full size
Triumph has a fantastic guided tour of their factory. You walk around, possibly meet some of the employees, learn all kinds of things. For example, when I order parts for my bike, I have to give the last 6 digits of my vehicle identification number (VIN). What I did not realize is that that number is the number of bikes since they went back into production about 1990. My number is 489696, or 489,696. The current bikes are in the 950,000 range. That means they will be adding another digit soon. I suspect there will be a big celebration when they hit their one millionth bike.
I planned my visit so that I would tour the factory during their production day. Great idea, IF there were any production happening. It turns out they had just installed new software to the production floor and it had, amazingly, a glitch. For this reason there were NO bikes on the floor. Also no workers, as there was nothing for them to do. Even with no bikes, and no work, it was a fairly interesting one and a half hour tour, but it would have been a heck of a lot better with bikes, and tools and machinery running.
There were a few things running, such as crankshaft machining. I had not realized, but with these crankshafts, they forge them in somewhat of a line, then heat them up and twist them so that each cylinder axis is where it belongs. Seems weird, but having been around manufacturing, I understand the most obvious solution to a problem is not always the best.
There is a museum outside of the tour. This is good because you cannot take photos during the tour. Unfortunately there are not a lot of unusual or rare bikes in the museum. That isn't really an issue though, as if you take the tour you get a discount for the National Motorcycle Museum a bit down the road. Now, if you want to see rare and unusual bikes, THAT is the place to go.
Of course, ther eare a few rare bikes, including one of the bikes used in the movie The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. -
The bike ridden by Steve McQueen in the great escape. 
full size
Great Wall Art 
full size
