Note – This post is about the Triumph Factory Visitor Experience Exhibition, not the Factory Tour!
In brief…
- Admission price: Free (while the exhibition is free, the factory tour, which we didn’t go on, does cost and has to be pre booked)
- Opening hours: Monday and Tuesday – Closed, Wednesday to Friday – 10:00am to 4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday – 9:30am to 4:00pm
- Booking: No booking required, just turn up and go in
- Disabled/wheelchair access: Yes and there’s a lift up to the 2nd floor
- Address: Normandy Way, Hinckley, GB LE10 3BZ
- Website: www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/for-the-ride/experiences/factory-visitor-experience
- Parking: There’s loads of parking for both cars and bikes (there is a height restriction of 2.2 meters though).
A few of the many bikes on display downstairs at the exhibition
Note – We went to the exhibition in July 2026, Triumph do change the displays and exhibits occasionally so it may be slightly different when you visit!
In our never ending hunt for social media reels, we decided to take a trip to the Triumph Factory Visitor Experience Exhibition……
The factory is easy to find if you’re following a sat nav (just use their postcode, LE10 3BZ) and there are several signposts from the main road showing where the factory is.
The site entrance is fairly straight forward and you go in past the security booth. Only slight advice would be to watch for the height restrictions (2.2 meters) if your coming in a larger van or campervan. There’s Plenty of parking for both bikes and cars there and the entrance is clearly marked.
Parking and entrance to the exhibition (if you’re coming in a larger van watch out for the trees when backing into a space!)
Wheelchair access – Yes, the exhibition is fully accessible for both wheelchairs and Mobility scooters and There’s a lift up to the 2nd floor of the exhibition.
The toilets will probably be most peoples 1st stop if you’ve traveled a fair way! There’s also a custom painted tank in the entrance (and a few newish bikes).
The entrance is fairly spacious with a few bikes and a ‘Duke of Cambridge’ custom painted tank. The toilets are accessible from here and are clean!
Note – The custom painted ‘Duke of Cambridge’ petrol tank is there to mark Prince William (the Duke of Cambridge) visiting the Triumph Motorcycle Factory in Hinckley on February 20th, 2018.
From the entrance, to the right is the 1902 Cafe and to the left is the 1st half of the exhibition.
As you’d expect, there are quite a few of these ‘do not sit’ signs around!
The downstairs of the exhibition has several sections and is about the history behind Triumph bikes including a 1901 prototype bike and racing bikes from the 1950’s to the present day.
1901 Prototype Triumph motorcycle and Model H (nicknamed the ‘Trusty’) motorcycles
There is some genuinely interesting stuff on display including a Model H ‘Trusty’, a prototype from 1901 and many restored 1940’s/50’s/60’s Bonnevilles, Daytonas, Speed Twins, Thunderbirds, Tigers and more.
There’s also a fully restored supercharged Speed Twin on display.
Close ups of the engine on the supercharged Speed Twin
The only section that is a bit ‘lacking’ downstairs is the 1990’s (John Bloor design era) bikes, although this is probably due to the fire at the Triumph factory in 2002 that destroyed around 75% of the building!
There are a few 1990’s bikes (Speed Triple, Daytona etc) but not much.
Note – John Bloor is the English industrialist who rescued and revived Triumph Motorcycles. A self made tycoon, he purchased the rights to the bankrupted Triumph brand in 1983.
He funded a completely new, state of the art manufacturing facility in Hinckley and launched a modern modular range of motorcycles in 1990 that successfully restored Triumph as a competitive global brand.
Triumph are still owned by Bloor Holdings and his son, Nick Bloor, still serves as the CEO running operations at Hinckley.
A few of the 1990’s bikes on display including a Daytona 1000 and Speed Triple
Note – A lot of the bikes on display are on loan from the Dick Shepherd Collection.
Dick Shepherd is world renowned Triumph motorcycle historian, restorer and collector.
Over several decades he has obtained and restored a collection of over 300 rare machines including a fully restored 1901 Triumph Prototype and the Actual bike famously used by Steve McQueen in the 1963 film The Great Escape.
A few of the bikes on display downstairs including IOMTT Trooper Beer bike and the Percy Tait Daytona 500, a Ray Sayer tribute bike, Thunderbird, Bonneville and Tiger 100
The display downstairs also has a section with bikes that have been used in movies and TV shows including bikes used in the James Bond film ‘No Time to Die‘ and bikes used in the Terminator, Jurassic World, Mission Impossible, Fast and Furious films and Dr Who.
There is also the original, restored (even the back tyre and front mudguard are the original!) bike used by Steve McQueen in the 1963 film The Great Escape (you can see a video of the bike on Instagram)
The Triumph TR6 Trophy ridden by Steve McQueen (and stuntman Bud Ekins) in The Great Escape and the Speed Triple used by Idris Elba in the Fast and Furious film
As you go into the downstairs exhibition there’s a set of stairs through a door on the right, this takes you upstairs.
You can see a part of the factory (looks like storage for motorcycles?) as you go up the stairs.
Part of the Triumph Factory where bikes are stacked and stored
While the downstairs is all about the history of Triumph, the upstairs is all about the engineering behind the bikes with impressive displays and info cards showing various stages of design and manufacturing.
