There is no clear answer to the question of who did it first or, as is often said, who invented the motorcycle. At the same time, the official authors of the first patented motorcycle were Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach.

Reitwagen

The kerosene-powered riding carriage or Reitwagen was created in Stuttgart and patented in 1885. The vehicle had four wooden wheels - two large main ones and two auxiliary ones on the sides. The frame of the first bike was also wooden, and the rear wheel drive was belt driven. The engine was located under the seat.

Displacement of a four-stroke power unit air cooling was 264 cc. The maximum engine power (0.5 hp at 600 rpm) was enough to accelerate the first motorcycle to a speed of 11 km/h. One year after the appearance of the first single-speed version, the developers introduced a two-speed motorcycle model. The “cart” weighed only 90 kg.

It is noteworthy that the goals of creating new vehicle the developers didn't have it. They just needed to prove the performance of the new engine they had developed. internal combustion and study the prospects for its use for specific work. The power of the small engine was clearly not enough for installation in a full-size cart, so a lightweight design was created for an extremely simple vehicle with a motor.

The real first Reitwagen was destroyed in 1903 in a fire at the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft plant. Copies of the original “first motorcycle” can be found in the Mercedes-Benz museums in Stuttgart, Germany, in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, as well as in Japan, the USA, and Australia.

The Reitwagen was preceded by at least three developments of powered two-wheelers. The difference between them was that the first had a steam engine, while the brainchild of Daimler and Maybach had internal combustion. But even in this matter, not everything is clear. The fact is that back in 1882, Enrico Bernardi created the prototype of a modern motorcycle with a single-cylinder gasoline engine. It differed from the most famous first motorcycle only in the presence of three wheels.

Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler is a famous German designer and engineer, a successful industrialist. The Daimler name became known throughout the world thanks to the development of several types of internal combustion engines and the creation of one of the first cars in the world.

Daimler met nineteen-year-old Wilhelm Maybach while working at a factory in Reutling. A capable engineer, Maybach became Daimler's business partner for many years.

In 1879, Daimler was appointed one of the technical directors at the plant, the director of which was Nikolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine. Disagreements with Otto forced Daimler and Maybach to leave the plant and begin working together in their own laboratory.

Daimler designed his first internal combustion engine in 1885, inventing the carburetor along the way. The engine was installed on a wooden cart and the world's first motorcycle was patented. A little later, the world was presented with a four-wheeled carriage with a motor (the first car), outboard motor And balloon driven by an internal combustion engine.

Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) was founded in 1890. Motors for sky, earth and sea became its main products and at the same time the symbol of the company - a three-pointed star, symbolizing the three elements of Daimler.

Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900 in Stuttgart.

After one year, Wilhelm Maybach left the joint-stock company to continue working independently. The company's first car was sold in 1892. Soon the company was sold to an English entrepreneur. In 1899, the first Daimler was assembled and presented for sale under the name Mercedes.

Wilhelm Maybach

Wilhelm Maybach was a German entrepreneur and engineer, born into a carpenter's family and orphaned early. After the death of his parents, Wilhelm was raised in the Brotherhood of Pastor Werner. The boy got the opportunity to study and later practice at a machine-building plant. The new technical director of the company (Gottlieb Daimler) drew attention to the talented young man, after which they began working together on the creation of new engines.

The first successful Maybach engine, running on kerosene, was manufactured in 1883. Maybach also contributed a lot to the creation of an engine with a carburetor for the world's first motorcycle.

In 1889, at an exhibition in Paris, a Daimler/Maybach crew was presented with the world's first two-cylinder V-engine - a Maybach development. The same motorized carriage is considered the world's first car with an engine power of more than 1 hp. The first four-cylinder four-stroke engine was designed by Maybach in 1890.

In 1900, after the death of Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, together with the son of the company founder, took control of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. Seven years later, Maybach and his son founded Maybach Motoren-Werke, an engine manufacturing company.

A motorcycle is a two-wheeled, self-propelled vehicle that is distinguished from other vehicles by its convenience and accessibility. Not only is a motorcycle used as a means of transport these days, but also how Sport Car, and he has many fans around the world. There are hundreds of motorcycle manufacturers, you can find out about each of them on the website http://onlymotorbikes.com/ When and by whom was the first motorcycle created?

When and who invented the first motorcycle

The “father” of the first motorcycle was the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler; the appearance of his brainchild dates back to 1885. The car resembled a pedalless bicycle. Daimler installed the single-cylinder gasoline engine on a frame made of wood, and the wheels were also made of wood. Torque was transmitted to the wheels from the motor using a belt. During testing, a machine weighing 70 kg showed the ability to reach a speed of 12 km per hour.

Engineer E. Butler creates a motorcycle in England in 1887, followed by the development of the first motorcycle by the French engineer F. Millet, and then in Italy by E. Bernardi. With the advent of this two-wheeled car, its fans began to passionately strive to set world speed records. Almost everything is known about the history of the invention of the motorcycle.

Starting from the mid-19th century, they began to work on creating power plant in the form of a steam engine, which they wanted to later install on a two-wheeled carriage. But such engines were imperfect.

Daimler's contribution to motorcycle manufacturing

It was Daimler who managed to design an internal combustion engine running on kerosene. IN last days In August 1885, he tested his brainchild, driving a self-propelled invention. Daimler did not even think at that moment that he had become the creator of such a cult transport vehicle like a motorcycle. He simply wanted to show the operation of a new engine designed for four-wheeled carriages.

Thus, a motorcycle with an internal combustion engine appeared before a car, although recognition and fame did not come to the motorcycle immediately. Nowadays you won’t recognize the progenitor of modern “iron horses” in that bicycle-like motorcycle. At that time, this miracle was in the form of an original bicycle with four wooden wheels on a wooden frame, moving with the help of a motor.

The wheels were covered with iron. There was a motor under the motorcyclist’s seat, which was difficult to start. The first step was to ignite combustible mixture heat the glow tube, made of copper, using a gasoline heater, and then start the engine with the crank.

