Motorcycle
Motorcycles are considered to be the most affordable form of motorized transport in the various parts of the world and even for most of the world’s population. It is also said that they are also the most common type of the motor vehicle. There are about 200 million motorcycles which include the mopeds, motor scooters and even the other powered two- and three-wheelers in worldwide or you can say that about 33 motorcycles per 1000 people.
The first motorcycle was built and designed by the German inventors named Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in the Bad Cannstatt since 1905 that too in a city district of Stuttgart in 1885. It is recorded that the first petroleum-powered vehicle was also essentially a motorized bicycle but the inventors called their invention the Reitwagen that means “riding car”. It was also designed as an expedient tested for their new engine rather than a true prototype vehicle. On the other hand, if a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is also considered as a motorcycle then the first one would have been American. In 1867 it was observed that one such machine was demonstrated at the fairs and circuses that too in the eastern U.S which was built by Sylvester Howard Roper of Roxbury location in Massachusetts.
In 1894 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller was the first motorcycle which was made available for purchase. In the early period of motorcycle history there were many producers of the bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate the new internal combustion engine. As the engines became more powerful and even the designs outgrew the bicycle origins so the number of motorcycle producers also increased.
Till the First World War the largest motorcycle which was manufacturer in the world was Indian and it produced over 20,000 bikes per year. By the year1920, this honor went to Harley-Davidson, with their motorcycles which were being sold by the dealers in 67 countries. It was recorded that by the late 1920s or even early 1930s, DKW took over as the world’s largest manufacturer.
It was seen that after the Second World War the BSA Group became one of the largest producer of motorcycles in the world and it produced up to 75,000 bikes per year in the late 1950s. The German company called NSU held the position of the largest manufacturer from 1955 till the 1970s.
In the 1950s the streamlining began to play an increasing part in the basic development of racing motorcycles and even the “dustbin fairing” which held out the possibility of the new radical changes to the motorcycle design. Even NSU and Moto-Guzzi were in the vanguard of this development and both were ready to produce very radical designs well ahead of their time. The NSU produced the most advanced design but even after the deaths of the four NSU riders in the 1954–1956 seasons they even abandoned further development and they even quit the Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Moto-Guzzi produced very advanced competitive race machines and by around 1957 nearly all the Grand Prix races were being won by only streamlined machines. In 1958 the full enclosure fairings were banned from racing by the FIM that too in the light of safety concerns.
From the 1960s till the 1990s a small two-stroke motorcycles were very popular worldwide and partly as a result of the East German Walter Kaaden’s engine of work in the 1950. Today the motorcycle industry is mainly dominated by only the Japanese companies such as Kawasaki, Honda Yamaha and Suzuki. Though Harley-Davidson and BMW continue to be popular and also supplied considerable markets. Other major manufacturers also included the Piaggio group of Italy, KTM, Triumph and even Ducati.
- Nikita Malhotra
Tags: motor bicycle, motorbike, motorcycle, motorized bicycle
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