A motorcycle (also called a motorbike, bike, or cycle) is a two[1]three or four wheeled[2][not in citation given] motor vehicle. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long distance travel, commuting, cruising, sport including racing, and off-road riding. Motorcycling is riding a motorcycle and related social activity such as joining a motorcycle club and attending motorcycle rallies.

In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle. In 2014, the three top motorcycle producers globally by volume were Honda , Yamaha(both from Japan), and Hero MotoCorp (India).[3]

Motorcycles are mainly a luxury good in the developed world, where they are used mostly for recreation, as a lifestyle accessory or a symbol of personal identity. In developing countries, motorcycles are overwhelmingly utilitarian due to lower prices and greater fuel economy. Of all the motorcycles in the world, 58% are in the Asia Pacific and Southern and Eastern Asia regions, excluding car-centric Japan.

According to the United States Department of Transportation the number of fatalities per vehicle mile traveled was 37 times higher for motorcycles than for cars.

 

• TYPES

The term motorcycle has different legal definitions depending on jurisdiction (see#Legal definitions and restrictions).

There are three major types of motorcycle: street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many sub-types of motorcycles for different purposes. There is often a racing counterpart to each type, such as road racing and street bikes, or motocross and dirt bikes.

Street bikes include cruisers, sportbikes, scooters and mopeds, and many other types. Off-road motorcycles include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas. Dual purpose machines like the dual-sport style are made to go off-road but include features to make them legal and comfortable on the street as well.

Each configuration offers either specialised advantage or broad capability, and each design creates a different riding posture.

• EXPERIMENT AND INVENTION

The internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885.[5] This vehicle was unlike either thesafety bicycles or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees ofsteering axis angle and no fork offset, and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning.[6]

The inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). It was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle.[7][8]

 
Butler's Patent Velocycle
The first commercial design for a self-propelled cycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle, conceived of Edward Butler in England in 1884.[9] He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884. The vehicle was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine company in Greenwich, in 1888.[10]

The Butler Petrol Cycle was a three-wheeled vehicle, with the rear wheel directly driven by a 5/8hp (466W) 600 cc (40 in3; 2¼×5-inch {57×127-mm}) flat twin four stroke engine (with magneto ignition replaced by coil and battery) equipped withrotary valves and a float-fed carburettor (five years before Maybach) andAckermann steering, all of which were state of the art at the time. Starting was by compressed air. The engine was liquid-cooled, with a radiator over the rear driving wheel. Speed was controlled by means of a throttle valve lever. No braking system was fitted; the vehicle was stopped by raising and lowering the rear driving wheel using a foot-operated lever; the weight of the machine was then borne by two small castor wheels. The driver was seated between the front wheels. It wasn't, however, a success, as Butler failed to find sufficient financial backing.[11]

Many authorities have excluded steam powered, electric motorcycles or diesel-powered two-wheelers from the definition of a 'motorcycle', and credit the DaimlerReitwagen as the world's first motorcycle.[12][13][14] Given the rapid rise in use of electric motorcycles worldwide,[15] defining only internal-combustion powered two-wheelers as 'motorcycles' is increasingly problematic.

If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first motorcycles built seem to be the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede which patent application was filled in December 1868,[7][8] constructed around the same time as the American Roper steam velocipede, built by Sylvester H. Roper Roxbury, Massachusetts,[7][8] who demonstrated his machine at fairs and circuses in the eastern U.S. in 1867,[5] and built a total of 10 examples.[14]

Summary of early inventions[edit]
Year
Vehicle
Number of wheels
Inventor
Engine type
Notes
1867–1868
Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede
2
Pierre Michaux
Louis-Guillaume Perreaux
Steam
One made
1867–1868
Roper steam velocipede
2
Sylvester Roper
Steam
Ten made
1885
Reitwagen
2 (plus 2 outriggers)
Gottlieb Daimler
Wilhelm Maybach
Petroleum internal-combustion
One made
1887
Butler Petrol Cycle
3 (plus 2 castors)
Edward Butler
Petroleum internal-combustion
 
1894
Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
2
Heinrich Hidebrand
Wilhelm Hidebrand
Alois Wolfmüller
Petroleum internal-combustion
Modern configuration
First mass-produced motorcycle
First machine to be called "motorcycle"

 

• FIRST MOTOR CYCLE COMPANIES

In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle (German: Motorrad).[7][8][14][16] Excelsior Motor Company, originally a bicycle manufacturing company based in Coventry,England, began production of their first motorcycle model in 1896. The first production motorcycle in the US was the Orient-Aster, built by Charles Metz in 1898 at his factory in Waltham, Massachusetts.

In the early period of motorcycle history, many producers of bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate the new internal combustion engine. As the engines became more powerful and designs outgrew the bicycle origins, the number of motorcycle producers increased. Many of the nineteenth century inventors who worked on early motorcycles often moved on to other inventions. Daimler and Roper, for example, both went on to develop automobiles.

