In 1869, G. T. Goddard in The History of the Velocipede, and in Axel Josephsson’s 1902 Bicycles and Tricycles wrote that the velocipede’s forerunner was introduced in 1779 at the Place Louis XV (later Place de la Concorde) by its’ inventors, Blanchard and Magurier. On July 27, 1779, the Petit Journal described the shape of the steering system as resembling an eagle’s wing. In 1815, the world’s biggest eruption occurred in Indonesia’s Tamboray volcano, leading to terrible weather in Europe, Asia and America the next year: 1816 was called the year without a summer. Horses died of starvation or were killed for food. In Karl Drais – Two wheels Instead of Four Hooves, Hans-Erhard Lessing wrote that to compensate for the lack of horses, the German baron Karl Drais invented the velocipede in 1817. Cyclists riding on sidewalks endangered pedestrians: the velocipede was prohibited for decades, as a result, in Germany, England and the US. In Europe, it had a spectacular second coming to the point that races were created in 1867. | |
Here again, incremental change involved many inventors:
|
|
Two-wheelers are the simplest, lightest structures for experimenting with engines. In 1868, Louis-Guillaume Perreaux built a motorcycle using a Big Bi frame. Note the vehicle’s hybrid engine and all-wheel drive transmission. | |
In 1885, Gottfried Daimler put an engine on a two-wheeler with a wooden body to experiment without having to resolve the basis problems. Pragmatism….. | |
The 1888 Millet motorcycle with a 5 cylinder in star engine in the rear wheel. | |
1894 Hildebrand and Wolfmuller motorcycle, two cylinder boxer, 4 stroke, transmission by connecting rods. | |
Ladies first ! The Parisian motorbike La Jumella in 1922, with trailing and leading arms suspensions , front and rear dampers, steering ? | |
The 1923 German motorcycle Megola was as aesthetically and technically interesting with its 5-cylinders in star engine in the front wheel inspired by aeronautics, as it was poorly adapted./p> | |
The american 1926 George Wallas motorbike with a front suspension with double wishbone (SLA). |