April 20, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Mystery of first motorcycle lost in time
By Simon Morgan

LONDON, April 20, Graphic News:  It is, says Bonhams, the auction house, “The ultimate motorcycle ‘barn find’.” When it comes up for auction at the International Classic Motorcycle Show in Stafford, England, on April 25, an 1894 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, one of the world’s first motorcycles, could be yours for an estimated £40,000 to £60,000.

If your budget doesn’t stretch to the original, there is also a replica Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, going for an estimated £28,000 to £32,000. And if that’s still too rich, how about an original sales booklet, a snip at between £500 and £800?

Nobody really knows how many machines were produced by Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand, two steam engineers from Munich who in 1894 joined forces with Alois Wolfmüller, an aviation pioneer, and created the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, the first vehicle to be described as a motorcycle. All that is certain, says Bonhams, is that they are now  “extremely rare”.

With its twin-cylinder, water-cooled, four-stroke 1,488cc engine, the machine, capable of 30mph, caused something of a sensation when it was unveiled, and plans were made to build and sell it in Germany and France, where it was marketed as La Petrolette.

The reliability, however, did not match the hype, and by early 1897 the company was finished, leaving behind anything between 800 and 2,000 examples of the machine. Today, they are extremely rare; the motorbike up for auction had been in the possession of the family in the U.S. that bought it in the early Thirties; in original, unrestored condition, it has not run since then.

But who did make the world’s first motorcycle? That depends who you ask. Debate surrounds the issue -- an uncertainty recognised by Bonhams’ cautious sale material, which describes the machine as “one of the first ever motorbikes”.

Some give credit for the first motorcycle to famous German engineer Gottlieb Daimler, who with his partner Wilhelm Maybach pioneered the development of the internal combustion engine and, in 1885, fitted one to a wooden-framed Reitwagen, or “riding car”, before he produced his first four-wheel vehicle. Purists, however, say the addition of twin stabiliser wheels disqualifies the Reitwagen as a true motorcycle -- and, besides, it never entered production.

In about 1867 -- years ahead of Daimler -- Sylvester H. Roper, an American inventor from Roxbury, Massachusetts, built and demonstrated a steam “velocipede” -- essentially a bicycle driven by a steam engine, controlled by a twist-grip throttle. Roper put his invention into production but the Smithsonian, which has owned an 1869 Roper since 1956, makes no claim for its maker, but only poses the question, “Was this the first motorcycle?”

Again, purists say the Roper is disqualified, this time on account of the steam engine.

Steam was also the source of power for the 1868 machine described by Britain’s Science Museum as “the world’s first motorcycle”, created by Pierre Michaux of Paris, who at the time was the world’s largest maker of bicycles. With no brakes and iron tyres, it was probably just as well that it was capable of no more than 10mph.

But whether or not he was the inventor of the motorcycle, Roper does have one incontrovertible, if less enviable, claim to fame: in 1896, aged 73, he clocked 40mph on his machine on a track at Harvard before having a heart attack, falling off and becoming the world’s first motorcycle casualty.
/ENDS