of the BSA group that had nothing to do with motorcycle manufacturing. These were mainly carbodies that produced the typical, black London taxi Austin FX4 . Since BSA was both a failed company and a brand known only in the UK (in the US the models were sold as "Triumph"), the new conglomerate Norton Villiers was called Triumph . This comprised the remnants of the entire, once glorious British motorcycle industry, the decline of which was lamented by competition from cars and the increasing market share of the Japanese motorcycle industry.

NVT inherited four motorcycle factories - Small Heath (ex BSA), Andover and Wolverhampton (ex Norton) and Meriden (ex Triumph). While Meriden was the most modern of the four factories, the workers there were also the most likely to strike and the least productive. Dennis Poore , the BSA manager of Norton-Villiers, became managing director of the NVT. Because he owned shares in Norton-Villiers and because the engineering skills were required, he was also the owner and director of Maganese Bronze.

Products

NVT Commander with rotary engine .

Since there was still no money for new developments, the new company could only bring out further developments of existing products, in particular the well-known Norton Commando . From March 1973, an 828 cc version of their parallel twin, which was almost overdeveloped at the time, was available for the Roadster , the Hi Rider and the Interstate . Later it NVT the moped NVT Easy Rider , including a moped version with pedals forth as well as the NVT Rambler cm³ with 125 and 175th The latter had Yamaha engines and instruments in British monolever frames and forks, brakes and wheel parts from three different Italian manufacturers. The NVT Rambler later became the BSA Tracker .

The limited financial resources that were ultimately available for engine development had to be concentrated on a single project. It was believed that the Japanese had taken the motorcycle market one step further, so they wanted to keep up and identified two products that could be further developed, both from BSA:

It was assumed that the market for motorcycles, which were used for everyday commute, was slowly dying, so the Wankel engine was chosen. When Peter Williams won the Isle of Man TT Formula 750 race in 1973 and Mick Grant finished second for the Norton racing team in the same year, management decided to install the new engine in a new Norton frame. However, the manufacturing structure from the old Norton days no longer existed as the Andover plant had been closed after being occupied by workers. At the same time, the Conservative government of Edward Heath was re-elected and the “three-day week” was suspended until June 1974 when the Labor government took over from Harold Wilson .

NVT continued its program of plant closings and decided to combine production in Wolverhampton and Small Heath. Due to an inadequate information policy, there was then a factory occupation in Meriden, where parts were still being manufactured for other production sites. As a result, the Small Heath factory had to close. After the election of the Labor government in 1974, the Meriden Workers' Co-operative was founded, whose only customer was NVT with its production of the 750 cc models Triumph Bonneville T140V and Triumph Tiger TR7V. After changes in US legislation forced NVT to move all brake actuation to the right side of the machine, they reduced the number of models to five: two Norton Commando, the Triumph Bonneville T140V, the Triumph Tiger TR7RV and the Triumph Trident T160. Both Norton, the T140 and T160 got electric starters, a rear disc brake, a rocker switch on the left and a footbrake pedal on the right. Unlike other contemporary motorcycles, the Norton and Triumph also kept their kick starters. The electric starter on the Norton models could at best be seen as a support for the starting process.

Collapse and closure

In July 1975, the new Industry Secretary Eric Varley reclaimed a £ 4 million loan from NVT and refused to confirm the company's export credits. As a result, NVT fell into bankruptcy and staff at the various locations were released. Society was split up for closure. Ironically, the Meriden plant survived thanks to a large government loan from Varley's predecessor, Tony Benn , who had the Triumph Bonneville built through a workers' cooperative. The Wolverhampton plant closed on October 13, 1975, with 1,600 jobs being lost.

The Norton Wankel project was sold to a private company by the liquidator. Over the next 15 years, poorly constructed Norton Wankel models appeared again and again, which could hardly be sold. Wolverhampton no longer had an interesting product and you only heard of factory occupations by workers, a renewed Commando model called Norton '76 and a 500 cc two-cylinder engine based on the Wulf concept. After Wolverhampton was closed from spare parts after the last commandos were built, workers took the former Tong Castle gates and rebuilt them at the former Marston factory .

NVT was finally disbanded in 1978. Nevertheless, there are still motorcycles with the name "Triumph", because in 1977 the naming rights were sold to the workers' cooperative in Meriden. After their bankruptcy in 1983, the naming rights were sold to a new Triumph Motorcycles Ltd in Hinckley . Dennis Poore became managing director of Maganese Bronze and died in 1987.

Even today there are enthusiasts and collectors of the models in Germany.

Comments and individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b HNA market: love is for English motorcycles. In: hna.de. Accessed on June 26, 2016 : "Triumph held out a little longer and merged with the last remaining British motorcycle brand Norton in the Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) group."
  2. ↑ Due to miners' strikes, coal production in the United Kingdom was so severely restricted that the government could only guarantee industrial companies sufficient electricity supplies for three consecutive days a week. The companies had to announce which three days of the week they wanted to produce.
  3. ↑ British motorcycles had the footbrake pedal on the left, i.e. on the side on which the sidecar was connected. Since the sidecars also had a foot brake pedal for their bikes, the rear wheel of the motorcycle and the sidecar wheel could be braked by pressing the pedals together with one foot.
  4. ^ In letter - October 13th . Express and Star. Retrieved December 3, 2014.