H. B.

SMITH STEAM TRICYCLE

New Jersey manufacturer Hezekiah Bradley Smith patented a steam
powered tricycle in 1889. He also built the American Star Bicycle, which
sold for $150 in a time when an average income for a man was $500.
Smith did very well with his manufacturing business, and was elected to
Congress in 1879. He purchased the town of Shreveville New Jersey and
invested vast sums of money to make it an industrial center. He renamed
the town Smithville, and the town still hosts the company Smith founded,
the Smith Machine Co.
COPELAND STEAM MOTORCYCLE
In 1884, Arizona engineer Lucius Day Copeland combined a highwheeled
bicycle driven by levers, with a small steam engine, with the result being a
steam powered motorcycle. The steam engine developed about 1/4 hp, and
had the boiler and gasoline heater buillt around the steering column. A flat
leather belt drove the large rear wheel. The machine would attain about 15
mph, and carried enough fuel and water for an hour of operation. The
"bicycle" Copeland started with appears to be like the one patented by
Lorenz, shown below.
Lucius D. Copeland and his steam bicycle, 1884.
Copeland didn't get any financial backing on the steam bicycle so he built
in tricycle form, which is shown in his 1887 patent.
FIRST AMERICAN ELECTRIC CAR
At the age of 14 Andrew Riker built an electric motor in his parent's
basement in New York City. Riker later built the first electric vehicle in
the United States, in the form of a battery powered tricycle. It was called
the Riker Electric. A Riker electric tricycle beat a gasoline automobile
built by Duryea in a race in 1896. the Riker electric was built until 1900,
when Riker switched to building gasoline powered automobiles.

Riker made electric trucks, and built a two person racer which set the
world land speed record in 1901 at 57.1 mph. One of his vehicles set a
speed record that endured for 10 years. Riker was hired by the Locomobile
company to design a gasoline powered car for them, and switched his
interest to gasoline engine automobiles.
MOTORCYCLE SNOW CONVERSION KIT
Some people really hate having to put away their motorcycle for the winter,
when the backcountry is covered in snow and the old two wheeler just can't
travel over snow. Tim Jordan of Donnelly, Idaho had the same urge.
Except he thought it would be nice to modify his two wheelers so that they
could operate in snow. First he modified a bicycle. A prototype of the
bicycle version is below.

Then he built a kit for converting a motorcycle to snow use. He now makes
kits for converting a motorcycle to snow use, which can be seen at his site,
Snoxcycle.com.

Of course, he's patent pending on the kit, and it has some special features
that are improvements over other such conversions.
1896 MOTORCYCLE, WITH HEATED HANDLEBARS
This nifty bicycle/ motorcycle has a motor to the rear of the back wheel,
and what is exceptional about this motorcycle is that the exhaust from the
gasoline engine is routed into the bike frame, so that the foot pegs and
handlebars can be heated. The inventor is from Ohio, so this modification
would help the motorcycle be a year around mode of transportation.

The rear wheel is driven by the actual piston rods of the gas engine, like an
old steam locomotive.
GLENN CURTISS JUST NEEDED A LITTLE MORE POWER!
Glenn Curtiss had an early interest in bicycles, and opened a bicycle shop
in Hammondsport, New York. Not content to sell bicycles, he was soon
building his own products, and designing new models. When small, one
cylinder motors were put on bicycles, he left the world of bycicles and
entered the world of engines and motorcycles. He designed his own
lightweight engines, and the motorcycles they powered. In 1907 Curtiss
drove a motorcycle with an air cooled V-8 engine to a speed of 136 miles
an hour. The engine delivered 40 hp, and weighed 275 pounds. According
to a Scientific American article of the day, the motorcycle experienced a
broken universal joint at 90 mph, which buckled the frame. The record
made him the fastest human on a motorcycle or car, until a car beat that
speed 11 years later. A motorcycle would not beat that speed until 1930.
Curtiss' speed was actually slower than an earlier Stanley Steamer that
achieved 140- 150 mph, but that run was not an officially timed event.
Looking at the picture below, I'm not sure I'd want to go 136 mph on
bicycle wheels.
Cutriss was drawn into the field of avaition because of his lightweight yet
powerful motors, and competed with the Wright brothers as pioneer
avaiator and airplane designer. He designed the first float plane, aelerons,
and many other new features in airplanes. Curtiss airplanes served in
WWI, and Curtiss' company became Curtiss Wright when it merged with
the successors of the Wright Brothers.

