1819 Pedal Power – Early Motorcycle Dreams
The original “Wild Ones” tear up a dirt track in this 1819 painting of the “Hobby Horse” by French artist Maurice Rosseau. At least you got plenty of exercise.
What Goes Around, Comes Around… A Little Motorcycle Pre-History
The story of the “motor-cycle” begins back in the early 1800s when bicycles were basically wooden hobby horses that you sat upon and padded around using your feet, these primitive devices minus pedal and crank technology. In the 1860s the French began leading the way to improvements on the so-called early “boneshakers.” By 1865 large front wheel/small rear wheel designs came to the forefront, eventually evolving into extremely tall front wheeled cycles (aka the “penny-farthing”), some of which required a ladder to reach the saddle. A fall from such heights could have unpleasant consequences so an effort was made to bring the velocipede rider closer to terra firma.
By1869 the first chain driven bicycle was built, the same year the public was introduced to the first ever bicycle show which was held in Paris. The designs shown were a quantum leap forward featuring all metal, lightweight frames with front suspension and solid rubber tires mounted on wire-spoked wheels. The growth of the bicycle industry also prompted the mass production of ball-bearings which in itself would engender far-reaching technological advances in general. But with the outbreak and disruption caused by the Franco- Prussian War in 1870-71, France would lose its lead, dropping the ball-bearing so to speak and thus opening the way for Britain to take the dominating role in bicycle production… which in turn would lead to other forms of the “cycle.”
1880s Experiment Running Amuck
Coincidentally along with the “safety bicycle,” 1880 was the same year that the first safety razor was invented by the Kampfe Brothers.
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Beyond the introduction of ball-bearings, the next milestone in the evolution of the bicycle and literally one that smoothed out its evolution took place in 1888 in Belfast, Ireland where a horse veterinarian came up the first air-inflated pneumatic tire, his name John Boyd Dunlop, now a name that rolls off all biker’s tongues. Inventors came up with additional “enhancements” for the bicycle including sunshades that also could be used as sails, the sight of which must have been startling as the “bicycle ships” sailed along country roads of the day, although haphazardly according to wind direction. Even less successful adaptations appeared in the form of tricycles, quadricycles and even octocycles, the larger sizes configured to carry more weight, but only placed the burden on the rider and so these “aberrant” designs passed out of favor.
High Roller Rollin’ Home – A Bike with a Monster View
“Carburetor Carl,” restorer of vintage carbs, likes odd, old things with wheels, the odder the better. His original late 1800s bike still sports acetylene headlamp.
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The “Bicycle Boom” hit Europe in 1890 the public clamoring for the new safer, more user friendly forms of the machine with a resulting meteoric growth of the industry. There’s no missing link between the bicycle and the motorcycle, even the names gives away the natural evolutionary leap. Remember that the first Indian was labeled a “Moto-Cycle.” Plugging a motor into a spindly bicycle frame came naturally was the combustion engine appeared on the scene. As bicycle production for sport, leisure and daily transport became dominated by British companies like BSA and Triumph at the leading edge, they were the natural birthplaces for motorcycles.
Transition – Three and four-wheeled contrivances aka tricycles and quadricycles came in all sizes and purposes. This 1889 “Motor Scout” carried a Maxim machinegun, 1000 rounds of ammo and 120 miles of fuel was designed and built by British manufacturer Frederick Reginald Simms and apparently looking toward wars some years in the future where the new fangled motor-car and the new fangled machinegun would merge together on the battlefield. Tanks however won the day as they offered a bit more protection.
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But then history threw in a monkey wrench of sorts. Things geared up with the advent of the First World War (1914-18) which dramatically increased both demand, production and use of the bicycle as an implement of war, some 150,000 cycle troops fielded by France and Belgium while their British allies counted some 100,000 men posted to the Army Cyclist Corps with most riding BSA cycles, while the German Army would set 125,000 cyclists into the fray. American troops arriving in France in 1917 brought with some 29,000 bicycles, mostly build by Columbia, the company founded in 1877, but none directly used for military operation, rather for communications and courier duties. It might seem somewhat of a refutation of logic, but during WWI the bicycle soldier was literally the fastest mobile force on the battlefield.
But also seen on the WWI battlefield were the next evolutionary stage of the “cycle,” in the form of the motor powered bicycle or “moto- cycle” as it were a branch off the main tree of bicycles and a species unto itself that would go where no bicycle had gone before t. The military motorcycles donning uniform were early Harley-Davidsons, the company founded in 1903 just 11 years before the war started and Indians (founded 1901) propelling members of the American Expeditionary Forces, the bikes mostly serving as courier mounts rather than in combat. The iconic British bike manufacturer BSA (aka Birmingham Small Arms) would also debut it first motorcycle1903 and by 1909 BSA was selling a robust 3½ HP belt-driven motorcycle with a price tag equivalent to about 250 US dollars with the Brit military sending BSAs into WWI service.