Thus, the genie was released from the bottle - from the beginning of the 20th century, motor vehicles began their rapid movement across the continents.

Modern motorcycles show impressive speed and power. Next we will talk about the fastest motorcycles that have left a significant mark on history.

Fifth place: Bimota YB6 EXUP

This model was created by specialists from two leading companies - the Japanese Yamaha and the Italian Bimota. If the Japanese took over the work on the power component, the design was thought out by a European company.

As a result, the YB6 EXUP motorcycle was presented to the public at the end of 1989. It won the favor of people all over the world, and in Italy this motorcycle became a cult motorcycle - it was produced at a factory in Rimini. The motorcycle has a power of 145 hp. and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 270 km/h.

Fourth place: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11

This “Japanese” was produced in Japan from 1990 to 2001. Also known under the brand name “Ninja ZZ-R1100”. It was an incredible success in the North American market and was sold there under the “Ninja ZX-11” brand.

It is notable for being the fastest motorcycle in the world for at least six years. At that time, the record speed of motorcycles was 272 km/h, which, in fact, was achieved by the 145-horsepower Ninja ZX-11.

Third place: Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird

This Japanese sports motorcycle was released in 1996. The Honda company has done a great job producing an extremely reliable, extremely comfortable and truly powerful two-wheeled car.

In 1999, the Japanese introduced a 153 hp engine into the model, which allowed it to become the fastest motorcycle in the world at that time - a speed of 290 km/h. To this day, the worldwide popularity of the “CBR1100XX Super Blackbird” has not faded.

Second place: Suzuki Hayabusa

The model has a unique aerodynamic design, which has a positive effect on the handling of the car - the 176-horsepower motorcycle is incredibly stable even at such an exorbitant speed as 305 km/h.

First place: MV Agusta F4 R 312

And finally, the fastest motorcycle is the MV Agusta F4 R 312. Only this beast from Italy was able to interrupt the hegemony of Japanese designers. The model was released at the end of 2007.

The lightweight and maneuverable motorcycle has power unit at 183 horsepower, which allow it to accelerate to 320 km/h. The record has been repeatedly confirmed by leading motorcycle publications, and remains untouched to this day.

That's how they are, the most fast motorcycles in the world. Every fan of two-wheeled cars should know that developing such high speeds Only professionals can do it on specially equipped tracks; in urban conditions, safety measures must be observed and not violate the speed limit.

Restored motorcycle "Red October" 1938 Everything is running, everything is original, even the tires.

A brief history of the Russian motorcycle industry is taken from the Encyclopedia of Motorcyclists.

History of the motorcycle

The history of the creation of the first self-propelled carriage, the progenitor modern cars and motorcycles, is lost in the fog of centuries.
But it is known for certain that attempts to build such vehicles were made by inventors in almost all developed countries. It’s just that not all inventions were lucky: only a few of them received the honor of being officially described, sketched or registered.
Thus, the first mention of a cart driven by a mechanism dates back to 1447. And the known drawings of a carriage, in which a footman pressed pedals like bicycle pedals, are described in a book dated 1793.
As for the motorcycle specifically, he was lucky. The date of his birth is generally accepted as August 29, 1885. It was on this day that the German inventor engineer Gottlieb Daimler 1 (Godfreid Daimler) left the gates of his workshop in a specially designed two-wheeled carriage with a gasoline engine installed on it.

Actually, Daimler did not think about creating a motorcycle at that time - he just wanted to test the engine. But it so happened that the layout scheme he used turned out to be very successful and has survived to this day almost unchanged.

In our short historical review we will not be able to talk about how and when different countries motorcycle factories appeared and what kind of motorcycles were produced there. Yes, this is not part of our plans.

Motorcycle industry in Russia

We live in Russia. And therefore, we will briefly trace the main milestones in the origin and development of the domestic motorcycle industry and will only briefly list the factories and models of motorcycles that rolled off their assembly lines. We hope that even such a brief excursion will provide sufficiently convincing evidence that our country, at some stages of its development, occupied a leading position in the creation of motorcycles.
It all started in 1913-1914 - then attempts were made to organize the assembly of light motorcycles from Swiss-made parts at the Dux plant in Moscow. But the First World War interfered.
In 1924, a group of Moscow engineers led by P.N. Lvova designed the first Russian motorcycle, the Soyuz. It had a single-cylinder four-stroke engine with a displacement of 500 cm 3 and was equipped spring suspension rear wheel, which was very progressive at that time. The motorcycle was built the following year in a single copy and even participated in test runs. But things didn’t go further than that: the profile of the plant changed... In 1928, a motorcycle design bureau was created in Izhevsk, headed by the talented engineer Pyotr Mozharov. Under his leadership, five(!) models of motorcycles were designed, manufactured and tested.

