German-made Triumph Hit At Doc’s Inaugural Vintage Show

WATERBURY, CT – The badge on the gas tank bore the word “Triumph,” but the “swoosh” was above the name, not below. It swept from to the top of the “T” to the “h” and not from the bottom of the “r” as is usually seen. The shift lever was on the left, too, when it should have been on the right on such a vintage British model. But stamped into the engine were the words “Triumph Werks” and “Nurnberg A.G.”

A Triumph made in Germany? How could that be seeing as how Triumph is an iconic British brand?

Jacob Springs’ Triumph, a 1955 BDG 250 SL model, certainly attracted a lot of attention today at the first-ever vintage motorcycle show staged by Doc’s Motorcycle Parts. He brought it from his home in Rehobeth, MA and spent much of the day answering questions.

“This is a German Triumph,” he confirmed. It seems Siegfried Bettman, who founded the Triumph bicycle brand in Coventry, England in 1886, started a second company in his native Nuremberg, Germany in 1896 using the same name. The English company began making motorcycles in 1902 with the German firm following suit in 1903.

Jacob Springs and his 1955 Triumph BDG 250 SL

The German company specialized in bike with smaller engines. Springs’ Triumph has a 250cc, two-stroke engine with one spark plug driving two pistons. “It’s just unique,” Springs said. “I’m still trying to research it.”

Springs has only owned the bike for six months, paying $6,200 after spotting it on Craigslist. “I was looking for something none of my friends had. I found it in somebody’s living room on Martha’s Vineyard.”

Besides having the shifter on the left, the Triumph also has another foot-operated device in front of the foot peg – a a small tab that’s a “quick neutral.”

While Springs’ Triumph was the only one in the show made in Germany, there was also a British-made Triumph owned by Jim Carbone of Torrington, CT. It began as a 1970 Trophy but has been bobbed, stretched four inches, seen its 650cc motor punched out to 750cc, and turned into a hard tail.

Jim Carbone and his 1970 Triumph bobber

Carbone’s owned the Triumph for five years.

Another sparkling example of yesterday year belonged to Bill Ogonowski of Terryville, CT – a 1977 Harley-Davidson Sportster made when AMF owned the company.

Ogonowski bought the Sportster in Sept. 1978.  “I bought it with 1,400 miles from a guy I went to high school with who needed the money to buy a house, a down payment on a house,” he recalled. “When I first got it, I was putting a lot of miles on it.” Work and a lack of leisure time prevents him from riding it more now.

Bill Ogonowski and his 1977 Harley-Davidson Sportster

“Some people don’t like Sportsters, but it suits me,” Ogonowski said. “People tell me it’s well preserved, but I went through it about 20 years ago.”

The “newest” bike in the show had to be a 1979 Yamaha flat tracker owned by Bill Newell of Torrington. “I just got done building it last night,” he said. He bought the bike last fall. “I built half of it. I bought it together but I took it apart and made it correct.”

Bill Newell and his 1979 Yamaha flat tracker

For an inaugural event, the show at Doc’s did well in both attracting entries and spectators. “Overall, I’m happy with it,” said Mike “Mike Doc” D’Occhio of Doc’s Motorcycle Parts. He noted spectators got to see “a lot of bike you’re not going to see everybody on at the your average bike show or bike night.”

Such as a German-made Triumph.