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The following highlights of the first 25 years of motorcycling can go only go so far
relative to time and space, so the Big Boy Harley-Davidson, literally history unto itself, takes a breather as we take a look at just a few “the other bikes” of that era.
WWI U.S. Army Motorcycle Sidecar Mounted Machinegun Trooper
While the iconic Harley-Davidson first appeared in 1903, the company began supplying the U.S. military in 1915, it solo mount and sidecar machines gaining experience during 1916 when some 20,000 U.S. troops under the command of General John “Black Jack” Pershing were granted permission by the Mexican government to enter their country in pursuit of the bandit/revolutionary Pancho Villa. While they never caught up with him, even with their Harley and Indian motorcycles that could go where heavier vehicles could not, the American army learned valuable lessons including those concerning the new “Motor Mobile Infantry” and “Mounted Infantry.” Oddly enough their quarry, Pancho Villa, was an avid motorcyclist himself, preferring the Indian.
When the U.S. finally entered the war in 1917, Indian gave its entire production to the military, almost bankrupting itself, selling them at cost and leaving civilian showrooms bare. Harley took a different strategy, providing 50% of its production, the rest going to the public. The Harleys, powered by 1000cc v-twin engines produced 15hp. The factory prospered, many bikes also going to the Dutch and Russian military including gun and stretcher carrying models. Harley-Davidson supplied about one third of the 70,000 machines ordered by the U.S. military, the remaining two-thirds divided between Indian and Cleveland. Of the 26,486 Harleys bought by the U.S., some 7,000 going to England and France where they served as convoy escorts, dispatch, scouting and reconnaissance vehicles.
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1885 – Einspur Engine – First of the First “Official” Motor-cycle
However motor-cycles had been rumbling, albeit in small numbers, around in the U.S. and Europe since the late 1880s. In 1885, German Gottlieb Daimler came up with the first internal combustion engine powered motorcycle, a wooden framed device called the Einspur or “on track,” a choice of names that would also echo the beginning of the motorcycle phenomena that would keep “on track” literally
through the centuries.
In 1895 the wealthy French count Albert DeDion and engineer Georges Bouton teamed up in Paris to build first steam then gasoline powered engines, plugging one of 138cc into motorized tricycle. Their Dion-Bouton engines, sold in large quantities, let loose the floodgates of numerous motorcycle enterprises around the globe including the U.S. Also in 1895 Michelin in France introduced pneumatic tires capable of supporting heavyweight autos.
Two motorcycles, one European, one American, would adopt and adapt the early limited edition motor-cycles and take them one step further. For the most part forgotten even by bike fans, these two milestone companies figure greatly into the proto-history and development of today’s modern machines.
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Three-wheeled Transition – 1899 DeDion Tricycle
1877 – The Dawn of the Twilight Zone of Motorcycles – Trikes
While today trikes are thought of as a modern variation somewhere in limbo between bike and car, three wheelers or Tri-Cycles were a prevalent species, both on the street and at race events, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in England, Europe and the U.S. Three wheels made for a larger frame to carry the powerplants of the day although resistance was strong to such motorized contraptions, particularly from the fans of the horse. In fact, two promising motorized English tricycles, the Meek (not too meek) of 1877 and the Parkyns & Pateman of 1881 were squashed by the road vehicle laws of the day, particularly the Locomotive Acts of 1861 which restricted speeds to 4 mph and required footmen carrying lanterns to give warning of the beastly machine’s advance.
In 1881 Phoenix, Arizona engineer Lucius Copeland designed a steam-powered two-wheeler called the “Star” but couldn’t drum up financial backing until he built a tricycle version in his Camden, NJ located Northrop Manufacturing Co. facility. Copeland is credited in 1887 with inventing the first successfully mass-produced three-wheeled car which he named “Phaeton Steamers,” some 200 built before he retired in 1891.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Charles H. Metz added his input to the evolution of the motorcycle (noted as America’s first motorcycle company) when in 1893 he founded the Waltham Manufacturing Co. (a spin-off of the Waltham watch company), first building bicycles, then launched in various forms of motor-cycles and auto-mobiles. Metz is credited with being the first to coin the term “motor cycle,” first used in an 1899 advertisement. Metz called his creation an Orient “Auto-mobile” at the time, the machine capable of carrying up to three people as it could be converted from a three- to a four-wheeled vehicle. (He called it the Orient because he once worked at the Orient Fire Insurance Co.) You had a choice of locomotion: pedal it, propel it by its engine or use both pedal power and engine power. Costing a hefty $450, the water-cooled 2.75-hp vehicle could cruise “comfortably” between 10-50 mph and travel about 50 miles before you needed to refill it with naphtha, gasoline or petroleum. There was an auxiliary tank that could provide another 100 miles.
