Welcome to Rider and Road: Classic Motorcycles

This is a view of a road over the handlebars of the 1969 Honda CB750 Super Sport Motorcycle.  To the right is a BMW K1600GT-L motorcycle, which is the current state of the art in large touring motorcycles. 

This web site was created originally to preserve information on the history of the Classic Motorcycle.  This is the Classic Motorcycles web page of Rider and Road.  There are several sections to this web site.  It is constantly changing.

A Dictionary of terms is provided to enable the development of a clear understanding of the technology that is being discussed.  It starts with the most basic terms which are used to describe the fundamental design elements of motorcycles, particularly engine technology and is being constantly expanded to include such elements as those encountered in peripheral technologies used on motorcycles. The first word that should be looked up should be Motorcycle.   The Classic Motorcycle is defined in the Dictionary.

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Gallery

There is a new gallery in use now.  It uses different software and might not be as complete as the old gallery.  The Gallery has detailed information on the specifications of many moto bicycles and motorcycles, mopeds, and scooters. 

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Web Log

In the same vein as the Gallery, the Web Log has detailed information on many topics and specific motor bicycles, motorcycles, and occasionally other items as well.  This will contain some historic information that is too detailed and too large for the timelines. The Web Log is titled Typical Nonsense.  It's intended to to illustrate some ironic aspects to history as well as to be highly critical of some accepted practices.

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Motorcycles

The First "Motorcycles"

For the sake of expediency an allowance is made for the early motorized bicycles in that they will be called motorcycles.  That is to say, that because the vast majority of existing historical documents make this error, it will be repeated here.

This means, among other things, that the Daimler Reitwagen, the first true motorcycle, is correctly labeled a motorcycle, but the hundreds of moto bicycles that came later are not.  This leads into the further discussion of what is the first REAL Motorcycle.

Opinion Poll:

Which of these is the first REAL Motorcycle?

Several of the earliest motorized bicycles and motorcycles are illustrated here.  You can add your choice as to which you consider to be the first true motorcycle.  

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Timeline

The vast majority of modern motorcycles today are a result of the success of Etienne Lenoir, who in 1860 developed the internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas.  This is therefore the starting point in time of this website's timeline.

The timelines are broken down in Eras based on significant design development.  There is a significant events timeline at the beginning of each page which links to a more detailed description of that event which can be clicked on to jump to that event's detailed description .  There are more events in the timeline than have links at the beginning of the page. 

Significant Events Only

This site does not cover every development and every historical reference to machines which may seem to be part of the evolution of the Classic Motorcycle.  There have been hundreds of engineers and companies that created a single example of technology that unfortunately, for one reason or another, did not contribute to the evolution of the motorcycle. 

A good example of this would be the world's first motorcycle, or in this case the Steam Velocipede.  In the late 19th century in France the largest bicycle maker was the Michaux company.  Their engineers attached a small Perreaux steam engine to a bicycle to create the first motorcycle in 1868.  This however did not lead to the modern motorcycle. The 1868 Michaux-Perreaux was not successful. None of the steam powered devices are significant except as footnotes.  They did not lead to the development of the modern motorcycle and deserve no credit in the timeline of development.

There have been 3200 motorcycle manufacturers.  A few will be mentioned in the timelines due to a lack of significant contribution to the history as related to the Classic motorcycle.  Some brands which are not illustrated here are well covered elsewhere.  So the prime criterion for inclusion is whether the motorcycle contributed to the evolution of the Classic Motorcycle.

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Spotlight

Motorcycles  details a few of the motorcycles which were instrumental in the development of the modern Classic motorcycle.  Can you spot the picture at the top of this page that is NOT a motorcycle?

Motorcycle Manufacturers

Old Versus New:

For a little bit of fun there is a page contrasting how motorcycle design has changed called Old versus New.  The purpose of course is to point out that older is in some ways better.  This is also a comment on the passing away of the Classic Motorcycle and it's replacement with a number of specialized model types which neglect some of the prime design aspects that made the Classic a practical machine to use and own as opposed to some of the new machines which are single passenger.

High Performance Technology

The term High Performance is a term meaning excellence in the accomplishment of the designed for purpose of any device or system.  In most of the world the small motorcycles that are used to transport goods and provide basic transportation have been developed to a high state of the art for that purpose.  These machines seldom have the ability to reach speeds over 60 miles per hour, but they help people in their day to day lives.  The world utility motorcycle (type UM) is a high performance motorcycle.