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THE NSU MOTORCYCLE OF 1901
The first NSU motorcycle rolled out of a sewing machine factory turned
bicycle factory turned motorcycle factory, in 1901. The NSW factory was
in Neckarsulm Germany. The 1901 model used a motor made by the Swiss
company called Zedal. It was a 234 cc engine which put out 1.75 horse
power, and had a top speed of 48 km/hr, or 31 mph. It had a bicycle type
frame, which made sense since it was made in a bicycle factory. In bicycle
fashion, it has a chain and freewheel, and a bicycle brake on the front
wheel. NSR went on to make motorcycles, sidecars, and tracked
motorcycles for the German army in WWII.
EARLY FRONT BIKE SUSPENSION
This front suspension seems to be the precursor to early springer
motorcycle forks. The beefy springs allowed the front wheel and forks to
move upward and absorb some road shocks.
DE DION BOUTON MOTORCYCLE 1897
Albert de Dion started a company in France with partner Georges Bouton
to build steam engined vehicles. Later they switched to gasoline burning
vehicles, including a tricycle. They obtained a patent on a single cylinger
gasoline engine in 1890 and started production in 1895. The engine was
fitted to a tricycle. It included the .75 hp engine, a carbuerettor, high
voltage ignition with a spark plug and a timing cam. The tricycle came in
fourth racing against four wheeled vehicles in a race from Paris to
Marseille and back, using Michelin tires. In 1899 the de Dion-Bouton
tricycle won an uphill race in Austria and gained much fame and
popularity.

De Dion-Bouton made cars and tricycles, and later motorcycles, and sold
engines to other companies.
THE WERNER MOTORCYCLE
The brothers Michel and Eugene Werner, Russian immigrants in Paris,
built a motorcycle in 1897 based on a bicycle frame. It had a motor
mounted over the front wheel, and drove the front wheel by a belt. It
proved to be top heavy and hard to control, so an improved model was built
with the motor mounted low on the frame. In 1900 the improved model
was released using a de Dion four stroke single cylinder 230 cc engine.
The 1.5 hp engine drove the rear wheel with a belt, and pedal power was
retained as a back up and to get the motorcycle up to speed before the
motor was engaged, since there was no clutch. The engines were small, but
the frame was very light, so the Werner had a great power to weight ratio.
Drawing is from Motorcycles of the 20th Century.
EARLY MOTORCYCLE
Here is an early motorcycle which is an adaption of a bicycle. The motor is
below the frame, and the gas tank is attached to the seat tube. The motor
grabs the bicycle chain in front of the chainwheel, and takes over from the
bike rider. It appears that the pedals would be furiously spinning as the
motor drove the bike, so I don't know what the rider did with his feet.
Maybe the motor didn't turn the pedals so fast that the rider could not keep
his feet on the pedals. There is a throttle on the handlebar.
THE HILDEBRAND & WOLFMULLER
Alois Wolfmuller patented a two wheeled vehicle in Germany in 1893, and
formed a partnership with the brothers Hildebrand. The Hildebrand &
Wolfmuller motorcycle was designed from the frame up to be a
motorcycle, unlike other motorcycles like Roper's and others that were
modified bicycles. The H & W frame was angled and built to house the
internal combustion engine. The engine was a two cylinder four stroke
engine that drove the rear hub with connecting rods, like a steam
locomotive. The engine was 1488 cc, 2.5 hp, and drove the step-through
cycle to 25 mph. This beautiful drawing from Motorcycles of the 20th
Century.
THE BUTLER PETROL CYCLE
An early gas powered vehicle was designed by Edward Butler of England,
in 1885. The design was shown at the 1885 Inventions Exhibition, in
London. Butler patented the vehicle in 1887, and built the vehicle in 1890.
It was a three wheeled vehicle with two wheels in front, and the rear wheel
was powered by a chain from the 2 cylinder engine. Any such vehicle in
England was doomed to failure because of the highly restrictive 1865 Red
Flag Act. This established a speed limit of 2 mph in town, and 4 mph in
the country, and a flagman walking in front the vehicle, and two helpers to
control horse traffic. The Butler Petrol cycle was a contemporary of the
Benz gas powered tricycle and Daimler's vehicle among gas vechicles, and
the Serpollet steam vehicle.
THE DAIMLER MOTORCYCLE
In the early 1880s Gottleib Daimler worked as an assistant to Dr. Nicholas
Otto. Otto was an early maker of gasoline engines, in a time where there
was little use for the volatile fraction from oil. Daimler decided to leave
Otto and build vehicles using a gas engine. His first vehicle was a test bed
for later automobiles, and was basically a motorcycle with training wheels.
It was called the Daimler Reitwagen, and was patented in 1885.

It had a wooden frame, a seat about like a saddle for a horse, and two
outrigger wheels on springs. Daimler's son rode the machine for 6 miles
around the roads rural Cannstatt Germany. The machine had twist grip
controls, and was air cooled. It had one cylinder, weighed 198 lbs (90 kg),
and a top speed of 7mph (12km/hr). The engine was fan cooled, put out 0.5
hp, and ran at 700 rpm. The wheels were wooden with an iron band on the
outside. Considered by some the first motorcycle, it actually had 4 wheels
so was not a motorcycle, and came 16 years after the steam powered
motorcycle of Sylvester Roper, and 14 years after the Michaux - Perreaux
steam powered bicycle.