The Waltham factory promoted the roadworthiness by sending an employee on a 251-mile road trip from Waltham to NYC. Travel time was 17 hours while expenses were 40 cents for fuel and five cents for lubricating oil. Metz would go on to build two-wheeled machines that would also earn him a special page in the history books. Metz first introduced his two-wheeled creation to the world in July 1900, at the Charles River Race Track in Boston, marking the first recorded motorcycle speed event in the United States.
After the Waltham company was sold Metz teamed up with David Marsh in 1905, to establish the “American Motorcycle Company” in Brockton, MA where they briefly produced the “Marsh-Metz,” also known as the “M-M” and launching a 1000cc V-twin in 1906. By 1908 Metz was mostly making cars, the company progressively falling on hard times. In 1923, the last iteration of his company bankrupt, Metz put his family into his last production car and drove cross-country to Glendale, California, opened a cabinetry business, passing away on June 29, 1937.
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1894 Hildebrand & Wolfmuller – The World’s First Production Motorcycle
An oil-in-the frame, water-cooled four-stroke engine of almost 1500cc displacement built more than a hundred years ago.
“Before the beginning of great brilliance and beauty there first must be a period of complete chaos.”
— I Ching
As mentioned one could arguably trace the embryonic days of motorcycling back to 1817 and the German ‘hobby horse’ which was in effect a human powered two-wheeler with the locomotive force provided by paddling one’s feet along the pavement. Good for shoemakers, bad for the spine. More efficient cranks and pedals attached to a wheel didn’t appear until 1861 when a Frenchman put it all together. Over the next two decades, a succession of two-, three- and four wheeled steam- and gasoline-powered cycles huffed, puffed and sputtered themselves into existence as the evolution of the motorcycle spawned ever newer, and occasionally better, designs across Europe and America.
It wasn’t until1894 that things began to coalesce. The year brought profound changes, those advances synthesized from German, French and British designers and manifested in one of the seminal machines of motorcycling… the Hildebrand & Wolfmuller.
The stage was set: Munich, Germany, 1894. Not far away in Russia, Nicholas II, the last of the pre-Soviet czars had ascended the throne while further east China and Japan were at war in Korea. However, politics and empire building were of little interest to brothers Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand. They were busy revolutionizing human transportation. True, their initial focus had been on building steam powered machines in an effort to conquer the steep inclines of their beloved Bavarian hills, but it was a start, if a hot and bubbly one. After a period of steamy experimentation, Heinrich and Wilhelm discovered that a bunch of hot air could only take you so far. Being bright and industrious lads, the Hildebrands decided to join forces with two nimble-minded engineers Alois Wolfmuller and Hans Geisenhof, both residents of nearby Langsberg, a few kilometers from Munich. Geisenhof brought some extra clout to the party as he had been a member of the Benz automobile group and knew his way around powerplants.
The Geisenhof/Hildebrand early efforts resulted in a rather anemic and unreliable two-stroke gasoline fed engine, a powerplant that did not reach their level of expectations. But then it was Wolfmuller’s turn to try his hand. He met the challenge, designing a much more robust four-stroke engine of parallel twin design. Unfortunately the sheer mass of metal that went into his creation proved too burdensome for the spindly bicycle “safety” frames of the era. In fact, very shortly after implantation, the weight of the engine snapped the frame. Now they had an engine, but no frame.
The H&W team came up with a reworked version of the frame originally utilized by their 1889 steam bike. The twin-tube, open duplex design nicely accommodated the big four-stroke gas engine. It all managed to hold together well enough for the clerks at the Munich patent office to grant their official state stamp of approval. Thus as of January 1894 the Hildebrand & Wolfmuller motor cycle was a legitimate, and thus saleable, product and into the history books it went as literally the first vehicle to be described with the generic term “motor cycle.”
The H &W was also remarkable for several other “firsts.” For one, it featured the largest engine ever successfully fitted into a two-wheeled production vehicle in the 90-year history of two-wheelers with a displacement of 1498cc from a pair of horizontal cylinders with a bore and stroke of 90 x 1117 mm.
It must be remembered that carburet ors as we know them today were not even a figment of someone’s imagination back then, but borrowing from the Daimler auto people, the H &W utilized a platinum hot tube as a means of igniting the fuel that found its way from the gas tank to a surface type carburetor. The inlet valves themselves were automatic, while long rods and a cam on the rear wheel actuated the two exhaust valves.
