The Triumph 250cc Single-Cylinder That Never Was
There's a huge boom in the international market for 250 to 300cc sportsbikes and naked-bikes at the moment, thanks to demand Southeast Asia where import duties and luxury taxes make bigger motorcycles all but unobtainable.Triumph was keen to get in on the action, and virtually completed development of its 250cc single-cylinder machines – both faired and naked-bike versions – before putting the whole project on ice just months before the motorcycles' planned debuts.
Triumph even showed concept drawings, and prototypes were spied testing. Eventually, the emergence of machines like Yamaha's twin-cylinder YZF-R25 and later the YZF-R3 and rival single-cylinder machines including the Kawasaki Ninja 250SL and the Honda CBR300R meant that Triumph's motorcycles were already starting to look outdated before launch.
It's also not clear if the huge Indian factory intended to build the 250cc class motorcycles in numbers was on schedule to be up and running. Rumors are that Triumph has a brand new ultra modern factory with nothing to do.Tag: Triumph 250cc Single-Cylinder Sportsbike Naked-Bike
