HAPPY NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE AND BIKERS DAY!
The national motorcycle day was established in 2014 by the CNFSR, it is the National Center for Road Safety Training. The real purpose of this day is to raise awareness among motorcyclists to be more responsible on motorcycles. Others also take the opportunity to simply celebrate the motorcycle party as a birthday or as a real party with friends.
The motorcycle we know today is very far from resembling the very first motorcycle created. It has never stopped evolving and has experienced real technological advances. To celebrate this day, at VFLUO we invite you to tell you about the History of Motorcycles.
Motorcycle history: a little retrospective!
Officially, the high-speed velocipede was invented by a French engineer named Louis Guillaume Perreaux in 1868. We are going to call him the “genius” here because it is thanks to him that we are gathered here. The genius continued to work on his invention until 1885, constantly improving it year after year.
This ancestor had a steam engine as well as pedals for the front wheels. This very first prototype was never autonomous but it is still considered the first motorcycle.
It happens that an innovation is concluded in several different places in the world at the same time. That of the motorcycle is recorded between the years 1867 and the beginning of the following century.
Other accounts say that in 1870, a two-wheeled steam vehicle named the Roper as a park attraction was said to be the first motorcycle in America.
It was in 1885 that a German named Daimler succeeded in developing a petroleum engine. But this one was set up on a model with 4 wheels. However, it is considered to be the first motorcycle with an internal combustion engine.
Across the Atlantic, some testimonies attest to the existence in 1869 of a two-wheeled vehicle powered by a steam engine: the Roper, which was a fairground attraction.
Americans therefore sometimes take credit for the motorcycle.
In 1885, the German engineer Daimler also made his contribution to the history of motorcycles, with an invention designed to test a petroleum engine.
This model, equipped with stabilizing side wheels (four wheels in total), is considered the first motorcycle with an internal combustion engine.
The first motorcycles were finally marketed in 1887 after several important innovations. It is a Frenchman: Mr Félix Millet who is the first to sell motorcycles with petrol engines (5 cylinders on the rear wheel).
In 1894, an Austrian man named Wolfmuller brought motorcycles to market with a 1490 cubic centimeter twin cylinder. This is the first model that will actually sell to consumers in all of motorcycle history.
It was in 1897 that the word “motorcycle” became popular, thanks to the Werner brothers who decided to place the motor of the motorcycle at the level of the front wheel.
The most unusual motorcycle versions in history
Since its invention by Louis-Guillaume Perreaux, the motorcycle has taken many forms, often unexpected.
Its engine was positioned everywhere: in the rear wheel on the Millet, above the front wheel on the Werner but also in the front wheel or on the luggage rack in the case of the 1920 Skootamota.
We have even preserved motorcycles equipped with a caterpillar and others whose two wheels were mounted in cantilever.
Throughout its history, motorcycles have also been dressed in a thousand ways, from strict nudity to fairings concealing all its organs (for example on the 1000 Vincent “Black Knight” of 1950).
The uses of the motorcycle through the ages
At its beginnings, the bike was neither reliable nor comfortable because the suspensions were non-existent.
However, the use of the motorcycle quickly spread as a work tool for the liberal professions in place of the bicycle.
The First World War also favored its use for military purposes.
In the 1970s, while the car became more democratic with the mass production of Peugeot, Renault and Citroën vehicles, the motorcycle experienced a certain renaissance under the impetus of Japanese manufacturers. It also becomes a symbol of freedom and protest in the context of May 68.
In the field of sport, the bike has been adapted to all disciplines: moto-ball, trial, moto-cross, racing on all types of ground such as ice, sand or grass.
It has been put to the test over very long distances in endurance (Bol d'Or) and in rally-raids (Paris-Dakar)
There you go, you know a little more about the history of your favorite vehicle! If you know any historical anecdotes as a motorcycle enthusiast, do not hesitate to share them with us so that we can tell them!
