Two-wheeled motorcycles (motorbikes) have become a popular means of transportation in many countries. Along with the growing demand, motorcycle manufacturers in numerous nations have continuously competed to innovate and improve design and technical specifications to establish their brands. It can be said that a motorcycle is not just a means of transportation but also a work of art. Owners of motorcycles use them not only for commuting but also to express their personal tastes.
In Vietnam today, there are many brands, each with various models and generations of motorcycles circulating on the roads, resulting in a diverse collection of two-wheeled motorcycles.
Late 19th Century: The History of Motorcycles Begins
The idea of motorcycles seems to have occurred to many engineers and inventors, particularly in Europe, following the advent of several inventions: the steam engine (James Watt), the electric motor (Michael Faraday), the bicycle, and the internal combustion engine (Etienne Lenoir), during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This idea was realized with the creation of the first “motorized bicycles” in the latter half of the 19th century, marking the beginning of motorcycle development.
1868 – In France
The Michaux-Perreaux steam-powered bicycle was the first motorcycle created in France by Pierre Michaux and Louis-Guillaume Perreaux. Pierre Michaux (June 25, 1813 – 1883) was a blacksmith who supplied parts for commercial bicycles in Paris during the 1850s and 1860s. Louis-Guillaume Perreaux (February 19, 1816 – April 5, 1889) was a French engineer who designed the first steam-powered bicycle using alcohol fuel in France. Their invention was patented in 1868 and presented to the public in 1869.
To this day, there is still some debate regarding the authorship of this vehicle due to discrepancies about Perreaux’s age in the patent. However, it is largely recognized as the Michaux-Perreaux motorcycle. Currently, the only original Michaux-Perreaux is preserved at the Ile-de-France Museum.
The Michaux-Perreaux featured a wrought iron frame designed similarly to a modified bicycle frame, allowing space for a small steam engine to be installed. The pedals attached to the front wheel were retained from the bicycle design. The front wheel was larger than the rear, both made of wood encased in wrought iron with wrought iron spokes. The engine was mounted on a vertical frame inclined at a 45-degree angle, behind which was a boiler and fuel and water tanks. It utilized a one-cylinder steam engine made of copper (an external combustion engine) with a power output of 0.5 horsepower. The engine’s motion was transmitted to the rear wheel via a system of pulleys and belts. However, the first motorcycle did not yet have shock absorbers or brakes.
To operate the Michaux-Perreaux, the rider first ignited the alcohol fuel to boil the water and generate steam, then mounted the seat and pedaled to move the vehicle forward, increasing steam pressure in the cylinder to propel the motorcycle. The maximum speed of the Michaux-Perreaux at that time reached 15 km/h.
1869 – In the United States
Leaving the land of fine wines, we arrive in the Texas region of the United States, where nature lovers – cowboys shooting guns – reside before heading to the National Museum of America to explore the second contender for the title of “the first motorcycle.”
Not long after the steam-powered bicycle was introduced in France, in 1869, Sylvester H. Roper unveiled his steam-powered motorcycle for the first time in Massachusetts. Sylvester Howard Roper (1823 – 1896) was a prolific inventor across various fields. Currently, the prototype of the Roper 1869 steam motorcycle is preserved at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States.
The Roper was still a combination of a steam engine and a bicycle, but the engine was positioned between the two wheels, resembling modern motorcycles. Structurally, the Roper included a steel frame designed like a bicycle frame with two equal-sized wheels. The distance between the front and rear axles was 49 inches. The wheels were wooden, encased in steel on the outside, with a diameter of 34 inches. Suspended beneath the seat was a coal-fired boiler, attached to the frame by a pair of springs. At the rear, on each side of the frame, was a set of pistons connected to the boiler via pipes. Additionally, a short chimney from the boiler extended up from the back of the seat.
The engine’s motion was transmitted to the rear wheel through a connecting rod-crank system. Footrests were attached to both ends of the front axle. The Roper had an engine power of 0.5 horsepower and could achieve a speed of 16 km/h. It was considered to have many features of modern motorcycles, including a cable connected to the handlebars for throttle control and a chain from the handlebars to pull a metal plate curved like a spoon against the front wheel as a braking system.
To prepare to operate the Roper, the rider would open a side door at the bottom of the boiler, ignite the coal in the furnace to boil the water in the boiler and generate steam to power the engine. Water was supplied from a tank above the boiler. When the steam pressure was sufficiently high, the rider tightened the cable to “accelerate” the motorcycle forward.
Roper’s neighbors recounted that many pedestrians were frightened and annoyed by the noise and acrid smoke when he rode his creation down the street. He even had run-ins with the police for this reason but was quickly released due to the patent being granted.
