About Motorcycles

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.

February 27, 2006

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.


Drawing by Motorcycles of the 20th Century.

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.