One Brand Triumphs in 2009 Motorcycle Sales

You guessed it: Triumph Motorcycles, LTD. managed to stay on top of the heap while other bike manufacturers took a beating in the world wide economy of 2009 (relatively speaking).

While Triumph could still end up in the woods like everyone else, the independent British company rescued from obscurity by John Bloor reportedly has managed to post higher comparative sales percentages than the vast majority of their competitors and opened 39 new stores in the past year. As usual, the famed Bonneville and its various incarnations deserves a lot of the credit.

Also deserving of credit for the world's eldest motorcycle marque's incredible resurrection is the innovation and flat-out overkill of dreams pushed into reality like the Rocket III. Yours Truly happened upon this monstrosity by happen-stance after being directed away from various Harley Davidson and Victory dealer sites. A friend notified us of the current line-up from Triumph and after one look at the Rocket III the legacy American icon and it's recently birthed domestic competitor from Polaris was forgotten.

The Motor Company, with it's stores that seem to push branded T-Shirts, coffee mugs, and pet apparel as much as it's bikes, has nothing as outlandish or gigantically "American" as the Rocket III from Great Britain...or the newly minted 2010 Thunderbird - a name, by the way, which Ford had to lease from Triumph in order to apply it to their famous fifties automobile.

Bloor's little company has begun anew the great rivalry between American V-Twins, British parrallel twins and her in-line triple cruisers.

While the sport bikes Triumph produces have long been admirable and held their share of respect among the potential buyers from Italian and Japanese maker markets, the Motor Company's dominance of the cruiser world is suddenly teetering, with Victory chopping away at the die-hard V-Twin aspect and Triumph offering, as Monte Python writers would put it, "something completely different". The whirring of chains on internal spinning timing gears, the thunder of a superb acoustically tuned 1600 parallel twin, or the jaw-dropping speed and intimidating presence of the asymmetrical Rocket III...any of them will instantly turn heads from a rumbling V-Twin that has become a boring, common, and sometimes annoying lazy thump.

It's no wonder Triumph Motorcycles have done well.

They've blown our minds with their seemingly juxtaposed outer restraint and blisteringly unorthodox internals of the 2010 Thunderbird. They've taken the Rocket III to a new level with the Roadster by adding more horsepower (Why? The same reason they built a 2300cc triple to start with...because they refuse to accept boundaries) and the funnelling of those three ports into two symmetrical throaty pipes as if to say, "it's always had the fury, now here's the sound".

There's a point at which you've outdone yourself, and once you've achieved the mountain top, you must stay put or else descend.

Has Triumph reached that lofty height? Or can they conceivably ascend to higher planes yet? Or will they simply maintain their current status by having so far outstripped all others in imagination, quality, and price?

I can't think of any way they can do better...

But I'm breathless in anticipation of being pleasantly surprised by their next move.