The history of the motorcycle begins in the second
half of the 19th century. Motorcycles are descended from the "safety
bicycle," a bicycle with front and rear wheels of the same size and a
pedal crank mechanism to drive the rear wheel. Despite some early landmarks in
its development, the motorcycle lacks a rigid pedigree that can be traced back
to a single idea or machine. Instead, the idea seems to have occurred to
numerous engineers and inventors around Europe at around the same time.
Although the first person to put a motor on a
bicycle must have seemed crazy at the time, the motorcycle has found an
enduring space in the public imagination. Spanning three centuries of
development and fascination, its beginnings were almost too humble to predict
the monster machines that crowd the motorways today.
The very first, non-commercial vehicles that could
be designated as motorcycles (almost) were mid-Victorian, and they of course
used steam as their main source of propulsion. Like something out of a Jules
Verne novel, inventors such as French bicycle manufacturer Ernest Michaux
simply fitted a small steam engine to a ‘velocipede’ (basically any modern
bicycle forerunner), and tooled around town burning their legs on hot steam and
hotter dreams. Steam engines came in both the alcohol and coal-burning variety,
and it’s frankly a mystery how anyone managed to stay atop one.
It wasn’t until the 1890s that what we know as the
modern motorcycle was born. Coincidentally, this also heralded the invention of
the first motorcycles available for public purchase. Gone were the
steam-pumping of old; internal combustion now provided propulsion for the
motorcycle. German engineers Hildebrand and Wolfmuller pipped American and
British manufacturers – including the Excelsior Motor Company, Royal Enfield
and Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company (US) – to the commercial post by
introducing their eponymous internal combustion model in 1894, which was also
the first model to be referred to as a ‘motorcycle’ (motorrad). But they only
produced a couple thousand bikes in total and couldn’t keep up with their
larger counterparts.
The First World War saw an increased interest in
motorcycles for war communications, and at one point American manufacturer
Harley-Davidson (founded 1903) had devoted 50 per cent of its output to the war
effort. Messengers on motorcycles became a more familiar sight than those on
horseback, and the British company Triumph, which had switched from bicycles to
motorcycles in 1902, got in on the action with its 1915 Model H. Often
considered the first ‘modern’ motorcycle, the Triumph Model H had no pedals and
a reputation for reliability – essential in the midst of combat.
Harley-Davidson became the largest manufacturer of
motorcycles in the world after World War 1, thanks in part to its wartime
profits. Manufacture from all nations ramped up as peacetime citizens became
even more interested in the machine, and the better the technology got, the
faster the bikes went. By the Second World War, production motorcycle speeds
were reaching 100 miles per hour, such as the unbelievably expensive Brough
Superior – manufactured in Nottingham, England – which was a favourite of T.E.
Lawrence (or Lawrence of Arabia). Lawrence ultimately died of injuries from a
crash while riding his beloved Brough.
Another world war saw motorbikes in combat, and
later gave rise to a new culture where motorbikes were used for recreation and
to project a certain lifestyle. Motorcycles were being designed to cater to an
image as well as a function, and they got bigger, meaner, louder and faster
than ever before. In 1949 the Vincent Black Shadow, produced by the British
Vincent Motorcycles as a sports-orientated model, gained (and held onto for 24
years) the land speed motorbike record of 125 miles per hour.
While American and European manufacturers dominated
the modern motorcycle field for close to a century, the Japanese took a fair
share of the market after the Second World War thanks to their low-cost,
high-performance models. American and European firms suffered from talent drain
and higher costs, and today Japanese manufacturers such as Kawasaki and Suzuki
dominate the industry, despite many enthusiasts’ loyalty to more traditional
brands.
0 comments:
Post a Comment