Models IZH-1 and IZH-2 had a four-stroke two-cylinder V-shaped engine with a displacement of 1200 cm3 and a power of 24 liters. With. and a stamped frame, which formed an extension at the rear, which was used as a muffler (some foreign companies began to use this solution only in our time!). The drive to the wheel was carried out cardan shaft. Huge 4-27" wheels were interchangeable - a rarity in motorcycle practice at that time. The IZH-2 motorcycle had forced cooling.
Then P.V.’s group Mozharova was transferred to Leningrad. And here she designed a new motorcycle with a 300 cm3 two-stroke engine. 25 of these motorcycles were built in 1930 at the Promet plant. They performed well in test runs. And after modernization and elimination of minor defects, they were transferred to mass production at the Red October plant. It was this model, called L-300, that was the first to open the era Russian motorcycle industry.
In 1931, Pyotr Vladimirovich Mozharov moved to Moscow and headed a group of designers at NATI (Scientific Automotive and Tractor Institute). The group was to design a motorcycle for the Red Army. The basic model was called NATI-750. And in parallel with it, a whole series of models for various purposes were developed.
In 1932, a special commission for motorcycle manufacturing was created under the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry. According to her decision, on the basis of the experimental workshops of Izhstalzavod, where the first IZH-1 and IZH-2 were assembled, the Izhevsk Motorcycle Plant is now being organized. And already in 1933, they began to produce the IZH-7 motorcycle, a modified and improved version of the L-300 by Mozharov. This motorcycle turned out to be so successful that some copies have survived to this day. During these same years, Etavmashprom decided to repurpose the famous Podolsk Mechanical Plant, which made Sewing machines. The same Pyotr Vladimirovich Mozharov is entrusted with setting up this process. He creates documentation, and according to it, four NATI-A750 motorcycles are built in Izhevsk in 1933, and from March 1935, the Podolsk plant begins to produce these motorcycles under the PMZ-A750 index.
In the same 1935, a motorcycle plant came into operation in Taganrog. His TIZ-AM600 motorcycles with a tubular duplex frame and a four-speed gearbox immediately established themselves as very durable and reliable.
In 1937, motorcycles IZH-8, IZH-9 and IZH-12 were designed in Izhevsk. The first of them has been in mass production since January 1938, the second goes on production line a year later. And just before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the IZH-12 went into mass production with a four-stroke single-cylinder engine with a volume of 348 cm3 and a power of 13.5 hp. With.
To meet the needs of the army, several cities at once: Moscow, Gorky, Leningrad and Kharkov began producing M-72 motorcycles with a boxer four-stroke engine.
This was the end of the pre-war stage of development of the domestic motorcycle industry.
The war shuffled not only human destinies, but also the destinies of factories.
The production of heavy motorcycles, evacuated from Moscow to Irbit, never returned to Moscow. Now the Irbit Motorcycle Plant is known far beyond Russia. More than three million came off his assembly line. Today, along with traditional motorcycles with a sidecar (IMZ-8.103-10, IMZ-8.103-40, IMZ-8.107), the plant also produces single motorcycles IMZ-8.123 “Classic”, 36 liters. With; IMZ-8.1237 “Wolf”, 40 l. With; IMZ-8.1243 “Voyage”, 40 l. With. As well as other models, including, naturally, the military version IMZ-8107 “Gear-UP”, 32 l. With.
Motorcycle production in Taganrog was no longer revived. Just as it did not continue in Tyumen and Gorky, where M-72s were produced during the war.
But immediately after the war, literally in the same 1945, a motorcycle design group was again organized in Izhevsk. Soon, drawings and technical documentation for the DKV motorcycle “NTs-350” were transported here from Germany and, without changing anything, they began producing a copy called IZH-350.

Excellent restoration of Izh 350 1947. from Evgeny Zakharov from the Krasnoyarsk bike club "Centaur"

After serious modernization, this motorcycle became known as IZH-49. And then... And then Izhevsk became the main motorcycle city in the country. By the end of the 70s, its conveyors could produce up to 350,000 motorcycles per year. Models IZH-56, IZH-“Planet”, IZH-“Jupiter”, IZH-“Planet-Sport” are well known and loved by the people.

Today, after the devastation of perestroika, the plant is slowly rising from its knees again. The basic model remains IZH-7 “Planet 5” - there are several variants of it, differing in configuration. In response to the demands of the youth market, the IZH-6 “Junker” model was created - a motorcycle of a new “chopper” type for us. The plant's design bureau has interesting developments of light 50 cc motorcycles.
One of the oldest enterprises of the domestic Motor Industry is the Kovrov Plant named after. V.A. Degtyareva (Vladimir region). After the end of the war, this weapons company was ordered to master the production of motorcycles. The DKV RT-125 motorcycle was chosen as the prototype - a very progressive model for those times. Already in 1946, serial production of motorcycles, designated K-125, began using equipment exported from Germany. Later, in 1957, the engine capacity was increased to 175 cm3. At the same time, production of the Ml A “Moscow” model was organized at the Moscow Motorcycle Plant. Externally, the Moscow and Kovrov cars differed only in the emblems on the gas tanks. In fact, they had different electrical equipment.
The people immediately lovingly dubbed the M1A “macaque.” This nickname was later extended to all motorcycles with 125 cm3 engines. The trouble with the Soviet motorcycle industry was that all factories were aimed at producing motorcycles of a strictly defined cubic capacity, but in huge quantities. As a result design idea was constrained, technology remained unchanged for decades and hampered development. Promoting new models required incredible efforts. There could be no talk of any competition between factories.
As a result, our motorcycle industry, which received a powerful impetus for development in the post-war years and by 1960-1965 had risen to a very decent international level, has exhausted itself. A period of stagnation and ever-increasing lag began. And the years of perestroika made this lag almost irreversible.
As the market recovered, of course, motorcycle factories began to come to life. At the same Kovrov plant in 1995, a lightweight enduro-style motorcycle, the “Pilot,” was created. Two years earlier basic model"Voskhod-ZM" was replaced by the "Sova" motorcycle with an engine of two sizes: 175 and 200 cm3.

ZID was the first in Russia to begin producing four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles - ATVs (according to the international classification - ATV, from English All Terrain Vehicle) and three-wheeled “trucks” with a detachable module - tricycles.

About scooters in Russia

Tula machine-building plant, a purely weapons-related enterprise, became involved in conversion programs much later than Kovrov’s. His first scooter, the T-200 “Tula,” appeared in 1957 and had a completely undeniable relationship with the German “Goggo” TA 200. A cargo version was soon created on the basis of the T-200, which became the main product of the plant for many years. It performed well, and many machines from that time are still in operation today. By the beginning of the 90s, the plant mastered the production of a motorcycle with wide-profile tires, a kind of two-wheeled all-terrain vehicle that had never before been seen in Russia.

Today in the TMZ program, which survived perestroika more difficult than others, is the TMZ-5403-03K “Ant” cargo scooter with bodies various modifications, tricycle Tula-5971 and two-wheeled all-terrain vehicle Tula-5952. The plant also has new interesting developments, including those made jointly with Italian partners.