1885 – In Germany
After a direct flight from Washington to Berlin, now you and I are in the land of famous beer and sausages, but we must temporarily “hold back” to accomplish our main task on this journey: to investigate the third contender for the title of “the first motorcycle.”
Replica of the Reitwagen at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart
Replica of the Reitwagen at the Honda Museum in Motegi, Japan
The contender for the title of “the first motorcycle” in the world here is called the Reitwagen, created by the German inventor Gottlieb Daimler (1834 – 1900) in 1885. Patent number DRP 36,423 was granted to Gottlieb on August 11, 1886, in Germany. The prototype of the Reitwagen was lost in a major fire in 1903 at Daimler’s DMG factory in Cannstatt, so the Reitwagen displayed in various museums are precise replicas based on its blueprints and records.
How did Daimler construct the Reitwagen? From a passion for mechanical engineering, Gottlieb Daimler exhibited his interest in mechanical engineering during his high school years. In 1852, Daimler did not follow in his father’s footsteps as a baker but instead chose mechanical engineering and left his hometown to begin his engineering career in Graffenstaden. From 1857 to 1859, he returned to study mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic University of Stuttgart. Afterward, to broaden his technical knowledge, he worked in several European countries on internal combustion engines, locomotives, etc.
In 1863, Daimler befriended Wilhelm Maybach, a 19-year-old industrial designer who later became his long-term partner. In 1872, Daimler and Maybach began working for Nikolaus Otto’s company. Within the company, Daimler and Maybach joined the engineering team alongside Otto, focusing on developing the four-stroke gasoline engine. In 1877, Otto was granted a patent for the four-stroke internal combustion engine. In 1882, Daimler and Maybach left Otto’s company with the same vision and established a manufacturing facility to research and develop high-speed small engines that could be installed on a variety of vehicles on land, rivers, and in the air.
Secretly and diligently solving difficulties. Daimler and Maybach were well aware of the limitations of the existing Otto engine regarding the ignition system and fuel supply—these were the challenges they needed to overcome. Maybach found inspiration in a drawing by British engineers Watson. After numerous experiments, Maybach developed the “hot tube” ignition system that ensured stable ignition and allowed for engine acceleration as desired.
The system described consists of a structure and operates on the principle of: an externally heated tube directing into the cylinder at the approximate position of the spark plug. When compressed by the piston within the cylinder, the fuel mixture interacts with the hot tubes and ignites naturally. During the research and development phase, the creative processes were kept absolutely secret by the two inventors.
Inside the workshop where Daimler and Maybach worked day and night in secrecy
Horizontal 4-stroke gasoline engine with hot flame tube
The Patent Race
Although aware that the patent for the 4-stroke gasoline engine Otto DRP 532 was still valid, the differences in engine size, the ignition system constructed, and especially the linguistic artistry of G. Daimler led to the patent for the horizontal 4-stroke gasoline engine with a hot flame tube being granted on December 23, 1883. Anticipating a patent race with Otto, Karl Benz, and other inventors, just a week after the patent for the “horizontal 4-stroke gasoline engine with hot flame tube” was issued, G. Daimler submitted another patent for a system of “controlling the engine speed by controlling the exhaust valves” to protect his invention.
Pendulum clock engine model
The improved version of the engine was subsequently a vertical single-cylinder four-stroke engine, named “pendulum clock” (due to its resemblance to a pendulum clock), patented in April 1885. In the “pendulum clock”, the crank and flywheel mechanism were first enclosed in an oil and dust-proof crankcase, with the cylinder being air-cooled. It was compactly designed to fit into various types of equipment: weighing 60kg, with a cylinder capacity of 264cc, generating 0.5 horsepower (0.37kW) at 650 revolutions per minute (650rpm). This is considered the precursor to modern gasoline engines.
The Birth of the Reitwagen
Prototype of the Reitwagen
Daimler and Maybach installed the “pendulum clock” in a wooden bicycle, creating the first motorcycle and naming it Reitwagen or Einspur. In 1885, Daimler filed for a patent, and a year later, he was awarded a patent for his Reitwagen.
The Reitwagen consisted of a wooden frame, wheels made of wood lined with steel on the outer surface, handlebars, and a saddle. Two small wheels acted as stabilizing supports similar to training wheels on a child’s bicycle. The T-shaped handlebars leaned backward and were made of steel. The saddle was a U-shaped metal plate, covered with leather, placed directly on the engine. Weighing 90 kg, with a cylinder capacity of 264cc, it ran on gasoline or kerosene. The drive system to the rear wheel operated via a pulley and belt mechanism. The Reitwagen could reach a maximum speed of 12 km/h.
