First Motorcycles

[sparky3008]

I am sure many of you have seen the television special showing the invention of the Harley Davidson and what a great break through it was.

Well, as much as I love watching that show the HD design is no more original than saying Bill Gates invented the computer.

Many bikes were before the HD some steam power bikes, others with wooden frames called "bone crushers" were as early as 1885.

In 1895 the French firm of DeDion-Buton truely made the engine that was mass produced and was later copied by Indian and yes HD...

Leave it to the French

https://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmuseum/firstbike.html

 

[PapaUtah]

Old Indian riders were known to push their Indians home rather than ride a Harley. HD was the scorned make for many years early on. You can still buy a bike just like those early 1900's bikes right now! Just stop on down to your local HD dealer. It'll cost ya' but you too can drive a glorified piece of irrigation equipment.

 

[sparky3008]

Bah!!!

Maybe I just need to learn to let things go but at 36 I haven't learned how yet!!!

I have too many locals riding harleys that always want to ask me why I bought such and such.

They just don't seem to get it that they are riding hype, advertising, etc etc and I am riding a piece of modern engineering.

I had one that started to say but I can ride longer on mine.

Nope cut him off real quick with a I ride straight up just like you!! and I didn't have to buy an aftermarket moter (S&S) to get some real power :haha:

 

[FJRottie]

I have had harleys so I can say this,

but I can ride longer on mine.

HA HA HA HA HA HA. Whatever. It starts leaking oil at 60 mph and parts fall off at 80 mph. :beee:

 

[red2kcbr]

OK, FJRRottie, I'm calling BS on your last statement. 80 mph on a Harley? BS!

 

[FJRottie]

Small tidbit of info;

Michaux - Perreaux Steam Velocipede seems to have been the known "first". It was created around 1868 - 1871 in France.

Bore and Stroke 58x100mm. Top speed was reputed to be a staggering 20 mph

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Steam propulsion? for a motorcycle?, is this a motorbike? if so then the first one may will have been an American invention. One such machine was demonstrated at fairs and circuses in the eastern US in around 1867. It was built by Sylvester Howard Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

There is a machine, dated 1869, powered by a charcoal-fired two-cylinder engine, whose connecting rods directly drive a crank on the rear wheel. This machine predates the invention of the safety bicycle by many years, so its chassis is a "bone-crusher" non-springed type.

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Gottlieb Daimler is however largely credited with building the first motorcycle in around 1885, wheels front back, but had a smaller spring-loaded outrigger stabiliser wheel on each side. It was constructed mostly of wood, with the wheels being iron-banded wooden-spoked.

It was powered by a single-cylinder 264cc Otto-cycle engine, and possibly a spray-type carburetor. (Daimler's assistant, Wilhelm Maybach was working on the invention of the spray carburetor around this time). Power Output 0.5hp @ 600rpm

Top Speed 7mph or so

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The French firm of DeDion-Buton built an engine that was to make the mass production and common use of motorcycles possible.

It was a small, light, high revving four-stroke single, and used battery-and-coil ignition, doing away with the troublesome hot-tube. Bore and stroke figures of 50mm by 70mm gave a displacement of 138cc. A total loss lubrication system was employed to drip oil into the crankcase through a metering valve, which then sloshed around to lubricate and cool components before dumping it on the ground via a breather.

DeDion-Buton used this 1/2 horsepower powerplant in roadgoing trikes, but the engine was copied and used by everybody, including Indian and Harley-Davidson in the U.S.

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The first USA production motorcycle was the Orient-Aster, built by the Metz Company in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1898

It used an Aster engine which was a French-built copy of the DeDion-Buton. It predated the Indian (1901) by three years, and Harley-Davidson (1903) by five.

 

[madmike2]

My HD riding buddies still love it when I call their bikes "John Deeres". I've ben known to include spray cans of John Deere Green in their Christmas/Birthday gifts.