The Vyatsko-Polyansky Machine-Building Plant (Vyatskie Polyany, Kirov region) was at the same time as the Tula plant, aimed at producing the same products - motor scooters. The Italian was chosen as a prototype, and in Russian version The scooter was named “Vyatka”. At one time this little pot-bellied vehicle was very popular among us. It was especially good to pass the traffic police exams on it: the scooter on tiny wheels fit into any “eight” and “snake” with extraordinary ease. But then the demand for these cars began to fall. And, although the plant carried out a serious modernization, as a result of which it was created new model, in 1979 the production of scooters was stopped.

About motorcycles nowadays

This is, in general terms, the short history of the Russian motorcycle industry. However, the story is unfinished; it continues to this day.

Today, on the streets of our cities you can increasingly see imported motorcycles. Yes, they are amazing with their appearance And technical characteristics. As a rule, they have super-powerful engines and excellent dynamics. Of course, what are these high performance must be provided and high security. Therefore, special anti-dive front forks and disc brakes have become commonplace on them; they are increasingly equipped with ABS system(ABS).

1. Daimler, Gottlieb (Godfreid Daimler)
(03/17/1834-1900) - German, born in the city of Schorndorf (Principality of Württemberg) - technical director of the Otto plant in Deutz - inventor of a car with an internal combustion engine (Germany, 1885-86, in parallel with K. Benz) - built a self-propelled cart and properly corrected the patents for the “single-track” carriage (No. 34926 of April 3, 1885 - motorcycle), and in 1886 for the four-wheeled carriage.
Forward

Motorcycle history

More than a hundred years ago, when the bicycle first appeared on city streets, many inventors were seized by the idea of ​​equipping it with a motor, that is, in fact, creating a motorcycle. The main question was which engine to choose for this purpose. On August 29, 1885, the German engineer G. Daimler received patent No. 36423 for a single-track “horse riding” vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine. It became the prototype of the modern motorcycle, which celebrates its centenary this year.

Daimler did not set as his goal the construction of a specific self-propelled carriage - two-wheeled or four-wheeled. He created a lightweight and compact internal combustion engine for vehicles in general. And having received the first encouraging results, he began to experiment with applying it to a bicycle (1885), a carriage (1886), a boat (1886), a railway carriage (1887), and a balloon (1888). The objective situation, dictated by the level of technological development and the need for a vehicle with an autonomous engine, prompted many inventors to undertake this kind of experiment in the mid-19th century. Daimler approached the problem purely as an engineer, and the birth of the motorcycle, and then the car, was the result of a certain systematic approach to his actions. He duly protected his developments legally - he filed patents for them, which, in addition to successful experiments, created his reputation as a pioneer.

While celebrating the centenary of the motorcycle, we should also pay tribute to Daimler’s predecessors. One should not discount those who, in the decade following its invention, improved the “riding machine” so much that it became a completely practical vehicle and could be mass-produced.

In 1869, two people in different parts of the world created self-propelled bicycles. They were powered by lungs steam engines- the only ones at that time autonomous engines. The American S. Roper mounted a steam engine with two swinging cylinders on a Hanlon bicycle. Rotation to the rear wheel was transmitted by long connecting rods, like those of a locomotive; a small steam boiler with a miniature firebox hung between the wheels, and a chimney stuck out behind the saddle. The basis of this bicycle (now located in the museum at the Smithsonian Institution in the USA) was a frame made of hickory - American acacia. As the inventor claimed, his self-propelled bicycle could take any climb and leave any horse behind, and on smooth road reach speeds of up to 60 km per hour. True, no documents confirming this have survived.

The French inventor and engineer L. Perrault designed and built a very light single-cylinder steam engine with a belt drive that drove the rear wheel of the Michaud bicycle. Perrault filed a patent for the invention and in the same 1869 documented the results of a test run of his car over a distance of 15 km, during which it reached a speed of 15 km per hour.

Later, experiments with steam bicycles were carried out by the Frenchman A. Shaluy (1870), the Englishmen A. Miik (1877), E. Bateman and T. Parkns (1881), and the American L. Copeland (1884). It is curious that, according to Copeland’s drawings, the Norgorp company in the 80s manufactured about 200 two-wheeled and three-wheeled self-propelled vehicles with steam engines.

Emissions of steam and ash, the danger of a boiler explosion, and smoke from the chimney did not create popularity for steam bicycles. And inventors continued their search for smokeless, silent and “burn-free” engines. Attempts have been made to use electric motors, piston machines like steam engines, but operating on compressed air or carbon dioxide, spring motors. Thus, the American D. Laib built a bicycle with a spring engine in 1893. The energy accumulated by the wound spring was enough to travel 700 m at an average speed of 48 km per hour. Crews powered by the energy of compressed gases also had an equally small range.

Steam engines and boilers, heavy batteries, bulky compressed gas cylinders, and massive spring housings fit very poorly into the bicycle frame and worsened its stability. Therefore, experimenters often chose not two-wheeled bicycles, but three-wheeled ones - tricycles, which in those years were more common than now.

The internal combustion engine was eventually recognized as the most

suitable for mounting on a bicycle. And here we must pay tribute to Daimler’s engineering talent. His very awkward 1885 motorcycle, with a wooden frame, iron tires on wooden wheels, was the first design to feature a vertical engine between the wheels, a belt drive that acted as the clutch mechanism, and control of the clutch via a rotating handle on the handlebars. In short, this machine had some design features that later became traditional. In other words, Daimler created an engineering concept and outlined the contours of the future motorcycle, managing to move away from the usual solutions dictated by the mechanical engineering practice of those years.

Some of his followers, on the contrary, thought in traditional ways. The Germans, brothers G. and B. Hildebrand and A. Wolfmüller, in 1894 and the Englishman K. Holden in 1895, took up the small-scale production of motorcycles with two-cylinder internal combustion engines. The water-cooled cylinders were placed “locomotive-style” - horizontally and drove the rear drive wheel in motion without any clutches or gearboxes: directly with connecting rods, as on locomotives. Such a heavy and unreliable design quickly became obsolete, although German inventors made about a hundred machines. Several copies were sold to Russia, and at the end of the 19th century, the pioneer of Russian motorsport, St. Petersburger V. Mikhailov, raced on one of them.