At the same time as Daimler was developing his "motorcycle", his future
partner Carl Benz was designing a motorized tricycle.
THE PERREAUX STEAM MOTORCYCLE
In about 1868 to 1871, The Michaux - Perreaux steam powered bicycle was
invented, and a tricycle version was later designed. The Michaux brothers
had worked with Pierre Lallamet in developing a version of a bicycle with
cranks, and the Michaux - Perreax was the Michaux bicycle with a
Perreaux steam engine from a sewing machine. The machine had front
wheel pedals, and pulleys and drive belts to drive the rear wheel. It had a
top speed of about 20 mph. The original machine is in the Musse de I'lle de
France, and was displayed in the Guggenhein Museum in New York.

Kirkpatrick MacMillan had invented a rear wheel driven bicycle in 1839.

THE MILLET MOTORCYCLE
Although not the first motorcycle, an early motorcycle was that designed
by Felix Millet of France in 1892. Millet had patented his first motorcycle
in 1888, and had several improved versions. It incorporated a radial engine
around the hub of the rear wheel, with the five cylinders rotating around the
hub. It had foot pedals connected to the rear wheel by a chain, and twist
grip throttle control. With its massive .7 hp, is could achieve a speed of 22
mph, which was pretty fast considering braking was by use of the foot
pedals. This radial engine was similar to later radial aircraft engines in
which the cylinders rotated around the center crankshaft.
The Millet motorcycle was 20 years later than the Roper steam motorcycle.
EARLY MOTORCYCLE, 1902
W. H. Muzzy invented a motorized bicycle in 1902, which was in the form
of the early motorcycles. It was driven by a belt that ran from the motor to a
sheave on the rear wheel that was almost as large as the rear wheel itself.
Early motorcycle belts were leather. This version had the bicycle pedals,
which probably was used as to start the motor.
THE FIRST MOTORCYCLE
The first motorcycle was a steam powered oddity built by Sylvester Roper
in 1869. It was a steam powered bicycle or motorcycle. It went through
several revisions, and by 1896 it could do 40 mph, and ran 7 miles on one
load of coal. The small boiler was mounted between the riders legs on a
bicycle-like frame. It had two cylinders, and a smokestack. Twist grips on
the handlebars served as throttle and brake. The inventor liked to say, "It
would climb any hill and outrun any horse."
Roper died like we all should, at the age of 73 riding the third version of his
crazy contraption around a track at 40 mph. He died in the saddle, and was
dead before his bike hit the ground.
Shown is his earliest version, and the last version.
THE FIRST FLOAT PLANE
The first float plant was patented in 1922 by Glenn Curtiss. It was designed to take off
from and land in water.

Besides being an inventor, a pioneer aviator, Curtiss was also a motorcycle racer.
THE BEST MOTORCYCLE EVER MADE
A lot of motorcycles would be nominated for that list, but one that every
enthusiast would put in the top 5 would be the Vincent Black Lightning.
What is amazing is that this revolutionary bike was made in 1948, and was
the fastest production bike well into the 1970s, 20 plus years after the
company ceased production.
Vincent motorcycles started when a young Phillip Vincent acquired the
rights to the trademark of the well respected British HRD motorcycle in
1928. With the help of engineer Phil Irving, Vincents got better and better.
Besides adding power, the Vincent machines pioneered features that were
innovations to motorcycle technology. This included the first full rear
suspension, a foot shift 4 speed gearbox, V Twin engine, and side stands.
The Vincent Black Shadow of 1948 pushed the envelope further, with a
cruising speed of 100 mph, and a maximum speed of 125, despite the
speedometer’s 150 mph top peg.

The Vincent Black Lightning also came out in 1948, and was a sensation in
the motorcycle world. It had a top speed of 150 mph, and was rated at 70
horse power. On September 13 of 1948, Rollie Free became the worlds
fastest motorcyclist at a speed of 150.313, riding a specially tuned
production model Vincent Black Lightning on the Bonneville Salt Flats in
Utah.
The previous record was 136.183 mph, set by a Harley Davidson. Free’s
riding leathers had torn in earlier runs of 147 mph, and they were scooping
air and flapping, so for the record breaking run, he wore a speedo and
sneakers, and extended his legs back to reduce drag. Vincent Black
Lightnings went on to win races and set records all over the motorcycle
world. Unfortunately, the company went out of business in 1955. Never
forgotton, Black Lightnings are much sought after. A Black Lightning is
dangled by Bruce Wayne (George Clooney) in the movie "Batman and
Robin", to entice the juvenile deliquent Robin (Chris O'Donnell) to stay on
at the Wayne mansion. Recently, bluegrass song of the year "Vincent '52"
by Richard Thompson, Rumor and Sigh CD, was centered on a
highwayman, his girlfriend, and his 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.