The first Motorbikes
The first motorbike was made in the second half of the 19th
century, In the 1860s Pierre Michaux a French
black smith founded the Michaux company ‘Michaux et Cie’. They first company to
make bicycles with pedals they were known as velocipede at the time. The first
steam powered motorcycle, the Michaux-Perreaux steam veloipede, it was made in 1867 when Pierre's son Ernest Michaux fitted a small steam engine to one of the velocipedes.
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| Michaux-Perreaux steam veloipede. Picture from - http://www.oldtimerworld.be/PuddingBasins/index.htm |
An American
Sylvester H. Roper made a new style bike with a coal-fired boiler between the
wheels. In 1868, a French engineer Louis-Guillaume Pereaux made a similar steam
powered single bike but instead he used an alcohol burner and belt drives. In
1881 Lucius Copeland from Arizona made a bike with a smaller boiler and with a
larger rear wheel. Lucius Copeland in 1887 started the company Northrop
Manufacturing Co. and produced the first Motorbike it was a three wheeler.
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| Butler Petrol Cycle Picture from - http://www.motorpasionmoto.com |
The first commercial designed
motorbike was the Butler Petrol Cycle. This was invented by English man Edward
Butler in 1884.
The first commercial produce of
motorbikes were the Hildebrand and Wolfmüller. The Excelsior Motor Company
started produce of this bike in 1898 in England. The first production in
America was in the Waltham factory in Massachusetts the made the Orient-Aster
motor bike made by Charles Metz.
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| Hildebrand & Wolfmüller Picture from - http://thevintagent.blogspot.ie |
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| Orient-Aster picture from - http://www.vf750fd.com/blurbs/first.html |
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