The Englishman E. Butler followed the same path, who in 1864 received patent No. 0143541 in his country for a tricycle with an internal combustion engine, but built the car only in 1887. The two-cylinder engine was also placed horizontally, and its connecting rods were connected to the rear drive wheel on both sides. The faster the engine was, the more urgent was the need for a gearbox between it and the drive wheel, and subsequently for a gearbox. Butler later realized his mistake and used a planetary gearbox. Despite the initial miscalculations, its design was progressive for its time. He was the first to use it on a motorcycle two stroke engine(Daimler has a four-stroke), introduced electric ignition and a spray carburetor with float chamber, ahead of other inventors by 7-8 years.

The whole world started talking about motorcycles, and in particular motor tricinles, after the French A. de Dion and J. Bouton created a very light and high-speed four-stroke internal combustion engine in 1895. The first engine model with a displacement of 120 cm3 developed a power of 0.5 liters. With. at 1800-2000 rpm and had a mass of only 18 kg. De Dion-Bouton motors became widely used by various factories and gave impetus to the rapid spread of motorcycles. By the way, on a tricycle with a 1.75 hp engine. With. and with a working volume of 238 cm3, the Frenchman L. Mazi won the Moscow - St. Petersburg race in the summer of 1899.

On tricycles of that time the engine was located between rear wheels. The first mopeds, built in 1897 in Paris by Russian emigrants brothers M. and B. Werner, had a motor located above the front drive wheel. The Italian inventor E. Bernardi mounted a motor on a separate cart, which pushed a bicycle connected to it.

The motorcycle layout proposed by Daimler, in which the engine was placed vertically between the wheels, received practical application in 1898 on the Austro-Hungarian Laurin-Clement motorcycles (now the Skoda plant in Czechoslovakia). They became an example for numerous imitations. Soon the production of tricycles began to decline, and the two-wheeled motorcycle gained universal recognition.

Among the pioneers of motorcycle manufacturing in industrialized countries, the following factories should be mentioned: Norton (England, 1898), Peugeot (France, 1899), Storero (Italy, 1899), NSU (Germany, 1900) .), “Lengnern (Russia, 1901), “Triumph” (England, 1902), “Harley-Davidson” (USA, 1903), “Yamabai (Japan, 1908). The motorcycles of their design differed in many details and had many original technical solutions, but they were based on the concept laid down a hundred years ago by G. Daimler and his employees.

Both the first motorcycle and the first car came about in very similar ways. In both cases, the “very first” is considered to be a carriage with an internal combustion engine; they try not to call previous designs with steam engines until the turning point of 1885, although after this date the term “motorcycle” is applied to such machines without a shadow of a doubt. or "car". These two cars have a common father - the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler, although again, almost every country names its “parents”. But the genealogical trees, although closely intertwined with crowns and roots, are still different: if the car counts in its ancestors almost all types of wheeled vehicles, then the ancestor of the motorcycle is the same - the bicycle.

Reputable monographs on the history of the automobile usually begin in the middle of the fourth millennium BC - the first wheels, the remains of which were discovered in the ruins of cities in Mesopotamia, date back to this time. The motorcycle does not claim the laurels of the patriarch and modestly traces the beginning of its prehistory to just XVII century ad. The stained glass window in the English provincial church of St. Gilles shows a cherub sitting on a two-wheeled car with one wheel in front and one in the back. It is not known whether this carriage was a figment of the master’s imagination or whether he had some kind of sample in front of his eyes - perhaps a toy. One thing is known: the church (and stained glass) dates back to 1642 - 150 years before the first “celorifer” appeared on the streets of Paris!

This is exactly what Count Mede de Sivrac called his machine, who first presented his invention to the amazed Parisians in the garden of the Palais Royal in June 1791. The design of the new product was simple to the extreme: a horizontal wooden beam about a meter long, from which two vertical posts extended down in front and behind, and wheel axles were attached to the bottom of the posts. There was no attempt to make the wheel turnable, but the front of the device was decorated with a horse's head, the back with a tail, and the saddle was also borrowed from a horse. To set the chain in motion, it was necessary to push off with the tips of the feet from the ground, change the direction of movement either by tilting the machine, or, having stopped, by rearranging the front wheel. But even in such an imperfect form, the car won many fans in France. Even the Great French Revolution did not prevent its success, as well as its spread: riders on two-wheeled “velocifers” (this was the name given to the new product by the beginning of the 19th century) were seen on the streets of Germany, Great Britain, and even Russia.

This is what the distant ancestor of the motorcycle looked like - the “runner” of Karl Draize

Fixed front wheel was the main drawback of the velocifer, and it was this that became the first point of application for the inventors’ minds. In 1816, the chief forester of the Duchy of Baden, Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Dreyse von Sauerbronn (1785-1851), attached a swivel front wheel fork to the carriage. For his invention, he took out a patent from the Principality of Baden on January 12, 1818, and already in April of this year he demonstrated his carriage, to which he gave the name “bicycle,” in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Needless to say, in Germany he is considered the inventor of the bicycle.

At the end of 1819, the English mechanic Knight built the first all-metal bicycle, however, due to the weight of the machine, the idea did not receive recognition then. An even more important invention was made by another Englishman, Lewis Comperz, in 1820: he used levers to manually drive the front wheel. But only in 1861, the Frenchman Pierre Michaud installed pedals on the front wheel and thereby ensured a rebirth for the bicycle. Michaud was also the first to mass produce bicycles: his workshop produced 162 bicycles in 1862 and more than 400 in 1863. Since then, the bicycle has been transformed from an exotic toy into an everyday means of transport.

The main disadvantage of direct drive to the front wheel is that the driver must move his feet too quickly in order to achieve a decent speed. Therefore, the front wheels began to quickly increase in diameter, resulting in the curious design of a spider bicycle: a huge front wheel - up to two meters in diameter - and a tiny rear one. The moments of starting and stopping led to remarkable difficulties on this carriage - remember the witty story of Mark Twain! But even in this still imperfect form, the bicycle gained many fans, and its production was put on an industrial basis.