Yet another technological development borrowed from other designers was the combination rear fender/water tank configuration. First innovated by the Englishman Edward Butler and the Frenchman Georges Richard, the fender served not only to keep the rider tidy, but also served as a reservoir for a supply of water used to cool the engine. In addition one frame tube took the place of an oil tank. Yes, an oil-in-the frame, water-cooled four-stroke engine of almost 1500cc displacement built more than a hundred years ago. Such wonders obviously will never cease, but this was a real “first.” It was the first motorcycle to come equipped with pneumatic tires, the air-filled rubber treads built by the German company of Veith via the British Dunlop company who had pioneered the tire design in 1888.
The starting procedure for the H&W required grit, grip and cardio-vascular integrity. Gripping the machine you flung it and yourself forward, your legs pumping as fast as they could go until you heard the pop and crack of ignition… there was no clutch by the way…and then you would leap aboard and make all effort to quickly find the thumb-screw operated throttle and then turn it just the right amount to maintain an equal supply of fuel. In other words, athletic ability akin to Olympic bobsledding and the dexterity of a brain surgeon were helpful.
But the rewards were… well you were off and running to a maximum of 28 mph, all the H&W’s 2 ½ horses could manage at a ripping 240 rpm. The world would have to pass in a blur, since even the steam powered trains of the day, riding on nice safe steel rails, could only manage twice the bike’s speed.
Orders flooded the company’s offices to the tune of 2, 000, 000 Deutschmarks. Such was the public demand, and the money in hand, that Hildebrand and Wolfmuller ordered up architectural plans for an all new factory. Its vast interior would be home to 1200 employees.
Sales seemed ready to continue booming. However, Fate intervened. A fire broke out the night before the staging of a planned race, the flames ravaging the three bikes intended for the demonstration. Moreover, adding insult to injury, the loud sounds of the exploding Dunlop tires fed rumors that the gasoline powered machines were inherently dangerous.
Looking for the proper venue to highlight his product, Wolfmuller himself transported two bikes to Italy where he and Giovanni-Battista Ceirano, an automobile enthusiast, would ride them in another history making event, the country’s first combination car and bike race. The machines would speed the 62-mile run from the city of Turin to the village of Asti and return, all on the day of May 28, 1895. By day’s end, the two stalwart H&W’s with Wolfmuller and Ceirano covered in dust and glory crossed the finish line in 2nd and 3rd Place, bested only by a Daimler automobile.
When things go wrong, they can go wrong all at once. For one, the bean-counters back in Paris and Munich finally figured out that the cost of making the machines was more than their price tags. In addition, customers were writing unpleasant letters about starting problems among other issues and many wanted their money back. Sadly, by 1897 and after producing approximately 800 machines, the German and French companies imploded, and the H&W was no more.
As the first production motorcycle, H&W had brought together many innovations and the genius of several nations, and in so doing carved yet another stepping stone on the long, often rocky road of the motorcycle’s evolution, the pivotal moment when the so-called motor-bicycle entered the public consciousness as the motorcycle. An English test rider of the day, after riding the H&W responded, “I have never forgotten the first sensation of riding a bicycle propelled by its own power. The feeling of traveling over the ground without effort was delightful. From that moment I became a staunch believer in the motor-bicycle and predicted a great future for it.”
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Also in the News for 1894 – The staging of the world’s first motoring contest -Paris-Rouen race.
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1896 – Not the Snake River But Close – First Bike Scam
Shades of Evel Knievel aside, this bit of advertizing balderdash was thought up one E.J. Pennington, an American who made his way to England with a seeming
marvelous motorcycle design that according to Pennington was fueled on paraffin aka wax. The illustration helped the inventive, at least with words, to sell his patent for the then very hefty sum of 100,000 English Pounds to an Englishman, himself a speculator who wanted to dominate British car and motorcycle production, but who went bankrupt. Pennington, a stellar flim-flam man, laughed all the way to the bank, and not the one on the far side of the river, his motorcycles have never gone into production.
