Bike of the day: Triumph 250 TWN goes under the hammer at Coys auction

This 1952 Triumph 250 TWN is set to go up for auction this month with Coys at the Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show for an estimated £4000- to £6000. 

Here’s what we know so far…

In 1886, Siegfried Bettmann founded the Triumph bicycle factory in Coventry, England, and in 1896 he founded a second bicycle factory in his native Nuremberg, Germany, under the same Triumph name. Both factories branched out into making motorcycles: the Coventry factory in 1902 and the Nuremberg factory in 1903. In its early decades the Nuremberg factory produced models with the same 499 cc and 545 cc four-stroke engines as its sister plant in Coventry. Confusion between motorcycles produced by the Coventry and Nuremberg Triumph companies led to the latter’s products being renamed “Orial” for certain export markets.

However, in the 1920s there was already an Orial motorcycle maker in Lyon, France, so the Nuremberg motorcycles were renamed again as “TWN”, standing for Triumph Werke Nürnberg. After 1913 the English and German factories diverged, with the Nuremberg works making motorcycles with 248 cc and 269 cc two-stroke engines.

After the Second World War, Triumph made successful models including the 200 cc Cornet split single two-stroke and the split-single 1 cylinder 350 cc Boss. A split single has one “divided” cylinder (with 2 bores) but only one common combustion chamber and spark plug. Triumph/TWN’s production of split singles began with the BD250 in 1939 designed by Otto Rieze. In 1956 Max Grundig took over the Nuremberg Company, merged it with his Adlermotorcycle and typewriter business and terminated motorcycle production under the Triumph and TWN names.

This very original and largely unmolested Triumph 250 is one of the last of the earlier and more desirable ‘Triumph Werke Nurnburg’ (TWN) Triumphs produced in Nurnburg A.G. Truly a collector’s piece, this 250 TWN has had the benefit of being in its current ownership for almost 20 years.