In 1868, the French inventor Clement Ader first used rubberized rims on a bicycle; The 1869 Phantom bicycle already had a metal frame and wheels with wire spokes, and back in 1868, Parisian watchmaker Andre Julmet installed pedals in the center of the machine, connecting them with a chain to the rear wheel. The bike was now ready to install the engine.

It was up to the engine itself. The steam engine, generally accepted in the mid-19th century, was of little use for this role: a bulky boiler, an impressive cylinder, and the need to have a supply of water and solid fuel on board interfered. But “difficult” does not mean “impossible”. Almost simultaneously, in 1869, such “bicycle steamers” were made by the American Sylvester Roper and the Frenchman L. Perrault (according to some sources, Roper built the first copy of his machine back in 1860).

Sylvester Roper based the bike on a Hanlon bicycle with an iron frame, wooden wheels reinforced with iron rims, and a forged front fork. Behind the driver's seat, a steam engine was suspended on spring-loaded hooks (to soften shocks). At the bottom of the impressive cylinder there was a firebox (the fuel was finely ground coal), above the firebox there was a boiler, above the boiler there were two cylinders that could swing with an amplitude of 6 cm, and this movement was transmitted to the rear wheel by long connecting rods - like in a steam locomotive. Already in this machine, rotating handles were used for control - or rather, the entire steering wheel rotated: when rotating forward, the steam supply to the cylinder was opened, and when rotating backward, the brake applied to the rear wheel. Roper claimed that his car was capable of taking on any slope and reaching a speed of 60 km/h on a straight line - however, evidence of such feats has not survived. The car itself has survived to this day and is now in the museum at the Smithsonian Institution in the USA.

Sylvester Roper's steam bicycle (1969) with a smoke pipe protruding behind the rider's saddle

Perrault's steam motorcycle gives the impression of a much more harmonious machine compared to Roper's steam engine. Perrault patented his machine in 1868 and built it the following year, based on Michaud's bicycle with an iron frame, pedals on the front wheel and a seat mounted on a long spring. The compact single-cylinder steam engine was mounted above the rear wheel and had a multi-tube boiler with alcohol burners. The engine speed was controlled by the air supply to the combustion chamber. Torque was transmitted to the rear wheel by a belt. Perrault tried to document the results of the tests, during which the car covered 15 km, reaching speeds of up to 15 km/h. It is now in the collection of Robert Gransen.

"Steam cycle" by the Frenchman Perrault.

There were, of course, enough people who wanted to equip a bicycle with a steam engine even after Roper and Michaud, but usually three-wheeled cars were taken as a basis, and the result was something more related to the history of the car than the motorcycle. Among the two-wheeled creatures, we note the motorcycle of the American Lucius Copeland, built by him in 1884 (according to some sources - in 1881). Taking a Star spider bike, Copeland installed a cylindrical boiler over the front (or rear?) wheel, with an inverted cylinder above the boiler. The fuel tank held a liter of gasoline - according to the inventor, this amount of fuel should be enough for an hour of work. The engine developed a power of 0.25 liters. With. at 1000 rpm, while the entire cylinder-boiler assembly weighed only 9 kg - an excellent indicator for that time. From the engine, torque was transmitted by a belt to the rear wheel. Copeland was not only an inventor, but also a tireless promoter of a new method of transportation. He published brochures and traveled all over the United States himself, demonstrating his miraculous apparatus in action. Subsequently, he built several more two- and three-wheeled vehicles with engines of this type.

Lucius Copeland with his 1884 bicycle

But despite the fact that the steam engine proved the fundamental possibility of use even on a bicycle, the future still belonged to a new type of engine - internal combustion.

The first functional internal combustion engine was built in 1856 by Italian inventors Barsanti and Mattecci, who patented it back in 1853. But this type of engine gained real popularity thanks to the French inventor Etienne Lenoir, who built his engine in 1860. The first internal combustion engines were in many ways similar to steam engines - only instead of steam, flammable gas was supplied to the working cylinders, ignited by a candle from Bunsen batteries. Alas, in terms of efficiency new engine couldn't boast of much even compared to steam engine: Its efficiency was only 4%. And if we add to the fact that this engine required gas supply through pipes and 120 m3 of water per hour for cooling, it becomes clear that the new product was not yet suitable for driving any crew.

An important step in improving the engine was made by German inventors Nikolaus-August Otto (1832-1891) and Eugen Langen (1833-1895). In 1876, they built an engine operating on a four-stroke cycle - like all modern car engines and the lion's share of motorcycle engines. By dividing two revolutions of the engine shaft into four strokes, they were able to solve the problem of pre-filling the cylinder with the mixture so that the spark could ignite the mixture at the beginning of the power stroke. Engine efficiency Otto increased to 15%, but still it remained too bulky, and most importantly, it ran on flammable gas, and therefore it was impossible to install it on any vehicle. This problem - to make the Otto engine suitable for transport - was brilliantly solved by another German inventor, Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900).

Daimler was born in the village of Schorndorf, not far from Stuttgart, which was then part of the Kogyul State of Wuotemberg. His family owned a bakery that also served as a wine shop, but from a young age he was attracted to a completely different world - the world of technology. He served an apprenticeship with a local gunsmith, then graduated from the Stuttgart Polytechnic, after which he worked in a locomotive factory.

In 1861, Daimler went to Paris to study Etienne Lenoir's engine. Then he traveled around England, gaining invaluable experience. Returning to Württemberg in 1863, he became director of a vocational school. There a meeting took place that largely determined his future and the future of the car and motorcycle. One of the school's students was Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929) - as they say, a mechanic by the grace of God. Having noticed the gifted young man, Daimler took him under his protection (Maybach was an orphan), and subsequently they worked and created new cars together.

Sheet to the description of Daimler's patent for a "Riding carriage with gasoline engine", 1885

In 1870, Daimler became chief engineer of Maschinenbau Gesellschaft in Karlsruhe, a large company that produced locomotives and stationary engines. Two years later, Evgeniy Langen lured him away. But in the end, Daimler and Otto could not work together, and in 1881 Daimler, and with him, of course, Maybach, left Langen and Otto. Daimler bought for his big family- he had five children - a house in Canstadt, a suburb of Stuttgart, and soon turned the barn into a design office, and the greenhouse into a workshop.

