History of Motorcycles (15-5-2020)

 History of Motorcycles

A motorcycle often called a bike, the motorbike is a two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising, sport including racing, and off-road riding. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and related social activity such as joining a motorcycle club and attending motorcycle rallies.

There are three major types of motorcycles: street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many sub-types of motorcycles for different purposes. There is often a racing counterpart to each type.

The first internal combustion, petroleum fuelled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach (in Bad Cannstatt), Germany in 1885. This vehicle was unlike either the safety bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees of the steering axis angle and no fork offset, and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning.

The Daimler Reitwagen was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885 and is widely recognized as the first motorcycle. It remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, with four strokes 264cc engine, air cooled and weighing 90 kg.

                                       
   Fig. - 1

  • 1894 – “Hildebrand & Wolfmüller” was the first mass-produced motorcycle in the world (As shown in Fig. - 2). Sadly, only several hundred units were produced. After that year, many more motorcycle makers started building their designs around the world.
Fig. - 2

  • 1895 – The first motorcycle came to the USA via the French circus group. In the same year, American inventor E.J. Pennington demonstrated his first version of a motorcycle that had a top speed of 58mph(As shown in Fig. - 3).
Fig. - 3

  • 1900 – Werner Brothers submitted the first motorcycle patent (As shown in Fig. - 4).
Fig. - 4

  • 1901-1903 – Several big manufacturing plants started their production of motorcycles, most notably English Royal Enfield, Triumph, American Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company. During that time begun the first organized motorcycle races, which in return increased demand for faster and powerful engines and designs.
  • 1928 – German company DKW managed to become the largest motorcycle maker in the world, surpassing American builders Indian and Harley-Davidson.
  • 1930 – Before the start of Second World War, there were over 30 models of motorcycles in England.
  • the 1950s – After the end of Second World War, American War veterans started gathering themselves into loosely organized motorcycle clubs. They become very famous after their portrayal in Marlon Brando’s 1954 film “The Wild One”.
  • 1959 – Japanese company Honda became the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, surpassing German NSU.
  • the 1960s – British motorcycle dominance faded away during the 1960s with the appearance of several large Japanese manufacturers - Suzuki, Kawasaki, and the Yamaha.
  • 1990 – Japanese supreme dominance lasted all up to the 1990s when several American and Italian companies begun expanding their markets.

Development in New Era – Today beside Japanese companies several other manufacturers hold a sizable piece of the market. Most notably there are BMW, Ducati, Victory, and Harley-Davidson Now a day various commercial motorcycle companies have introduced various types of motorcycles into the market depending upon the need of consumers from 100 cc engine to 2000 cc engine.


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