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1899 Orient: America’s First Production Motorcycle
Fans of the original Indian motorcycle often like to remind their Harley buddies that their Springfield splendor preceded production of the Milwaukee marvel by two years…Indian appearing in 1901, Harley-Davidson in 1903. Truth be told, both Indian and Harley were upstaged in the history books (generally unread it appears), by a Massachusetts bicycle concern called the Waltham Manufacturing Company founded in 1893 by one Charles H. Metz. The name of his machine, and rightful heir to the title “first USA production motorcycle” was the Orient-Aster, better known simply as the Orient. The Aster relates to the machine’s French-built engine, a copy of the ubiquitous DeDion-Bouton. (Seen here is a 1905 model
But again that history is traceable back to those so-called “safety bicycles.” One of the early such designs was produced by Charles H. Metz, apparently a rocket scientist on wheels, who conjured up the “Orient” bicycle, apparently a very hot seller. In fact the motivation for attaching an internal combustion engine to a bicycle came about when Mr. Metz wanted a means by which to train his bicycle racing team. Metz constructed a tandem pacer bicycle with the pilot sitting up front, the rear passenger operating the DeDion-Bouton engine housed in the rear section, then put it to work on the Waltham bicycle training track intent of giving his team something to shoot for. The idea worked, the Orient bicycle team gaining victory after victory which naturally translated to increased bicycle sales for the company. A light bulb went off in Metz’s head.
It occurred to Metz that a self-propelled vehicle, minus the sweat of the brow propulsion, might interest the buying public, and his pacer motorcycle was the bridge between the two worlds. In 1898 he had tinkered up various tricycle and quadracycle versions, eventually focusing on a heavy duty version of his production bicycle into which he stuffed the Aster/DeDion-Bouton engine. Apparently it wasn’t the best handling contraption, but it moved under its own steam and several prototypes were seen trundling around the Waltham bicycle track.
A big believer in advertising, Metz launched a media blitz of his day and made history when his 1899 catalog listed his pace machines as “Orient Motor-cycles” apparently the first published catalog usage of the term motorcycle. Previously the ads and literature of the day had referred to them as motor-bicycles so Metz can also be one of several credited with officially coining the name “motorcycle.” The official public debut took place on July 31, 1900 when Metz launched his invention at the Charles River Race Park in Boston which also happened to be the occasion for the first officially recorded motorcycle speed contest in the United States which the Orient won.
About a year later, in May 1901, the Orient appeared in the winner’s circle again, this time venturing to the first West Coast bike race which took place at a one-mile Los Angeles horse track. The “factory” rider was Ralph Hamlin who pied-pipered three other riders across the finish line, the 10 lap race completed in 18.5 minutes which factors out to be about 32 mph. (No matter that a thoroughbred horse could clock 45 mph.) The Orient would go on to establish the American record for the mile at one minute and ten seconds. As a result of these much publicized successes, Orient’s were soon being piloted around by adventuresome riders in many major U.S. cities.
So confident was he in his new motorcycle that Metz said good-bye to the Waltham Co. and opened his own business behind the Woolworth store at Whitney Ave. and Moody St. He was going to build his own motorcycles.
$250 Sticker Shock Circa 1902
The Orient motorcycle was relatively expensive, the MSRP of $250 quite a lump sum more than a century ago. What you got was a two horsepower, gasoline powered engine that carried about five quarts of fuel, good enough to take you 100 miles, again a fair piece at the turn of the century, especially considering the quality of the roads.
About four years later, Metz introduced a two-cylinder version that doubled the horsepower of the single to four. At this point Metz teamed up with the Marsh Co. of Brockton, MA, the merger producing the high quality Marsh-Metz motorcycle appearing in 1908. The Marsh Brothers, W.T. and A.R., had first built their 1 HP single cylinder bike in 1899 as the Marsh Motor Bicycle. By 1902 they had built a 6 HP belt-drive racer that could reach 60 mph. After the merger to form the American Motor Company, the motorcycles bore the name Marsh & Metz or M.M. and would mark another milestone when they produced the first 90-degree V-Twin in the U.S. Marsh and Metz also sold engines to other builders such as Peerless, Arrow and Haverford, but by 1913 the company was no more, Charles Metz switching gears to automobiles.
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1903 – First U.S. Transcontinental Bike Ride
The short-lived “California” was built by The California Motor Company of San Francisco founded circa1901, but made history in both the short run and the long run.
Close Enough
“The Californian” adds and “n” to the original California machine, this bike built in homage to the first American bikes built in the early 1900s by home builders thanks to the Sears Catalog from which you could order all the parts you needed. This belt-drive bike was hand built by vintage bike restorer Walt Riddle of Winnetka, CA using an original Spaake 1000 cc engine circa 1912-24.
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The California set a benchmark in motorcycling history when one of the 200cc bikes piloted by an intrepid fellow by the name George Wyman became the first motorcyclist to make a transcontinental trip across America. Make that the first ever to make the trip by means of any kind of motorized vehicle. Starting in San Francisco he traveled over 3800 miles on his spindly 1.25-horsepower machine over non-existent roads. 50 days later he arrived at New York City missing the fourth of July 1903 by just two days. His hands were wrapped in bandages and he had to pedal the motorcycle the final 150 miles! But he made it and newspapers and magazine of the day gave extensive coverage to the event putting the name of the company, George and significantly the state of California in the public’s eye.