Now Daimler no longer had to worry about his daily bread: the shares of Gazmotoren-Fabric Deutz, the company of Langen and Otto, gave quite a decent income - and he was able to devote himself to the implementation of his projects. In 1881, Daimler made a long trip to Russia to become familiar with a new type of fuel - oil. In those days, oil was extracted for processing into kerosene, which served as a source of artificial lighting, and lubricating oils. Gasoline was considered a low-value by-product, used only as a cleaning agent, and also dangerous to handle due to the easily generated explosive vapors. But it was precisely this ease of evaporation that attracted Daimler, who decided to use gasoline as fuel for his engine.

By 1885, the Daimler engine had passed the research stage and was ready for use; all that remained was to find a suitable machine to install it. The simplest option for the inventors was a bicycle, and one fine day Wilhelm Maybach became the world's first motorcyclist, for this particular machine is considered throughout the world to be the world's first motorcycle.

On August 29, 1885, Gottlieb Daimler received German patent No. 36423 for the "Rcitwagen mil Petroleummotor" ("Riding carriage with a gasoline engine"). By this time, the motorcycle, built in the spring, had already gone through a test cycle, culminating in a trip by Daimler’s son Paul from Canstadt to Untertürkheim and back - a whole seven kilometers.

The vertical single-cylinder engine was mounted in the center of a wooden frame - chassis the first motorcycle looked ridiculous even by the standards of the eighties of the last century, more reminiscent of the creation of Draize. From the engine, a belt drive went to an intermediate pulley, from which the torque was transmitted by a gear transmission to the rear wheel. The belt drive provided two gear ratios and a neutral position - a luxury that would be returned only a quarter of a century later. Support rollers were installed on the sides of the machine.

The world's first motorcycle

The working mixture was prepared in an evaporative-type carburetor - in other words, simply in a gas tank: air was sucked in so that it bubbled up through the gasoline, becoming saturated with its vapors. Through the inlet pipe, the mixture entered the combustion chamber of the engine through the inlet valve, which opened automatically due to the vacuum in the chamber. An exhaust valve was installed under the intake valve, which was driven by a pin running in a shaped groove in the flywheel. To improve purging, another automatic valve was installed in the bottom of the piston - clean air was supplied through it. To ignite the mixture, a glow tube was used, heated from the outer end by a kerosene burner. The engine was started using a crank handle with right side. The crankcase and cylinder head were cast from bronze, the cylinder from brass. The cylinder was surrounded by a steel casing, inside of which there was cooling air from a fan mounted on the crankshaft. With a working volume of 264 cm3, the engine developed a maximum power of 0.5 liters. With. at 700 rpm and was capable of accelerating a 90-kilogram car to a speed of 6 or 12 km/h, depending on the selected gear ratio.

This motorcycle remained the only one in the biography of Daimler and Maybach. Single-track transport didn't appeal to them at all - they just wanted to test the engine. A year later, they installed it on a cart, having received the first car, then on a boat, a railcar, an airship... Unfortunately, the very first motorcycle died in a big fire in 1903. Then two copies were made from the surviving parts and restored drawings. Now the number exact copies there are dozens.

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were the first to go through the entire cycle: invention, patenting, construction of a prototype, testing. Therefore, all over the world they are considered the creators of the first motorcycle. However, some historians in England, France and Italy have their own dissenting opinion. The most preferable positions in this dispute are the Englishman Edward Butler (1863-1940).

Butler took out a British patent for his carriage back in 1884, but the first example was not built until 1887. His car was very unusual: three wheels - two in front and one in the back, the engine cylinders were located on both sides of the rear wheel, and the driver's seat was installed in front of it. The two-cylinder engine operated on a two-stroke cycle developed by the Englishman Dugald Clerk (1854-1931). The combustion chamber was located at the rear of the cylinder, and the mixture was pre-compressed at the front. Ignition is by an electric spark from an electrostatic device developed by Butler himself. The cylinder was cooled with water, the reservoir for which was located in rear wing. From the front of the cylinder came a connecting rod connected to a long rod that went to the rear wheel. The clutch problem was solved in an original way - sore spot for all cars with direct drive from the engine to the drive wheel: there were two rollers on the sides of the rear wheel, which raised the rear part of the carriage when the pedal was pressed. The two front wheels were steered and turned using two levers. The total engine displacement was 1037 cm3 and at 100 rpm it provided a vehicle speed of 20 km/h.

Edward Butler tricycle

The Italians put forward Giuseppe Murniotti as the inventor of the motorcycle, who patented his “bicycle with gas engine"back in 1879. Its carriage consisted of a horizontal beam, to which a fixed front wheel was attached, and a steerable rear wheel by means of a vertical fork. A two-cylinder engine, running "on hydrogen or other flammable gas," was located under the beam and had direct drive to the front wheel. Behind this wheel there was a driver's seat, which controlled the rear wheel using a long rod. Murniotti's project was implemented only on paper; no information about the attempt to implement it has been preserved.

Diagram of a spring-powered motorcycle from 1893

The two- and three-wheeled motorcycles created by the Frenchman Felix Millet had a very original design. He built his first apparatus in 1892, and its most remarkable feature was its star-shaped five-cylinder rotary (that is, the cylinders rotated, but the crankshaft remained stationary) engine. Such engines, very popular in aviation during the First World War (the famous “Gnome-Ron”), were patented by Millet back in 1887. The cylinders were connected to a special ring attached to the wheel rim with spring rings or braces. At 180 rpm the engine developed a power of 2 hp. With. The first car, in 1892, was three-wheeled, and the engine-wheel unit was mounted at the front. On the two-wheeled version of 1893, the engine was located in the rear wheel.

