THE HISTORY OF
MOTORCYCLE
A BRIEF DISCUSSION
INTRODUCTION
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or, if three-wheeled, a trike) is a two or
three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar from a saddle-style
seat.
Motorcycle designs vary 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 being involved in other
related social activities such as joining a motorcycle club and
attending motorcycle rallies .
The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm
Maybach in Germany was the first internal combustion, petroleum-fueled
motorcycle. In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series
production motorcycle.
Globally, motorcycles are comparable numerically to cars as a method of
transport: in 2021, approximately 58.6 million new motorcycles were sold
around the world , while 66.7 million cars were sold over the same period.
In 2022, the top four motorcycle producers by volume and type
were Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki .
According to the US Department of Transportation , the number of fatalities
per vehicle mile traveled was 37 times higher for motorcycles than for cars.
TYPES OF MOTORCYCLES
There are three major types of motorcycle: 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, such as road racing and
street bikes, or motocross including dirt bikes.
Street bikes include cruisers, sport bikes , scooters
and mopeds, and many other types. Off-road motorcycles
include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes
such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas.
Dual purpose machines like the dual-sport style are made to
go off-road but include features to make them legal and
comfortable on the street as well.
Each configuration offers either specialized advantage or
broad capability, and each design creates a different riding
posture.
In some countries the use of pillions (rear seats) is restricted.
EXPERIMENT
The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was
the Daimler Reitwagen . It was designed and built by the German
inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt ,
Germany, in [Link] vehicle was unlike either the safety bicycles
or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees
of 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 inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). It
was designed as an expedient test bed for their new engine, rather
than a true prototype vehicle.
Butler's Patent Velocycle The first commercial design for a self-
propelled cycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol
Cycle, conceived of Edward Butler in England in 1884. He exhibited
his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in
1884. The vehicle was built by the Merry weather Fire Engine
company in Greenwich, in 1888.
PICTURES OF MOTORCYCLES