 It is just one of several specialized types that now exist.  The motorcycle shown here is the Honda Super Cub which was developed in 1958.  It has sold in numbers exceeding 60 Million. 

Motorcycle Usefulness

Motorcycles have a number of uses depending on the economic conditions in various localities around the world.  The nations that use motorcycles the most, use them for commercial purposes.  These account for the vast majority of motorcycles in use in the world today with their numbers in the hundreds of millions.  These motorcycles are small, very economical, durable, and affordable where automobiles typically are not.

The economical operation and low cost of the commercial motorcycle (UM) has been the primary reason for it's success throughout it's history.  When nations are transitioning from first generation agrarian economies into industrial economies the motorcycle has played a role throughout it's history of providing communication (the current popular term is mobility) to large numbers of people who are just beginning to be able to afford the low cost motorcycle.

The ability of the Classic Motorcycle, often with an accessory sidecar to increase it's carrying capacity, to operate on bad or non-existent roads has been important from the earliest days of the motorcycle.  Such three wheeled machines are still widely used and are manufactured primarily in Asia.

Prosperity, on the other hand, eliminates the need for the utility motorcycle in the developed economies. Motorcycles are replaced by  small, economical, and much more practical automobiles when the populace in general can afford an automobile.  In Europe and the USA small affordable automobiles have damaged the ability of motorcycle makes to compete.  An automobile is an all weather practical conveyance, where a motorcycle is a good weather conveyance for all but the most die hard riders.

During recovery periods after major disasters motorcycles have occasionally proven to be useful to help restore economies destroyed by political changes even in developed nations.  The last period of time when this occurred was after 1945 after much of Europe and Japan were in ruins.

In this locality (The State of Maryland in the United States), motorcycles are used mostly for sport and travel and rarely for commercial purposes.  The types of motorcycles used are large, expensive, heavy, and uneconomical while sometimes producing a great deal of pollution.  Motorcycle types vary a great deal which is dealt with here. 

In the parts of the world which have achieved a high degree of industrial development and efficiency the motorcycle has no purpose beyond being a sporting device.  This includes most of Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and many other areas where the state of economic development allows people to use more efficient methods of transportation for their daily commerce, such as railroads, busses, and private automobiles.  In these areas the motorcycle is developed for sporting use when people have the leisure time to use it.  This web site deals with leisure sport motorcycles primary, those which meet the criterion of Classic Motorcycles.

Throughout the world there are motorcycles of all types being used in all areas, some  provide economic benefits and some used for sport. The motorcycle at the right is another Honda model.  This is the 1969 Honda CB750 Super Sport.  It's criterion for judgment has to do with how fast it can accelerate and decelerate, how high it's top speed is, and how well it handles riding on the road.  It is not intended to be economical, cheap, or useful on the roads found in much of the developing areas of our world.  It is however the epitome of high performance design as a Classic Motorcycle.

The motorcycle represents a natural progression in technology as nations progress from a first generation industrial society where the majority of people work in agriculture (as was the case in the United States in 1776 for example when 50+ percent of the people were planters), toward a second generation industrial society where machines start to alleviate some of the manual labor that an individual must accomplish in daily commerce.

The motorcycle developed in this time, and became a less expensive alternative to using animals  and human powered bicycles for transportation and commerce.  The first automobiles were very expensive and far beyond the reach of people who were increasingly having to commute longer distances to factories in order to obtain work and to procure needed supplies. 

Outside of the developing nations motorcycles have very little importance.  They are luxury items with very little usefulness. 

Manufacturing Efficiency

Motorcycle manufacturers have been caught out at times by massive political and economic upheavals.  Many makers failed during depression years due to fixed costs of operation that could not support their continued existence in a time of low sales.  Many failed for far more basic reasons.  The early makers of two wheeled motorized transport, which we lump into a lose category today and refer to them as motorcycles, were in many instances small firms with little technical ability who purchased components from larger makers such as BSA, De Dion-Bouton, and others to assemble motorized bicycles which were of little quality, and so failed in short order.

The most successful motorized bicycle makers were those who were already established as industrial manufacturers with experience in mass production and who possessed the machinery or the technical ability to develop new machinery rapidly to increase their production of efficiency.  Production of efficiency is simply a way to say that a product has to be produced at a cost low enough that it can be sold for profit.