The California eventually morphed into the Yale motorcycle after the original company was bought by the Consolidate Manufacturing Co. of Toledo, the first Yale badged bikes appearing in 1909 and having grown to 3.5 HP.
Considered a gentleman’s machine, with a stalwart reputation for reliability, the Yale came appointed in elegant gray accentuated by polished nickel hardware. The distinctive cylinder slung under the top frame member carried fuel while the large canister set astride the handlebar contained acetylene for powering the headlamp designed to light the way on a dark night’s ride. Starting was via pedaling with the rear wheel up on its centerstand while belt-drive propelled the bike. The “4P”emblazoned on the gas tank along with the Yale logo stood for the rated horsepower, sufficient for a well-mannered 45 mph.
The Yale became of the more successful of the early independent motorcycle manufacturers, the main factor being that the company was better capitalized than most other bike builders of the day. As a result they were able continue with their single cylinder machines and also develop a V-twin model. The company was in production until 1915 when it switched to building more profitable products for WWI.
1904 – Up Close and Personal Innovation
What looks very much like a bicycle seat, oddly enough, was actually a breakthrough innovation of sorts for the motorcyclist. The 1904 ad appeared in famous British bike mag The Motor Cycle.
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1905 – 28,000 motorcycles are officially registered in England. Motorcycle sales are started to boom although several busts fell among the hundreds of motorcycle “companies” that came and went over the 20 years. 1905 also saw the debut of the world’s first V-twin, the 2300cc Czech designed Laurin & Klement CCR.
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1907 – The Fastest Man in the World: Glenn H. Curtiss
“Bullets are the only rivals of Glenn H. Curtiss of Hammondsport.” – 1907 newspaper headline
Wearing a leather cap, a well-manicured moustache and a steely gaze Glenn Hammond Curtiss stares out of a time-worn black and white postcard-like photo. In the background frothy waves splash upon the hard packed sands upon which his experimental V-8 powered motorcycle would transport him into the history books as “The Fastest Man in the World.” The day was Thursday January 24, the year 1907; the place, Ormond Beach on the east coast of Florida. The record… 136.3 mph, a land speed record that would stand for eleven years and then only surpassed by an automobile. It would not be until 1930 that a motorcycle would best Glenn Curtiss’s feat of daring-do and mechanical design.
Glenn H. Curtiss, a true American hero and a larger than life personality who exploits would even inspire a popular series of youth books “The Adventures of Tom Swift” penned by Victor Appleton. And yes, there was one volume circa 1910 titled “Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle or Fun and Adventures on the Road.”
Curtiss was always looking for new adventures on, or off, the road… cars, boats, planes. Back in 1907 the 29-year old Glenn Curtiss had already invented or developed many of the more than 500 designs and components he would conjure up during his lifetime including a hand in the development of the Wright Brothers first airplane and additional aeronautical experiments in partnership with Alexander Graham Bell that included developing and patenting the aircraft aileron now universally intrinsic to controlled flight.
Whether it was propeller powered or rolled on wheels, Glenn was always pushing the envelope. While his lasting fame would rest with aircraft, it all began with motorcycles. As a result of his experience as a bicycle racer, Western Union bicycle messenger and bicycle shop owner Curtis became interested in motorcycles. In 1901 he began motorizing bicycles with his own single cylinder internal combustion engines, initially fashioned from tomato cans. He not only talked the talk, he walked the walk, racing what he built and earning the accolade in 1903 as the “First American Motorcycle Champion” by reaching 54.6 mph. By 1905, he set the world speed records for one, two and three mile events. Besides piloting his speedsters he tinkered out a number of advancements including the handlebar twistgrip throttle control.
His new record breaking bike came into existence due to the ever increasing demand for more powerful aircraft engines for the burgeoning production of early 20th century flying machines. The bike was basically a rolling, but not quite flying, test bed for the new Curtiss 40hp “monster” motor.
The configuration was based on a very square 3.25 x 3.25 inch bore and stroke that displaced a potent 269 cubic inches. While his preceding engines were primarily single cylinder and 50-degree V-Twins, Curtis went to a 90 degree design featuring cast iron F-type heads as utilized on his smaller displacement powerplants. Moreover it dispensed with head gaskets thanks to the quality of its design and manufacture. Inside the massive hunk of metal lurked a solid billet steel crank while internal lubrication was handled via a dry sump and random splash system.
