The Pre-1941 Triumph Motor Cycle Pages

Triumph's 1905 Motor Cycle

For 1905 Triumph had a machine with an engine in the 'right place' at the joining of the frame where the pedal cranks of a cycle were mounted, and the name of TRIUMPH was cast into the crankcase.
The engine wouldn't have been designed by Mauritz Schulte, as some books would have you believe, nor even anyone else at the Triumph Works.
The casting of crankcases requires large, expensive foundry facilities, which Triumph didn't have, and never did. The crankcases and cylinders were common with at least three other manufacturers' machines, with direct interchangeability of parts possible. So Triumph would simply have ordered sufficient quantity of the castings that their name was cast into the crankcases, or they paid extra for that marking. However, it did put the name of Triumph on a motor cycle and they made their 'mark' on the growing motor cycle industry in Britain, and compared with the earlier machines I think that you'll agree that the machine was very smart.

However, Triumph did still copy other manufacturers' ideas and their 1905 machine used a twin front down-tube frame as had Rover, earlier. (The tubes were 'in tandem' - one behind the other.)
However, the frame proved not to be a good idea and had a tendency to break. So a change was made to a more conventional single down-tube frame.