After world war one the majority of motorcycle production soon came from Germany.  Discouraged from making the products that had aided the war effort many German companies turned to motorcycle manufacture in an attempt to survive.  One in particular developed new methods of manufacture that soon resulted in taking the world's top producer title away from BSA. 

This was the DKW company.  This company was developed originally to manufacture steam engines and equipment.  They had produced a small two cycle engine as a toy, and found such success that they soon produced motorcycles.  DKW developed advanced manufacturing techniques that lowered cost while also developing efficient production.  DKW became the world's largest maker by 1928 and retained that position until 1951 when BSA regained it.  It was their superior method of production combined with having the best engine technology that created this success.

In 1951 BSA regained the title of the world's largest producer largely due to buying several other makers, such as Triumph, and gaining their sales. German companies also restarted motorcycle production after 1946, but lost much of their technology to treaty.  By 1958 NSU had gained the title of world's largest maker, which it held for a short time.

In Europe in the 50s prosperity killed off one motorcycle company after another as efficient production techniques were applied to automobiles.  Just as Henry Ford's Model T had killed off most of the US motorcycle makers the German company of Auto Union had such success with automobiles built on their brand new production lines that they stopped motorcycle production.  Only one significant motorcycle maker remained, that was BMW.

The German exit from motorcycle production opened the door to several rapidly rising Japanese companies who based their technology solidly on German designs from the 40s.  Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki all started to use modern production techniques,  learned from the Europeans to make motorcycles with undreamed of efficiency of production. 

Honda was the first and so gained a large lead over the far larger companies of Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki, which are the only significant Japanese makers of the 200 which existed in 1955 to survive today. Kawasaki absorbed the oldest of the Japanese motorcycle makers to survive when they purchased Meguro.

Honda had purchased 10 Billion Yen worth of the most advanced production equipment available in the early 50s.  He purchase machinery from Europe and the United States that gave his company the ability to produce products far cheaper than his competitors.  By 1958 Honda has become the largest maker of motorcycles in Japan, and by 1961 the largest in the world.
 

The Engine

When looking at a motorcycle the most outstanding feature is immediately apparent.  The dominant feature of a motorcycle is it's Engine.  Early motorcycle engines had very large displacements but produced very little power while using huge amounts of fuel and producing huge clouds of air pollution. 

It was always easy to tell where a motorcycle had been due to the pools of oil left on the ground.  Watching a rider of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the 50s was always a bit amusing as they had to jump up and down on the kick starter for what seemed to be an eternity before their huge and weak engines would finally start.

The reliability of motorcycles was incredibly poor prior to the 1950s but rose to a high level with the improvement of all automobile technology that occurred after 1970, particularly with the widespread use of unleaded fuel and highly efficient and reliable electrical systems.  Engine design started to leap forward when the Japanese, lead by Honda, began to develop engines based on the best engines used in European Grand Prix racing.  The section on  Engines illustrates the types of engines commonly used on Classic motorcycles.

Flags of Nations

In the timeline year by year detail there is a flag of the nation where the event took place.  Some of the flags change with time.  The German national flag changes from the Imperial Flag, to the Flag of the Weimar Republic, to the Nazi Flag and then back to the flag of modern Germany.  Since Germany was divided for a time, the East German nation also has a flag which disappears with reunification of the nation.

The Flag of Imperial Russia was replaced by the flag of the Soviet Union, and today the flag of the Russian Republic.  Many nations have not had a flag change, such as France, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. 

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Centricity:

In the detailed listings of the time lines are small images of National Flags.  These give an accurate appreciation of where the technologies that created the motorcycle and the automobile industry have originated.  This is not as balanced a view as would be desired simply because the volume of material is vast.  Some areas are neglected due to political reasons.  The nations which made up the Soviet Union produced vast numbers of motorcycles, which are almost unknown here.  The many makers from Japan are often ignored as many were very small, and did not survive.  The British cottage industries are well covered largely because their histories are written in English, but those of other nations are not.

Some nations have their many small and insignificant makes well covered elsewhere.  The United States has a single motorcycle maker of significance.  These are not going to be dwelt on here except where they made significant contributions to technical advancement, or were involved in scandals.

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Author email to Classic Rider
Rider-and-Road
Bel Air, Maryland, USA

This web site is part of Bel Air PC, an computer technology company.
First published in 2000.