Under the valve covers inlet valves were activated by atmospheric pressure while pushrods actuated the exhaust valves. Fed by twin carbs, also Curtiss designs, the throttle cables were hidden inside the handlebars. The electrical system relied upon jump-spark Ignition energized by dry cell batteries. While it looked ungainly with its 4000cc engine suspended in what was a heavily beefed up bicycle frame with a 64-inch wheelbase, the overall design benefited from a power to weight ratio (one hp per 6.8 pounds) that was advanced by any standards, especially by those of 1907, the bike tipping the scales at merely 275lbs.
The four-mile course at Ormond Beach was divided into a two-mile section for reaching top speed, a third mile for timing purposes, and last by not least a “slow down and stop” mile. As the bike was shaft-driven with no clutch and but one tall gear, it was an all or nothing proposition. One kept twisting the throttle and let the speed build while the screaming unmuffled pipes scattered sea birds for miles. As the Curtiss Museum director comments, “It must have sounded like the Wrath of God!”
Curtis was clocked at 136.3 mph in the timed section of the course. He would be the first man to travel one mile in 25.25 seconds, a feat of mechanical design and personal courage that earned him the title of the fastest man on earth. I
Glenn Curtis taking to the air
In addition armchair pundits of the day reportedly snorted with disbelief espousing their firm belief that is was a hoax or fable since no mortal man could breathe at the reported speed. It would be the V8’s one and only day in the sun, the only time Glenn Curtiss would take it up to speed. But once was enough.
If you want to see the real McCoy you’ll find it at the new Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center located adjacent to the Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, VA (www.nasm.si.ed.u).
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1908 Indian “Camelback”
Nickname was gained from fuel tank mounted over rear fender fortunately
Far removed from the acetylene powered headlamp at the handlebars.
1908 was a year of prodigious American achievements that would reshape the world. Henry Ford rolled out the first Model T aka the “Tin Lizzy” opening the door, and roadways, to millions with an afford automobile. In the same year his competition, a company called General Motors, was also founded. But whether four wheels or two, the roads traveled by either car or motorcycle were an endurance challenge for machine and passengers.
The Indian Motorcycle Co. of Springfield, Missouri, endeavored to smooth out the rough ride with a cartridge-spring front fork for their 213 cc single cylinder powered machine. Another major improvement over previous models included twist grips that could now control both the throttle and the spark advance/retard which made controlling the machine all the easier, something appreciated by the rider on a machine that could accelerate to a then heady 35 mph (perhaps 45! as company ads proclaimed).
Design technology was also catching up as this was the last year the Indian single would sport its distinctive gas/oil tank from which was derived the moniker “Camelback.” Early motorcycle manufacturers had for several years experimented with various attachment points for the fuel reservoirs to what were for the most somewhat beefed up bicycle frames, Indian choosing the rear fender mounting position. And speaking of frames, that long thick tube riding parallel to the front down tube served as a container for several dry cell batteries while the shorter, rocket shaped tube contained the Indian’s ignition coil. The 1908 also benefited from the adoption by Indian of the German made Bosch magneto that resolved a previous problem caused by the poor quality of the dry cell batteries.
The bike’s overall design, considered state of the art at the time, was based on one conceived in 1901 by the venerated engineer Oscar Hedstrom and brought to fruition when he teamed up with keen-eyed businessman George M. Hendee and thus the name Hendee Mfg. Co. emblazoned in gold on the Camelback tank. Hendee, an accomplished cycle racer and builder of the Silver King bicycle wasn’t happy with the motorized pace bicycles of the time and thought he found the right ticket when he met Hedstrom in1900 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
From the beginning Hedstrom’s design included a chain drive while others still relied on belt drive systems. By 1903 the Indian motorcycle was known internationally in part due to its reliability and two significant features, the inclusion of a transmission and a single cable controlled carburetor which made riding the Indian a much simpler affair than other machines of the day. During 1905 the company sold 1181 motorcycles, a significant sales success.
Five Indian models, singles and twins, were offered to the public in 1908. It is estimated that only 20 of the list edition of the Camelback still exist today…
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1910 – 86, 414 British bike riders have registered their machines. By this year 31 U.S. motorcycle companies are in still in production, although several have fallen by the wayside
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An ad for the Flying Merkel V-Twin Touring Model
1911 – The U.S. built Flying Merkel came in both race and street trim. The touring version was one of the first motorcycles to employ suspension beyond just seat springs and rubber tires. A monoshock system mounted beneath the seat supported the rear wheel while twin springs suspended the front forks.
The advanced suspension design reportedly produced the addition of “Flying” term to the Merkel name while others say it was its speed, performance that left its
competitors literally in the dust.
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Flying Prices
Seen here is a competition model with the advanced suspension of touring model. It sold for $75,000 at a 2007 auction. White tires are correct for the period prior to
coloring added to tires to keep them cleaner appearing.
