Triumph motorcycles of the Wehrmacht

[Botty]

Just read an interesting article in motorcycle sport and leisure (of all things) on the motorcycles of the wehrmacht. Interestingly it says that a factory in Nuremburg built 12,000 250cc Triumphs under licence for use by the German army during the war. Anyone know which models they were?

[Jim]

German Triumph was a B200 (twn).
It was built between 1936 to 1937.
They were built for the Civilian market but no doubt a few ended up being requisitioned.
I hope this helps

[jimmyvonk]

Triumph Werk Nuremburg (TWN) was originally started by the founders of Triumph Cycles in England (the founders were from Nuremburg) around 1888.

The 2 companied became seperate entities in 1913.

Before the war they had a large range of models in both 2 and 4 stroke engines.

According to the Swiss owners club website, wartime production (39-45) was of only 2 models, the B125 and the BD250
Actual numbers produced were small in comparison to say DKW, as most of the TWN works was given over to other war production.
The BD250 is interesting in being a 250 cc 2 stroke with 2 pistons... in as far as I remember a connected cylinder. (strange over complicated design)

See here for BD250 details
http://www.autogallery.org.ru/trbd250w.htm

Can't find any pics at the moment of the B125, probably looks like most other period german 125.. DKW rt 2125 etc.

As Jim said, the WH conscripted near enough anything with an engine during the war so pre war civilian models are often seen in WH service.
I think there is a picture of a B200 in Horst Heinricksons book which may be why it came to mind to Jim.

I think TWN were still producing well into the 50's.

[pzrwest]

I was surprized to see that they did use Triumph motorcycles. In the movie The Great Escape with Steve McQueen he is riding a Triumph and I though man are they dumb using a Triumph. But when i read John Angolia's 3rd volume on the german army uniforms and equiptment.... low and behold there was pics of the Triumph motorcycles I do recommend the 3 volume set cover practically every piece of equiptment and uniform of the army. And most with measurements

[jimmyvonk]

Different Triumph.

By WW2 there was no longer a connection between Triumph England and Triumph Germany.
I have seen pictures of the Germans using captured Brit bikes from Dunkerque but it's not the norm. (They soon ran out of parts for captured Brit bikes I'm sure!)

The Great Escape bike is a 1961 Triumph TR6 Trophy, like most films they got the bike to do the stunt, tuned and adjusted it to make it able to do the stunt, then thaught about making it look correct afterwards - I challenge anyone to jump that fence on a real WW2 German krad....

[daveydachs]

Hmmm, must fit nitrous kit to KS750

[jimmyvonk]

Hmmm, must fit nitrous kit to KS750

If you do it I'll build all your DKW engines for you...