MOTORCYCLES

Motorcycles lack a history traceable to a particular individual’s inventiveness or engineering skills.

Rather, the concept seems to have occurred too many people at a similar time, as a logical descendant to the safety bicycle.

Pierre Michaux, a blacksmith in Paris founded Michaux et Cie in the late 1860’s which became the first company to produce bicycles with pedals; known as velocipedes. His son, Ernest, fitted a steam engine to a velocipede and in doing so created the world’s first steam powered motorcycle which was demonstrated in 1870.

The first petrol powered motorcycle was essentially a motorized bicycle built in 1885 by German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, in Bad Cannstatt, now a district of Stuttgart.

The first commercially available motorcycle was brought to the market in 1894 by Hildebrand and Wolfmuller, in Munich.

Soon many designs began to emerge as bicycle makers adapted their machines to accommodate the internal combustion engine.

By the mid 1930’s there were over 80 motorcycle makes available in Britain, including famous marques such as Vincent, Norton, Triumph and BSA, with many mergers and company failures, yet a retention of market dominance until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when the Japanese manufacturers led by Honda introduced more modern, stylish, very reliable and less expensive machines. This led to the rapid decline of the British motorcycle industry.

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