The Iron Horse

     The Iron Horse.  Originally the term referred to early steam powered locomotives which began to appear in growing numbers during the early nineteenth century.  It was only logical that people saw the coming of this new mode of travel as a direct competitor to the venerable flesh and blood horse.  Of course this comparison was really unfair to both parties even though they shared common talents like carrying passengers and hauling loads, they really had very little else in common.  As time went on the term was used less and less as people realized that both the horse and the locomotive were able to comfortably coexist in the nineteenth century.  While it was obvious that the steam driven machine was infinitely more powerful, it had one major drawback, it had to run on steel rails which limited its ability to change direction other than forwards or backwards, unlike the horse who could be directed in any direction at all with a tug of the reins.  Since the two rivals each possessed talents that the other could not match an uneasy truce was declared and the rivalry faded away.
     Then around 1860 men seriously began to tinker with wheeled machines powered by various forms of self contained motors that were able to change direction at will and achieve speeds heretofore unheard of.  The problem being that they were so incredibly unreliable in comparison to the horse that no one took them seriously, that is until the century was nearing its end when
motorcycle development got on the fast track.  The first commercially available motorcycle was the German made Hildebrand & Wolfmüller design and it was the first use of the term Motorcycle or Motorrad in German.  Only a few hundred of these machines were made and sold but if you come across one in a barn somewhere grab it and run since the last one found sold for $131,000 at auction.

     By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century motorcycle d
evelopment and production exploded, British firms with names like BSA, Norton, Triumph and Royal Enfield each began selling hundreds of units per year.  Meanwhile the United States was giving birth to two Motorcycle manufacturing giants whose name would become synonymous with two wheels and freedom, Indian Motorcycles in 1901 and Harley Davidson in 1903.  Indian dominated the market over Harley Davidson in the early going selling an astonishing 32,000 machines in 1913.  In 1914 the nations of the world decided to try and annihilate one another again and as always business boomed in wartime.  The motorcycle companies were no exception to this rule and the major brands grew exponentially with Triumph alone selling thirty-thousand units to the

Allied Forces.

     Following World War I it can truly be said that the two wheeled Iron Horse was quickly replacing his four legged competitor as far as transportation and recreation were concerned.  The war had shown the world that motorcycles could be a reliable and efficient way to travel but the question was now would it carry over into peacetime.

     One of the more interesting stories to come out of WWI concerning motorcycle development was that of a German aircraft engine maker.  The Armistice that was signed following the end of the war restricted Germany from manufacturing war machines of any kind, effectively putting the engine manufacturer out of business.  Undaunted by this minor setback the head engineer packed his bag and set off for a Bavarian cabin vowing to come up with a new product which the company could produce.  As the story goes Max Friz only had a vague idea of what he was going to design but when he emerged from the cabin six weeks later he presented the company with a complete set of drawings for the R32.  A revolutionary motorcycle powered by the now famous “Boxer” motor.  And so Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) went on to become the automotive giant we see today and it can be said that they would have not survived if not for the monumental efforts of Max Friz.

     In part two of this post we will look at the contributions that various nations made in motorcycle development.