Martinsyde 1921 6 HP “ Series D” 678 cc exhaust-over-inlet V-twin frame # NO1080 engine # H1050 The British firm of Martinsyde was founded in 1908 when Helmuth Paul Martin and George Harris Handasyde went into partnership to build aircraft. By the end of WWI Martinsyde was Britain’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, occupying sites at Brooklands and Woking. Faced with a sharp downturn in demand for its products, the firm turned to motorcycle production at the war’s end, having acquired the ri ...
Automoto 1902ca Tricycle 398ca cc AIV single engine # SF656 Automoto was one of the pioneer French makes: at the end of the 19th century a group of bicycle parts manufacturers in St. Etienne merged into one company that got the name Automoto. Soon production of complete cycles, motorised tricycles and automobiles was taken up, next to various other products such as washing machines, hunting weapons and sundry agricultural machinery. During the 1914-1918 war the company focussed on munitions manu ...
BMW 1928 R63 734cc OHV transverse twin frame # 21327 engine # 75357 In 1928 BMW presented two new 500s, the side valve R52 and the overhead valve R57. The company also provided engines in the 750 cc class with the same cycle parts: the 745 cc side valve model R 62 with bore x stroke of 78 mm and the 734cc ohv R 63 with bore x stroke of 83×68 mm. The R63 was with its 24 hp a spirited performer on the road but it was also raced by the works alongside its 500 cc stablemates. Like the latter, it pio ...
Velocipede circa 1869 At the 1867 Paris Exhibition, the French firm of Michaux got a lot of publicity for bringing out the first commercially-viable version of a two-wheeled, human-powered bicycle: the Velocipede. While they were not the first to do this, Michaux was the first to develop and perfect the design. When it was demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition, the Velocipede brought worldwide attention to the concept of cycling and sparked a craze of experimentation that would last into the 1870 ...
Coventry machinists’ Company 1877ca. “Gentleman’s Bicycle” frame # 6550 frame & forks # R70 In 1868, The Coventry Sewing Machine Company received an order from Paris to make a number of Velocipedes, an early type of bicycle that was popular in France. The idea was that these bicycles would be exported to France, but the Franco-Prussian War forced the company to build up a home market instead. This event heralded the beginning of the city’s cycle industry. The firm’s name was changed to Coventry ...
Harley-Davidson 1941 Model U Military Police 1209cc V-twin frame & engine # 41U4127 For 1937 the HD engineers redesigned the Big Twin range: frame and cycle parts of the newly introduced OHV ‘Knucklehead’ were used as the basis for the new 1209cc and 1303 cc models U and UH. An important new feature was the introduction (finally!) of dry sump lubrication. The “U” was the 5.0:1 low-compression type; the standard compression was 5:1. Power output of the U was 32.5 hp @ 4200rpm and its top speed wa ...
Moto-Rêve 1910ca “Model A” 1¾ HP 248 cc automatic inlet valve single frame # 76293 engine # 20087 The Moto-Rêve (“motorcycle-dream“) was made in Geneva, Switzerland, and had many features in common with its main competitor in that city, Motosacoche. The first model was presented to the public in May 1906. A finely engineered little twin, that within a few yearsbecame well known in many European countries. Around 1909 the twin was supplemented with a 1 ¾ HP single with bore x stroke of 61 x 85 mm ...
BMW 1961 R 50/2 494cc transverse OHV twin frame & engine # 630589 Bayerische Motoren-Werke is known in English as the Bavarian Motor Works, or more simply as BMW. The firm launched its first horizontally opposed twin in 1923, and has stood by this style of engine layout ever since. The opposed design offers riders buttery smooth performance as the engine has inherently good balance. In 1955 BMW created its R50, R60, and R69 models. These new models had a similar engine and the same shaft-drive a ...
Zenith 1914 “Gradua” 3 ½ HP 494 cc JAP side valve singe frame # 2957 engine # 14547 Zenith machines were manufactured from 1904 till 1950, in a variety of factories in or around London. From the early days proprietary engines were used, such as Fafnir, Green-Precision, JAP, Bradshaw and Villiers. The latter engines were used in most models from the thirties. In pre- WW1 days Zenith machines gained many successes; driving force was chief Engineer Freddy Barnes, who was responsible for the famous ...
AJS 1956ca “16 MS” 347 cc OHV frame # A34167 engine # 49/G3L184 SU Associated Motor Cycles announced its post-war range of AJS and Matchless heavyweight singles in June 1945. Coded Model 16M and G3L respectively, the two 350cc models shared the same 93mm stroke as their 500cc brethren, coupled to a 69mm bore, and could be distinguished by the different magneto position: forward of the cylinder in the AJS, behind it in the Matchless. Housed in a rigid frame with Teledraulic front fork, the rugged ...
