A completely free celebration of British two-wheeled heritage and achievement that’s about to become your latest excuse for a rideout. And we’ve created four of them…

Triumph has invested more than £4 million in its new Visitor Experience - but it’s totally free to view

Great Britain isn't just an incredible place to ride, but its wealth of two-wheeled heritage and engineering expertise makes it a fantastic land to design, develop and build bikes too. That’s shown in the fact that Britain’s biggest and best-known motorcycle manufacturer is enjoying a rush of success like never before. Triumph has had a lot to celebrate in 2017. The past year has seen the release of the fastest-selling model in the firm’s history, the Bonneville Bobber. Such popularity has helped spur the firm on to an all-time annual sales record of more than 63,000 bikes — a scale greater than at any point in Triumph’s past, even going right back to its motorcycling origins in 1902.

And that growth doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. This year Triumph signed a partnership with Indian firm Bajaj (the third-largest motorcycle manufacturer on the planet) to work on a future range of mid-capacity machines that could see the company’s global reach expand exponentially. It’s not the only agreement it has put its name to either, as it has also signed a deal to become the sole engine supplier to the Moto2 grand prix class from 2019.

Given all of these recent achievements, Triumph has picked the perfect time to open its doors to the world as it’s now inviting riders to its Hinckley headquarters in Leicestershire. Launching on November 1 2017, its all-new Visitor Experience allows fans and owners to get up close with some of the most important and iconic machines from Triumph’s history, as well as discover more about the values, technology, effort and thinking that goes into the bikes it builds today.

The Triumph Visitor Experience will be open five days a week (from Wednesday to Sunday) and is completely free, with no tickets, booking or pre-planning needed. It consists of nine themed areas that take guests through the various elements that have shaped Triumph’s legacy and made it into the firm it is today. There are displays of dozens of bikes, from its very first motorcycle in 1902 to its latest models.

The Visitor Experience is also home to some truly legendary Triumphs, including the 1956 Texas Cee-Gar streamliner that smashed the outright speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, a moment that inspired the name of the company’s most famous model. There’s also the olive green TR6 Trophy that Steve McQueen rode in The Great Escape, a bike that hasn’t been seen in public since 1962. And there are modern-day highlights too, including the Isle of Man TT-winning Daytonas from 2003 and 2014, ridden by Bruce Anstey and Gary Johnson respectively. The adventure world hasn’t been overlooked either, as an International Six-Day Trial-winning Tiger from 1962 sits next to its 2014 namesake, the very bike ridden by global traveller and Guinness World Record holder Rhys Lawrey.

Upstairs there’s a unique opportunity to look behind the scenes at Triumph’s development process. There are examples of how individual parts are made, including a chance to feel for yourself the difference that just three microns makes to the roughness of a piece of metal. There’s also an explanation of the design and testing procedures that go in to a new model, including the test mule used to develop the steering geometry of the current Bobber.

In addition is the 1902 Café, offering a quality menu, fresh coffee and free Wi-Fi. And for those who want more, Triumph is also now offering 90-minute factory tours that explain how the company manufacture sits bikes. Tours cost £15 per person and need to be booked in advance.

Four motorcycling routes to Triumph's Visitor Experience

We’ve planned four routes to the Triumph Factory Visitor Experience — one from each point of the compass. Our routes all set off from service stations on major roads so, wherever you live, you can get to one of our starting points. True, it’s a bit of a ride from Scotland so may not fit into a single day out, but it is more than worth building into a weekend away.

Each of our routes takes roughly three and a half hours to get to Hinckley. This is deliberate: if you meet your mates, fill up and set off at 9am, having a half-hour coffee stop along the way, you should get to the Triumph Factory around 1pm — in time for lunch in the 1902 Café before you go round the Visitor Experience. Remember that if you want the Factory Tour as well, that’ll have to be pre-booked.

From the West

Starting point Crossgates Services, A44
Distance 125 miles
Riding time: 3 hours
Suggested coffee stop: The Winding House, Bridgnorth
There are no bad roads to reach the start at Crossgates — and after that the riding gets better, heading through the Marches and into scenic Cannock Chase.
Download the GPX file

From the North

Starting point Hartshead Moor Services, M62
Distance 115 miles
Riding time: 3 hours
Suggested coffee stop: Charlies, Baslow
A superb ride down through the Peak District over Holme Moss and Snake Pass, before skirting round Derby to pick up some quiet lanes through the Potteries and down to Coalville.
Download the GPX file

From the East

Starting point Tesco filling station, A14
Distance 125 miles
Riding time: 3 hours
Suggested coffee stop: Choices Café, Ramsay
Why sit on the A14 and M6 when our cross-country route through the quiet villages and corner-heavy roads of the East Midlands will get you to Hinckley in style?
Download the GPX file

From the South

Starting point Chievley Services, M4
Distance 120 miles
Riding time: 3 hours
Suggested coffee stop: Old Mill Coffee House, Chipping Norton
This route sticks to the quiet roads to get to the fabulous riding of the Cotswolds, before a short turn onto the Fosse Way to reach the Factory Visitor Experience.
Download the GPX file

Please note: This page contains the motorcycle touring routes for The RiDE Guide To Great Britain which was published in October 2017. These website pages are not regularly updated, so please check all critical information before you travel. All route files are in .gpx format. Garmin and BMW users can download the main file, which contains all the routes. TomTom users can either download the individual routes or use the MyRouteApp (depending on the age of your device).