It is not yet official, but it seems that on June 27 in London Triumph will pull the curtain off the long-awaited new single-cylinder, the first result of the collaboration that the British have entered into with the Indian giant Bajaj.
It is now more than ten years since the first rumor that Triumph is working on a small single-cylinder. After a sketch of a new Triumph 250cc single-cylinder had been circulating on the internet for several years, the arrival was confirmed in early 2013 by Rudhy Siswanto, president of PT Global Motorcycle Trading, importer of Triumph in Indonesia.
Half a year later, the little Triumph was spotted during testing near Triumph’s test facility in the south of Spain, suggesting that the single-cylinder would also be marketed in Europe.
Triumph had only announced the arrival of a water-cooled 250cc single cylinder, initially only for the Indian and Asian markets. Before the end of 2013, however, Triumph single cylinders were spotted again, this time in addition to the naked, which closely resembles the Street Triple, a faired version à la the Daytona.
After that, however, it became quiet, the launch of the single cylinders failed, the project disappeared into the trash, to be revived in 2017 in a completely different form. In August 2017, Triumph announced a partnership with Bajaj motor.
Just like KTM, Triumph’s underlying idea had been to benefit from Bajaj’s production facilities in India on the one hand and to have access to the huge Bajaj network in India and Asia on the other. Unlike KTM, in which Bajaj had acquired a 49% share, Triumph was a non-equity partnership.
After that it was quiet again for a while, until at the beginning of last year another little Triumph was spotted during test work. However, the little Street Triple à la the 390 DUKE had made way for a more classic-looking model, a ‘little A2’ variant of the Street Twin. But then remarkably enough with upside down front fork.
Reportedly, the A2-Triumph would be put on the market in 2023, which has now been confirmed by Bajaj’s big boss Rajiv Bajaj in an interview with the TV channel CNBC-TV18. “The launch will be by the end of June,” said Rajiv. “Maybe specifically on Tuesday 27th June in London. It will be a global launch organized by Triumph. I don’t have the exact information, but the launch could well be.”
In terms of engine availability, Bajaj also said that – at least in India – they will arrive at dealers immediately after launch. “We should have the engine on the market in the second quarter of this financial year.”
Also, the Bajaj CEO confirmed that more than one model is being worked on. “Obviously more than one product is in development. All I can say is if all goes well more than one product will be launched in the second quarter.”
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.