The Reitwagen had to be started before riding and operating. To start the engine, a small fire had to be ignited beneath the hot flame tube, and the hand crank was used to rotate the engine several times. It took about a minute after starting for the engine to run smoothly, after which the rider could mount the seat and engage the drive control system to move the vehicle.
As there was no clutch, to change speed, the rider adjusted the belt tensioner to select the appropriate pulley (similar to the gear shift mechanism on modern bicycles). Two selectable speeds were 6 or 12 km/h, depending on the pulley chosen by the belt.
A Historic Moment – The First Test. Daimler’s 17-year-old son, Paul, became the first motorcycle rider on November 10, 1885, when he rode the Reitwagen from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim and back (approximately 10 km) at a speed of 12 km/h. Given the road conditions at that time, the Reitwagen hardly provided a comfortable journey. However, the biggest issue encountered was the heat from the engine’s flame beneath the seat.
The First Motorcycle Accident
Sylvester H. Roper’s motorcycle from America in 1894.
Still powered by steam over 25 years after the Roper 1869 was introduced, the Roper 1894 was involved in the first motorcycle accident with its own inventor.
Analysts’ Observations – Debates Unraveled
Using a broad definition for a motorcycle, there were two early steam-powered two-wheelers, one constructed in France by Louis-Guillaume Perreaux and Pierre Michaux in 1868, and another built in the United States by Sylvester Roper shortly thereafter, which he demonstrated at fairs and circuses in various locations. With a sufficient definition for a motorcycle being two wheels and an internal combustion engine, the Reitwagen built in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885 is recognized as the first motorcycle in the world, marking the beginning of over a century of development.
A debate regarding who invented the first motorcycle has occurred, with some arguing that two wheels and a steam engine should be considered, which, despite not being developed, inspired later innovations, while others emphasize that an internal combustion engine is a crucial component. Most experts agree that: “The Reitwagen manufactured in Germany in 1885 is the first motorcycle in the world.”
However, the Reitwagen was merely an experimental result in the development project of the 4-stroke internal combustion engine by Daimler and Maybach, and thus was not commercially produced. The first mass-produced motorcycle was the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller “Motorrad” (or H&W Motorrad), created by brothers Henry and Wilhelm Hildebrand in collaboration with Alois Wolfmüller and Hans Geisenhof, patented in January 1894 in Germany. It featured a 4-stroke engine running on gasoline, with two parallel cylinders of 1489cc capacity, producing 2.5 horsepower at 240 revolutions per minute, cooled by water. The speed was about 45 km/h. This was also the first time that the term “motorcycle” (in German, “Motorrad”) was used. They organized production in Munich and also licensed the production of this motorcycle in France under the name “The Pétrolette”.
Replica of the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
What Makes the First Motorcycle Special?
The Daimler Reitwagen revolutionized transportation with its special features:
“Riding Car” Design: The overall design of the Reitwagen resembles a small horse-drawn carriage, earning it the nickname “riding car.” This design choice aimed to provide a more stable and comfortable experience than a bicycle fitted with an engine.
Wooden Bicycle Frame: The frame of the Reitwagen was crafted from solid wood, similar to traditional bicycles. This frame provided the necessary structural integrity and support for the vehicle.
Gasoline Engine: The heart of the Reitwagen is the Otto cycle engine, a groundbreaking single-cylinder engine. This gasoline engine allowed the motorcycle to generate power and propel itself forward, marking a significant advancement in the use of internal combustion engines for transportation.
Injection-Type Carburetor: To ensure efficient combustion in the engine, the Reitwagen utilized an injection-type carburetor. This carburetor precisely mixed fuel and air in an injection fashion, optimizing the fuel-air mixture to improve performance and power output.
Two-Wheel Configuration: The Reitwagen had a two-wheel configuration aligned similarly to modern motorcycles. This design provided stability and maneuverability, allowing the rider to traverse various terrains relatively easily.
Iron-Rimmed Wheels: The wheels are wrapped in iron, enhancing traction and durability compared to traditional wooden wheels. This allows the motorcycle to handle rough surfaces and uneven terrain more effectively before the advent of pneumatic tires.
Dual Support Wheels: The Reitwagen features two support wheels, also known as stabilizing wheels, with each wheel positioned on either side of the vehicle. These auxiliary wheels provide additional stability during the initial stages of riding and at low speeds, compensating for the inherent balance challenges of motorcycles.
The invention of the world’s very first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen, marked the beginning of a new era in motorcycle history, transforming the concept of mobility on two wheels.