1911 – Piercing the Envelope – The Luxury Motorcycle
A company ad summed it up when it stated, “Pierce motorcycles are not made to compete in price but to surpass in quality. It is a deluxe motorcycle for discriminating riders.” Pierce had become in 1909 the first American motorcycle offering a four-cylinder engine. The company was a leading edge in all things with wheels including bicycles, cars, motorcycles. The company’s guiding force George N. Pierce started all the wheels rolling as the founder of both the Great Arrow Motor Car Company and the Pierce Cycle Company, both enterprises located in Buffalo, New York. Pierce-Arrow automobiles were the acknowledged “prestige cares” circa 1901-38.
Comparison of 1905 Belgian FN and 1911 Pierce Four design shows line of inspiration.
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But it was George’s son Percy who steered the company toward motorcycles after he was given charge of the company’s bicycle activities in 1908. It seems that Percy had a been bitten by the bike bug after a trip overseas to Belgium where he encountered the now famous FN four-cylinder machine designed by Paul Kelecom. So impressed in fact, he purchased one and brought it home to Buffalo and went on to develop the Pierce line of fine motorcycles in keeping with the reputation of their fine motor cars.
The sophisticated lines of the elegantly designed machine can be attributed to the 3.5 inch diameter, 18 gauge steel frame tubes that were internally copper plated. The upper and rear frame tubes could hold seven quarts of fuel while the front downtube carried five pints of oil all of which served to feed and nourish the 592cc single cylinder capable of propelling its rider to the then dizzying speed of 55 mph all with the “efficiency of a twin with the simplicity of single-cylinder construction.”
The Pierce was described as “The Vibrationless Motorcycle” and appeared in both single and four-cylinder models, successes both with sales to 14 different countries.
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1912 – The Seat Wars Heat Up
While announcing their new model year line-up of bikes, Harley-Davidson took the opportunity to flail out at the competition who allegedly infringed on their patented “Ful-Floteing Seat” by announcing a “spring seat post” seat. Besides the unusual spelling, the Motor Co. also warned that that “any other infringements will just as rigidly be prosecuted… to the full extent of the law.”
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1912 – Henderson Four Cylinder – Elegance in Motion or at Rest
An ad appearing on March 28, 1912 in the pages of The Motorcyclist magazine
Touts the passenger accommodations of the Pierce-4.
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Detroit-based Tom and William Henderson had started building their four cylinder machines in 1912; those four individually cast cylinders mated to an aluminum crankcase on three main bearings. Instead of pedal start, standard for the day, the design employed a car-style crankshaft, the very nature of the inline-four imparting an automotive aura to the long wheel-based machine that exuded elegance, refinement and grace of movement. It offered the rider the smooth transmission of power, fine handling and easily controllable operation. It would establish a benchmark for others to follow.
From 1912-1916 the Henderson Four round tank, long wheel-base was produced in a variety of configurations while the 1912 and 1913 garner the most favor. While the machines are single speed and do not have transmissions they did feature a small clutch on the motor sprocket chain drive. Other features included a rear band brake, rear mounted tool box, dual brake pedals and interesting footboards.
Within the last two decades it is estimated that less than half a dozen 1913 Henderson Fours have appeared worldwide. In a not so hostile takeover bicycle mogul Ignaz Schwinn acquired the vaunted Excelsior company in 1911 and then in 1917 acquired another “trophy” company in the form of the Henderson Motorcycle Co. purveyors of the now iconic Henderson Four seen here.
1913 – Bike registrations in England have jumped to 180,000, nearly a 100,000
added in the previous three years.
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1914– Cyclone Whips Up on the Competition
For a brief, though brilliant moment, the American made Cyclone was in the spotlight, its prowess earning it praise “the most feared competition machine of the era.”
Its first appearance took place in early 1914 at a California dirt tracks facing off against the top dogs of the day, Harleys and the new Indian 8-valve racer that was also making its first showing at the tracks. When the checkered flag fell, it had vanquished all that came up against reaching speeds of 105 mph. It even set a record when racing and winning against the reigning King of Speed, Barney Oldfield driving his then famous 300 HP racecar.
Just as suddenly as its star had risen, the Cyclone faded from the race tracks, the company falling into financial hard times, folding altogether in 1915. Cyclones in private hands continued to appear in events for several years, however as late as 1922, Cyclone motorcycles were banned from many competitions because deemed “they were too fast for the tracks.” Or, too fast for the other manufacturers still in the business of selling motorcycles to the public?
1915 – U.S. motorcycle registrations had skyrocket to an estimated 180,000. But by the 1932, of over 300 total original builders, only two will have survived:
Indian and Harley-Davidson.
