The Motorcycle Pioneers - 1900-1920
No one can really say where the motorcycle
began for it was the result of many simultaneous experiments
in different countries.
Most historians date the motor industry from 1885
when two German Daimler and Maybach put the first
really practical four-stroke engine into a wooden
test vehicle that they called the Einspur. As it had
two wheels albeit with a small pair of supporting
wheels on each side this can be said to be the first
motorcycle although Daimler and Maybach themselves
saw it simply as a stepping stone to building the
first car. But the British industry also got off to
a flying start for, at around the same time, British
inventor Edward Butler put forward his design for
a twin-cylinder tricycle which in featuring electronic
ignition and a proper carburettor was in many ways
more advanced plans to go into full production failed
to materialise and Butler went no further than a prototype.
What is beyond dispute is that the German Hildebrand
and Wolfmuller in 1894 was the first commercially
successful motorcycle, while in France De Dion was
building tricycles in 1895.
Unlike Europe, developments in Britain had been hampered
by the Locomotive Acts on the 1860s which restricted
speeds to less than a fast walking pace and were responsible
for the notorious red flag that had to be carried
in advance of any motorised vehicle. When this law
was repealed in November 1896 it was the cause of
celebrations that are commemorated to this day in
the form of the London to Brighton run.
The repeal helped a fledgling industry to get started,
at first mainly through the efforts of established
bicycle proprietary engines from the French manufacturers
such as De Dion and Menevra while others obtained
a licence to build bikes.
There were many snags in getting the industry off
the ground. Even if the basic design was sound - and
many were not - public appearance of the motorcycle
was a long time coming. To start with, they were invariably
expensive to buy and running costs were high. There
were no wayside fuel stations and the road very ofter
consisted of an unmetalled, rutted track covered with
mud and horse manure. Speed traps were common and
there were many other legal restrictions on the pioneer
motorist.
Unreliable, low-powered engines were the norm and
this helped to delay the development of a proper motorcycle,
since what was euphemistically termed 'light pedal
assistance' was looked on as essential not only for
starting but also for going uphill or even into a
headwind. As a result, it was a long time before motorcycles
dispensed with pedalling gear completely and became
something other than motorised bicycles.
The need to retain the pedalling gear, as well as
a natural desire to experiment, let to considerable
debate about such matters as the location of the engine.
There were many weird and wonderful alternatives,
while the problem on the designer's mind was the dreaded
'side-slip' or skidding, a natural result of poor
road surfaces, skinny tyres and what was often a very
high centre of gravity.
It is perhaps surpising that the motorcycle evolved
at all but all the trials and tribulations must have
been worth it for the occasional opportunity to fly
effortlessly and unhindered down an open road. The
ingenuity and the enthusiasm of the designers knew
no bounds, while the astonishing flexibility of the
pioneering engines allowed then to triumph, despite
the fact that most bikes lacked such items as a clutch
or gearbox. Machines were generally started by a run
and bump and stalled then they stopped which initially
limited their appeal to fit young men.
Even so the fledgling British motorcycle industry
produced some astonishing designs including the world's
first four-cylinder motorcycle. Development of the
Holden began in 1896 and a water-cooled version was
launched in 1899. With an engine that ran at just
400rpm and a power output of some 3bhp it comleted
a run of over 100 miles in 1900.
Such experiments apart it was clear for the most
part that developments would centre on single-cylinder
side-valve engines with simple are cooling.
It was not untli the start of the 20th century that
bikes that were recognisably related to the modern
motorcycle became generally available on the British
market. The French Werner helped to pioneer the conventional
position of the engine in place of the bicycle's bottom
bracket and many British manufacturers had their own
variations on the theme. Although many of these early
bikes were too primitive and too demanding to appeal
to anyone but committed and well-heeled enthusiasts
the majority went surprisingly well and were also
capable of turning in some astonishing speed and endurance
records.
The problems of accommodating a passenger, which
had led to strange inventions such as the trailer
and forecar, was now resolved mainly by the equally
odd sidecar. This, however, had the significant advantage
that the passenger was separated from all the fuss
and dirt of the motorcycle itself.
While road racing had helped developments in mainland
Europe, British roads could not legally be closed
for motor sport. As a result, many of the early speed
races were undertaken on the banked tracks built as
a result of the cycle boom, or on the driveways of
private estates. But the bar to pure road racing was
removed with the construction of Brooklands in Surrey,
a banked road track designed by Holden, where the
first full-scale motorcycle race was held in 1908.
A year before, the Isle of Man, not subject to mainland
restrictions, became the site of the first Tourist
Trophy - effectively a cross between a race and a
reliability trial - in 1907. Won at a little over
36mph, it was a small beginning for a race that would
become a dominant force in the British motorcycle
industry and then the world.
Before World War I, racing and commercial pressures
had forced the pace of technological change and most
of the features of modern motorcycle had been tested
in some form. Although the majority of bikes still
used a direct belt drive linking the engine and the
rear wheel, the advantages of a variable gear had
been amply demonstrated, while numerous ingenious
suspension systems had been tried. Chain drive, shaft
drive, telescopic forks, four-valve engines, four-cylinder
engines, water-cooled engines, overhead-camshafts
and many other features recognisably similar to those
of modern bikes had all been seen - many of them British
inventions. And with the outbreak of war the light
manoeuvrable motorcycles produced by the leading British
manufacturers found a host of applications which earned
them respect in the most taxing conditions in history.
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