1931 was a pretty significant year for the British motorcycle history. Ariel debuted its legendary Square Four (designed by Edward Turner), Britain issued its first Highway Code laws, and it was an even bigger year for Triumph who introduced an array of new offerings that brought the number of total models offered in the 1931 motorcycle range up to ten. Triumph also debuted its famous 1.2-liter side-valve Scorpion automobile that year, and the marque first hired a sixteen year-old Jack Wicks as a print boy. This was an immensely competitive period in the motorcycle industry where the simple reality was there wasn’t enough money to go around and only those who stood out had a chance at surviving.
Of course, Triumph was helped along during this period by a reputation for building reliable, no-nonsense machines, though this perception would change when the manufacturer brought on several crucial staffers including Edward Turner who would later become the general manager and chief designer at Triumph before eventually becoming a Chief Executive of the BSA Group, while designing iconic Triumph models the whole time along the way. Surviving the global economic depression wasn’t any easier for Triumph than it was anyone else in the industry, but people ultimately retained their need for transportation even in during a depression and Triumph made a series of moves and decisions to better serve and caters towards a customer base with little money to spend.
When the decade ended, Triumph managed to remain profitable despite a global economic depression having kicked off. The British marque explored the more economical route with the WO, one of five new “inclined” engine models designed by Val Page introduced in ’31 after BSA’s famous ‘Sloper’ popularized the setup. The new inclined Triumphs were characterized by the large aluminum crankcases with integral oil tank – which retained the dry-sump system – and the now iconic embossed sweeping R Triumph logos. Triumph also offered smaller displacements, and even more affordable models in the form of the ‘Gloria’ two-stroke 98cc and 150cc machines, as well as the larger displacement models like the 343cc NM, 493cc NT, and 348cc WL – plus the single-port Model WA which was also a 250 like the WO.
In the mid-to-late 1920’s Triumph began appearing a bit long in the tooth compared to the other contemporary offerings of the era leading up to the depression. Overhead camshafts and foot-operated gearboxes were already being incorporated by marques like Norton, Velocette, and AJS. Triumph’s flat tank ‘Model W’ was released in 1927, but half-a-decade later it became increasingly clear that the W was in need of a redesign. That saddle tank redesign came in the form of the 1931’Model WO’. Supposedly only 1,100 units were produced (in 1931 I believe) and despite its relatively low-volume production, the WO was a popular model, there just wasn’t a lot of money to go around from 1931 to 1933 when the WO was being produced. The single-port WA supposedly had only 950 units produced in its run.
The WO was first released in 1931 and was an inexpensive 2.49hp 250cc OHV twin-port single with a “streamlined” crankcase/gearbox cover that helped to cut down on mechanical noise. Of course Triumph was probably happy to not having to pay to have underneath the cases polished. All of the slanted engine models from 1931 had 3-speed gearboxes, but 4-speed boxes were available as an optional extra on the Models ‘NM’ and ‘NT’, and became available on even more models the following year. In 1932 Triumph introduced the Sport variants of the NM and NT models, named the ‘CA’ and ‘CD’ models. The following year a Sport version of the WO was released under the designation of ‘Model WP’. Aesthetics were forced to take a back seat during the depression, so it was cool when Triumph offered multiple paint scheme choices at no extra charge.
Photo from Manx Norton
Another interesting aesthetic choice Triumph opted to pour some funding into was tidying up its models by running lines, cables, and wires internally. For advertising photos, brochures, and display bikes, it was fairly common practice at the time to remove unsightly wires and lines to clean up the bike’s appearance. Triumph began routing these eyesores within the handlebars until they exited at the frame headstock, where they could then be routed under the tank or down a fork leg. Triumph also took things one step further and decided to hide the oil pipes in the new inclined engine-models, all of which had their oil-reservoirs housed within the crankcase as well as a complex rotating-piston pump that transferred oil between the reservoir and the crankcase proper, and then back again. The depression required engineers and designers to find inexpensive ways to make improvements, and the hidden cables and oil-pipes are a great example of this.
This particular 1931 Triumph 250 O.H.V. Twin Port WO was first registered on 9th March, 1931. The seller still has the 1931 log-book, original 1931 tax discs, and V5, as well as “a rare valuable transferable number”. The ad also mentions that this example may be eligible for the famous Banbury run. While this bike looks to be in relatively decent shape and is sporting some fantastic British patina, it isn’t currently running, though the seller makes it abundantly clear that this Triumph example has good compression. It just hasn’t been started in a long time, at least according to the current owner, who also says this example was “last taxed” in 1983.
You can find this 1931 Triumph WO for sale here on CarandClassic.co.uk in Cheshire, England with a price of $9,000 (or £6,850).