Felix Millet's two-wheeled motorcycle, 1893

Enrico Bernardi (1841-1919), a professor of physics at the University of Vincenza (Italy), began his experiments with the internal combustion engine back in the 1880s. Its first engine to power sewing machine, he presented at an exhibition in Turin in 1884. Like Daimler, Bernardi was attracted by the engine itself, and not by the possibility of using it specifically on a motorcycle, and the drive trolley for a bicycle, which he demonstrated in 1894, became only an episode in his biography. The cart, powered by a single-cylinder, four-stroke engine driving a single wheel, could be attached to any bicycle. Its total weight was only 30 kg, and fuel consumption did not exceed 10 g per kilometer. The controls were made in an original way: a rubber bulb was installed on the handlebars of the bicycle, from which a hose ran to a box on the trolley. Inside the box was divided by a rubber diaphragm, connected by a rod to the fuel supply and location control mechanism drive pulley transmissions.

Driving cart of Professor Bernardi, 1894

German inventors turned out to be not only good designers, but also excellent entrepreneurs. They were able to organize widespread advertising of the new product and set up its sales in almost all European countries. Several Hildebrand und Wolfmüller motorcycles made it to Russia - one of them has survived to this day. Alas, the car turned out to be extremely impractical in operation: what was the cost of the direct drive alone, which every time forced the driver to think whether he should stop in front of an obstacle and repeat the entire starting procedure again. There were even lawsuits that led to many buyers returning their cars and getting their money back. So three years after the start of mass production, the Munich company Hildebrand und Wolfmüller went bankrupt. Still, they managed to produce quite a lot of motorcycles for those times: different sources indicate figures from 400 to 2000 copies.

Orlovsky on a Clement tricycle with a De Dion engine, on which in August 1900 he completed the Mokva-Paris run in 20 days

The appearance in the ring of a fairly light and reliable engine significantly revived the activities of bicycle companies, which began producing motorbikes either with De Dion engines or with its lightweight versions. The most successful in the new business were emigrants from Russia - brothers Mikhail and Evgeniy Werner. The four Werner brothers were fairly well-known publishers in Russia, publishing the magazines “Around the World”, “Friend of Children” and “Cricket”. But Paris has always attracted Russian people like a magnet, and Mikhail and Evgeniy moved to the capital of France, hoping to engage in journalism there too. These plans were not destined to come true, and the brothers had to turn to the help of their second hobby - technology. They organized a workshop for repairing gramophones, typewriters and cameras. In the mid-90s of the last century, they started working on a new product - a bicycle with a motor. In 1896, they built a prototype with the engine mounted horizontally in front of the rear wheel hub, but they were not satisfied with the test results, and they moved the engine, installing it above the front wheel. In 1897, 12 motorcycles of the new model were produced, with a single-cylinder four-stroke engine producing 0.75 hp. With. at 1200 rpm, equipped with glow ignition and belt drive to the front wheel. A motorcycle (or motorbike) with such an engine reached speeds of up to 35 km/h. Soon an improved model appeared, with electric ignition, and in 1898 production of a new model began, with more powerful engine. The machine became very popular: by the beginning of 1901, over 3,500 Werner motorcycles had been produced, and their production was also established under license in Germany and Great Britain, not to mention numerous imitations.

One of the first Werner motorcycles, still with glow ignition, was bought in 1898 by the Czech industrialist Vaclav Klement (in those years his country was called Austria-Hungary). Since 1895, Klement, together with Vaclav Laurin, produced Slavia bicycles. And he came up with the idea to expand production program a copy of the French novelty. But the tests of both the “Werner” and the soon-made exact copy of it did not suit the partners, and for better stability they decided to move the engine to the lower corner of the frame. Their motorcycle, which was released in 1899, had a single-cylinder four-stroke engine with a displacement of 239 cm3 and a power of 1.75 liters. s., ignition from a magneto of our own design, drive to the rear wheel with a flat belt, weighed 55 kg and developed maximum speed 55 km/h. In fact, it was the first modern motorcycle, apart from Daimler's.

But although new scheme at the turn of the century received everything greater distribution(let's name, for example, the French Peugeot of 1899 and the English Felon and Moore of 1900), only the Werner brothers came up with the idea to patent it - therefore, formally, they are considered the creators of the modern motorcycle. The "New Werner", released in 1901, was not only a great commercial success, but also became a model for all motorcycle designers - from Russia to the United States.

The first motorcycles in Russia.

September 11, 1898 In St. Petersburg, speed racing was held for the first time in Russia. Of the seven who showed up at the start, six competed on tricycles. The race distance was 38 km. Belyaev finished first. He completed the route in 1 hour 33 minutes 36 seconds with an average speed of 24.5 km/h. The first motorcycle race in Russia caused a wide resonance and demonstrated the possibility of using a new tricycle vehicle on the roads of our country.
The press expressed thoughts about the need to produce such crews in our country. Someone from domestic producers should become a pioneer of the domestic motorcycle industry, and such a person was soon found. He became A.A. Leitner, owner of the Riga bicycle factory "RUSSIA".
In 1899, he acquired a license from the Werner brothers to produce a motorcycle with a lower engine. The following year, his factory began producing “Werner” motorcycles.

Initiative of A.A. Leitner was picked up by other Russian industrialists and individual inventors. During 1907-1914 “Gloor”, “Fortuna”, “Selten”, “Virkau” and “Baltia” produced motorcycles in small quantities: they built internal combustion engines into bicycles.

A more significant contribution to the motorization of the country was made by the Moscow Dux plant. On it since 1909. Along with bicycles and cars, motorcycles were built. The design was based on the Swiss model “Moto-Reve” (Moto-Reve - “motor dream”). The Dux company manufactured its bicycles of the same brand and built into them Moto-Rev engines, made at a subsidiary English company with the same name under license from the same Swiss one. Produced in Moscow
the motorcycle was called the "Moto-Rev-dux", and sometimes simply "Dux". it had a two-cylinder V-shaped engine with a displacement of 256 cm3 and a power of 2 hp, allowing it to reach speeds of up to 60 km/h. This motorcycle was mass-produced during 1910-1911. and constantly improved.