Indian 1931 Scout “101” 600 cc side valve V-twin frame # S1628 engine # EG1209 In September-October 1929 an Indian dealer from Bangor, Pennsylvania, organises an impressive event: a 1929 101 Scout sidecar outfit is ridden 20 days non-stop around a half-mile fairground track. There’s a team of riders and helpers; each rider is in the saddle for an hour and gets a five-hour rest. A fuel man next to the track monitors the mileage and signals when refueling is required. The combination is then slowe ...
Indian 1947 Model 347 “Chief” 1206cc side valve V-twin Frame # 3479505 Engine # CDG 4505 B In 1940, some 39 years after the company’s founding, Indian went all-in on the skirted fender design, outfitting Scouts, Chief and Fours with the new tinware. After World War 2 only the Chief made a return – in 1947 they did make 11,849 of them – supposedly a stop-gap measure until lighter, more advanced models came online. But a series of financial and engineering missteps doomed the company and Chiefs we ...
Saroléa 1937 589 cc Side Valve “37T-6 ‘’Eclaireur” Military model frame & engine # 105692 From 1930 on the Saroléa type numbering system changed in that the type number started with the model year, so the 37T was model T of 1937. This was a side valve model, available in 494 cc capacity as the T-5 and in 589 cc as T-6. Saroléa had introduced the sloping engine for the 1931 model range. At that time many factories designed machines with forward leaning engines for several reasons: from a technica ...
Velocette 1959 “Venom” 499cc OHV frame # RS12636 engine # VM3139 The firm of Veloce Ltd. is formed in 1905 by Johann Goodman. It’s a family business that concentrates on sound motorcycle engineering principles. Their first machines are lightweight four strokes; after that a line of top-class 250 cc two strokes is brought out. In 1924/25 Percy Goodman designs the 350 cc overhead camshaft model K, a machine destined to win many TTs and other races, starting with the 1926 Junior TT that is won by A ...
James 1915 “ No. 6” 4¼ HP 598cc side valve combination frame # D6834 engine # 4727 The James Cycle Company became a public company in 1897. Then Harold James, the founder of the company, quietly retired from the scene. When the first James motorcycle was marketed in 1902, Harold had already passed away. The veteran James models were merely strengthened bicycles with Derby and Minerva engines. Later on FN engines were used. The firm prospered and already in 1912 countershaft gears were offered on ...
Peugeot 1903 2HP Type “C” 239 cc aiv frame # 1338 engine # 498 Although a prototype De Dion-engined Peugeot bicycle was displayed at the Paris Salon in 1898, the first motorized cycles to leave the factory were actually tricycles with De Dion & Bouton engines. The popularity of the tricycle was unchallenged at first, but by 1902 the motorized bicycle started to take the lead: at the Paris Salon in December 1901 81 motorized cycles were exhibited, of which there were only 21 tricycles or quadricy ...
BMW 1992 K1 987 cc longitudinal DOHC four cylinder frame & engine # 6377449 Through the need to meet proposed European Union legislation on emissions regulation, BMW had started to develop an alternative technology to its traditional flat-twin engines with the introduction of the 1,000 cc BMW K100 from 1983 to 1992. The team developed a design prototype based on a liquid-cooled Peugeot car engine. In the base design of the K100, the engine was laid on its side in line with the motorcycle frame, ...
Rudge Multi 1920 499cc IOE single Frame# 769645 engine # 18785 With the introduction of the Multi Gear in 1912 Rudge was far ahead of the competition. They won the 1914 TT races with this system and Rudges were subsequently barred from certain speed events because of their “unfair head start”. The factory turned this to their advantage by using the “ barred” logo in a clever company advertising campaign. The Multi Gear system is based on the possibility to vary the diameters of both front and re ...
BMW 1948 R24 247 cc OHV single frame & engine # 200953 Built to the same exemplary standards as the Bavarian company’s famous flat-twins, the single-cylinder BMW first appears in 1925 as the 247 cc R39. Throughout the twenties and thirties singles are brought out in various capacities, ranging from 198 cc to 398 cc. For a number of years after the war Allied restrictions prevent German companies to produce machines of greater capacity than 250cc, so BMW’s first postwar model is a 247 cc single, ...
Böhmerland 1927 “Langtouren“ 599 cc ohv single combination frame & engine # 484 Albin Hugo Liebisch was born in 1888 in the Bohemian town of Rumburk and died in Passau in 1965. During his life he created a very unusual type of motorcycle, the Čechie-Böhmerland. Liebisch was mechanically-minded and after having had a number of technical jobs he opened an engineering and repair workshop in the Bohemian village of Krásná Lípa, close to Rumburk and near the German border. In this workshop he regular ...