Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126846
.... it) ..0 a it) > o Z From 7.5 mil" to 160 milia J 00 years of motorcycles It is ironic that the motorcycle is able to celebrate its 100th birthday in 1985, one year before the automobile. Because the peculiar vehicle that started motorcycle history on N 0vember 10 1885 by running on , two large wooden wheels and two small supporting wheels at a top speed of 7.5 mph between 6 .. ' Cannstatt and Un ter tu rkhe im, Cern:tany, (p?wered bt a 0.5-bhp 264cc single-cylinder engi ne) was not even meant to be a motorcycle in the first place. The fathers of jhe first ~otor~cl e, automobile pioneers Gottheb Daimler and Wilh elm Maybach, registered their test vehicle for a patent as a "riding car with pe troleum engi ne ." The patent was gra nted on August .29, 1885. But since they we~e interested In four wheels, they gave little further atten tio n to their "single-track vehicl e." Wh ich meant that the mo torcycle had to be inv ented a second time, as it ~, ~his time in Mu ni0 , Germany. This IS where the very first (of severa l hundred) standard -prod uction motorcycles was made in 1894 - a machin e which fo~ the first time also bore the appropriate nam e: Mot or-Rad or motor-cycle. With their2.5-bhp, 15OOa:, twin -cylinder mot or cycle, H einrich Hildebrand a n d Aloi s Wolfm Uller caused quite a stir. It was only around the turn of the cent ury that motorcycle development really ' got going. Between 1901 and 1906,ther e were no less than 35 mot or cycle manufacturers in the Germ an Kaiserreich . And in 1907, motorcycle registrations amounted to 15,700 uni ts - as opposed to 10,115 cars. The great mo torcycle boo m at tha t time, ho wever, took place in Fran ce, Gr eat Britain and the U.S.A. In 1903, Harl ey-Davidson in Milwaukee became one of the innumerabl e new motorcycle manufacturers to enter the market. This manufacturer of legendary V-twin mach ines was th e only U.S. com pa ny to survive in the market and is now the world 's oldest motorcycle manufacturer still in existence. In Germany, the motorcycle did not ach ieve its breakthrough until the end of World War 1. And in 1923, BMW in Munich also entered the world of the motorcycle: The R32 with its flat-twin engine was the star of the 1923 Paris Motor Show and has remained the godfather of all BMW flat-tw ins to this very day. The Great Depression in the early 1930s prompted more and more people to move over to the motorcycle as an inexpensive means of transport. Accordingly, the German Reich had the largest number of motorcycles in 1932. By 1938, more than I.5-million motorized bicycles were registered on German roads, although there was already a trend to the automobile simply because it offered better protection from. wind and weather as well as extra spa ce. When Germany started from scra tch on ce again after World War II, the motorcycle experie nced its big comeback. In fact, not even a Vo lkswagen was able to compete with a motorcycle at the time in terms of pri ces. German co m pa n ies ranging from Adler to BMW, DKW, Horex, NSU and ZUndapp flourish ed a n d sal es figures reached new, unprecedented heights. In 1955, more than 2.2 million motorcycles were registered in the Federal Rep ublic of Germany, with German motorcycle world cham pions bringing home the title on NSU and BMW. The big cha nge came almost overnight. With prosperit y increasing and purchasers looking for a roof over their heads - meaning a bubble-car or some other midget four-wh eeler German y experienced its greatest car boo m ever and a IO-year . declin e in motorcycle prod uctio n. Most companies had to close down or moved over - some successfully, o thers not - to the world of four wh eels. By 1966, motorcycle regist rat ions in the German market had dwindled to a mere 4205 units, the total number of motorcycles on German roads amo u nt ing to just 133,313 in 1971. Wh ile even the proud English motorcycle industry met its final destiny in the I96Os, the mot orcycle sun started to rise again in the Far East. Faced with an enormous demand for cheap motor vehicles , th e Japanese industry had started to produce motorized bicycles for the first time after the end of the war. With the demand in Japan being more or less satisfied, manufacturers then started to export their machines an d to consider the reasons for the fall of the motorcycle in the western world. A man called Soichiro Honda, who had started building bicycle engines in 1946,soon rea lized that the motorcycle had experienced a complete change of image in its traditional markets. And it was precisely here that he started his first advertising campaign in 1959: "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." That's how he promoted small four-stroke motorbikes as a kind of technical toy, above all for purchasers in America . The 19605 became what one might call the renaissance of the motorcycle. Supported to a certa in extent by spectacular success in ' motorcycle racing, four Japanese companies initiated the resurrection of the motorcycle through their activities in the market. With the exception of Honda, the market leader, they all hailed from a completely different industry: Yamaha, the wor ld's second-largest motorcycle manufacturer, had started in 1887with theproduction of music instruments; Suzuki started out in 1909 with the production of spinning looms and Kawasaki ha d entered the world in 1878 as a shipbuilder. In the earl y 1970s, the Easy Rider wave moved from the U.S.A. to Europe, initiating a gigantic motorcycle boom. Riding the "poor man 's vehicle " had become a very popular leisure -time and hobby activity. Sales figures kept on going up until the 19805. Apart from the four Japanese giants with thei r dominating position in the market, however, only a few traditional motorcycle companies were able to hold their own in the western world. including Harley-Davidson in the U.S.A., Moto-Guzzi in Italy and BMW and Hercules in the Federal Rep ublic of Germany. The Bavarians, the only manufacturers of cars and motorcycles worldwide outside of Japan, even succeeded in increasing their lead as Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer in 1983 through the launch of their completely new KlOO Iour-cylinder generation. Despite the decrease in 'lew registrations, the number of motorcycles on German roads has constantly increased even in recent years. This year - the l OOth birthday of the motorcycle - the one-million mark will be exceeded again for the first time since 1961.This is certain ly no coincidence, but rather proof o~ the fact that general interest in motorcycle riding as a leisure-time activity rema ins undaunted. The young cente na ria n therefore looks back not only at a dynamic past, but also at an exciting future. •