The entrance as you walk in upstairs showing a Triumph Street Triple RS, a bike in bits on the wall and a display explaining what a Micron is.
Note – A micron is a unit of measurement and is one thousandth of a millimeter (roughly 1/70th the thickness of a human hair).
In modern motorcycles, micron precision is essential.
For example fuel injectors and hydraulic ABS valves rely on single micron tolerances to function accurately, while oil filters must trap contaminants down to 10–20 microns to prevent catastrophic engine and cylinder wear and the clearances between the piston and cylinder walls have 12 to 75 micron tolerances.
A Triumph Street Triple RS in silver and the TE-1 electric prototype bikes on display at the entrance
Crankcases from the Bike in Bits display on the left as you enter the upstairs and a set of pistons, con rods and crankshaft from a Rocket 3 further down the display
As you enter the upstairs exhibition, there’s a large info panel showing what a micron is, a bike in bits on the wall, a TE-1 prototype electric bike (which we understand WON’T be going into production! Boooo!) and a 975cc Triumph Street Triple RS.
Random oil drum on display, not too sure why its there, possibly to put coffee/tea cups on?
There is some interesting stuff on display here and a lot of information about how motorcycles are designed, tested and made.
There’s a section showing how a motorcycle crankcase is made with several crank cases in different stages of manufacturing.
Display showing the different stages of crankcase production
There’s also a Triumph Rocket 3 in different stages of development, from the initial clay mock up to the finished bike and a Rocket 3 with sections cut away so you can see how the internals of the bike work.
A initial clay mock up and another mock up copy of the Rocket 3 used for testing and one with sections cut away so you can see the internals
As well as various displays showing different parts of motorcycles, like a complete twin cylinder engine engine and exhaust system removed from the bike, an engine cut in half showing the internals and a stripped down bike just showing the development of the frame, swing arm, suspension, brakes and other essential components before looms, seats, fairings and other parts are added.
An engine cut in half showing all the major internal components including the pistons, crankshaft, valves and cam shafts
Towards the back of the 2nd floor of the exhibition are 2 bikes on a stand that were designed and built as a project by 2 competing teams who work at Triumph (called the T3 custom build off), both have different styles and have quite aggressive and minimilist styling (we did ask and taking them out for a spin is a definite NO unfortunately!).
The 1st bikes was a custom Bobber style and the 2nd was a custom Scrambler.
The 2 custom built bikes designed and made inhouse by competing design teams at Triumph
Theres also quite a few bikes on display upstairs, a few older bikes and a lot from the new range of Triumph bikes.
Old scrambler and trials bikes on display in the upstairs of the exhibition
A couple of the new bikes on display in the upstairs of the exhibition
As you come out of the 2nd floor area, straight across the mezzanine is the Triumph Shop. The shop is nicely laid out with lots of Triumph merchandise. The shop has an expensive boutique feel to it. We didn’t really look at the prices so can’t comment but the staff were friendly and we bought a couple of keyrings for a few quid.
The view as you walk into the shop at the Triumph Factory Experience
As you go downstairs to the exit (on the right as you come in) is the 1902 Cafe. The cafe is nicely laid out with seating and a very relaxed feel. It has a very American Diner feel to it and there is an interesting display of engines on the back wall.
Theres a small kitchen/counter area where you can get food and drinks.
The prices were around what you’d pay in a Costa coffee and it looks like some staff use the cafe as well.
The only criticism we’d make is the coffee was terrible, Costa price for what tasted like weak instant Nescafe (but, we use as much coffee as we do petrol in our workshop so are overly fussy when it comes to coffee!)
Sofa seating, styling and the engine display in the 1902 Cafe….. Just don’t go for the coffee!
Was it worth visiting? If your a fan of Triumph bikes or motorcycles in general, Defiantly, it’s free (at the time of writing this) and you can kill half a day walking round looking at all the exhibits.
It’s well laid out and presented with info cards explaining most of the bikes and displays and there is some really interesting stuff there.
We really liked some of the smaller stuff on display, the ‘pudding bowl’ helmet and Percy Tait’s boot where he wore half of it away cornering.
Also, for us personally the engineering stuff was interesting, especially the Rocket 3 with the sections cut away so you can see the internals.
What didn’t we like? THE COFFEE!! (but we’ve mentioned this). The only very slight gripe is some of the lighting in some areas is quite dark and the red lighting is overused, meaning it difficult to see the bikes clearly and the soundtracks are repeated which is a bit like being on hold on the phone (but these are very, very minor gripes!).
Exhibition info…
- Admission price: Free (while the exhibition is free, the factory tour, which we didn’t go on, does cost and has to be pre booked)
- Opening hours: Monday and Tuesday – Closed, Wednesday to Friday – 10:00am to 4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday – 9:30am to 4:00pm
- Booking: No booking required, just turn up and go in
- Disabled/wheelchair access: Yes and There’s a lift up to the 2nd floor
- Address: Normandy Way, Hinckley, GB LE10 3BZ
- Website: www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/for-the-ride/experiences/factory-visitor-experience
- Parking: There’s loads of parking for both cars and bikes.
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Disclaimer: The information on this page is correct to the best of our knowledge. But the info should NOT be taken as 100% accurate as we can, occasionally make mistakes!
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