At the turn of the century the first major mass-production firms were set up. In 1898, Triumph Motorcycles in England began producing motorbikes, and by 1903 it was producing over 500 bikes. Other British firms were Royal Enfield, Nortonand Birmingham Small Arms Company who began motorbike production in 1899, 1902 and 1910, respectively.[17] Indianbegan production in 1901 and Harley-Davidson was established two years later. By the outbreak of the First World War, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world was Indian,[18][19] producing over 20,000 bikes per year.[20]

First World War
 
Triumph Motorcycles Model H, mass-produced for the war effort and notable for its reliability
During the First World War, motorbike production was greatly ramped up for the war effort to supply effective communications with front line troops. Messengers on horses were replaced with despatch riders on motorcycles carrying messages, performing reconnaissance personnel and acting as a military police. American company Harley-Davidson was devoting over 50% of its factory output toward military contract by the end of the war. The British company Triumph Motorcycles sold more than 30,000 of its Triumph Type H model to allied forces during the war. With the rear wheel driven by a belt, the Model H was fitted with a 499 cc (30.5 cu in) air-cooled four-stroke single-cylinder engine. It was also the first

 

• POSTWAR

By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest manufacturer,[24] with their motorcycles being sold by dealers in 67 countries.[25][26] By the late 1920s or early 1930s, DKW in Germany took over as the largest manufacturer.[27][28][29]

 
NSU Sportmax streamlined motorcycle, 250 cc class winner of the1955 Grand Prix season
In the 1950s, streamlining began to play an increasing part in the development of racing motorcycles and the "dustbin fairing" held out the possibility of radical changes to motorcycle design. NSU and Moto Guzzi were in the vanguard of this development, both producing very radical designs well ahead of their time.[30] NSU produced the most advanced design, but after the deaths of four NSU riders in the 1954–1956 seasons, they abandoned further development and quit Grand Prix motorcycle racing.[31]

Moto Guzzi produced competitive race machines, and by 1957 nearly all the Grand Prix races were being won by streamlined machines.[citation needed] The following year, 1958, full enclosure fairings were banned from racing by the FIM in the light of the safety concerns.

From the 1960s through the 1990s, small two-stroke motorcycles were popular worldwide, partly as a result of East German Walter Kaaden's engine work in the 1950s.

• TODAY

In the 21st century, the motorcycle industry is mainly dominated by the Chinese motorcycle industry and by Japanese motorcycle companies. In addition to the large capacity motorcycles, there is a large market in smaller capacity (less than 300 cc) motorcycles, mostly concentrated in Asian and African countries and produced in China and India. A Japanese example is the 1958 Honda Super Cub, which went on to become the biggest selling vehicle of all time, with its 60 millionth unit produced in April 2008.[33] Today, this area is dominated by mostly Indian companies with Hero MotoCorp emerging as the world's largest manufacturer of two wheelers. Its Splendor model has sold more than 8.5 million to date.[34] Other major producers are Bajaj and TVS Motors.

 

• SAFETY

Motorcycles have a higher rate of fatal accidents than automobiles or trucks and buses. United States Department of Transportation data for 2005 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that for passenger cars, 18.62 fatal crashes occur per 100,000 registered vehicles. For motorcycles this figure is higher at 75.19 per 100,000 registered vehicles – four times higher than for cars.[46] The same data shows that 1.56 fatalities occur per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for passenger cars, whereas for motorcycles the figure is 43.47 which is 28 times higher than for cars (37 times more deaths per mile travelled in 2007).[4] Furthermore, for motorcycles the accident rates have increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, while the rates have dropped for passenger cars.

 
Wearing a motorcycle helmet reduces the risks of death or head injury in a motorcycle crash
The two major causes of motorcycle accidents in the United States are: motorists pulling out or turning in front of motorcyclists and violating their rights-of-way, and motorcyclists running wide through turns.[citation needed] The former is sometimes called a SMIDSY, an acronym formed from the motorists' common response of "Sorry mate, I didn't see you".[47] The latter is more commonly caused by operating a motorcycle while intoxicated.[48] Motorcyclists can anticipate and avoid some of these crashes with proper training, increasing their visibility to other traffic, keeping the speed limits, and not consuming alcohol or other drugs before riding.[49]

The United Kingdom has several organisations dedicated to improving motorcycle safety by providing advanced rider training beyond what is necessary to pass the basic motorcycle licence test. These include the Institute of Advanced Motorists(IAM) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Along with increased personal safety, riders with these advanced qualifications may benefit from reduced insurance costs.[citation needed]

In South Africa, the Think Bike campaign is dedicated to increasing both motorcycle safety and the awareness of motorcycles on the country's roads. The campaign, while strongest in the Gauteng province, has representation in Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. It has dozens of trained marshals available for various events such as cycle races and is deeply involved in numerous other projects such as the annual Motorcycle Toy Run.[50]

 
An MSF rider course for novices
Motorcycle safety education is offered throughout the United States by organisations ranging from state agencies to non-profit organisations to corporations. Most states use the courses designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), while Oregon and Idaho developed their own. All of the training programs include a Basic Rider Course, an Intermediate Rider Course and an Advanced Rider Course.

In Ireland, since 2010,[51] in the UK and some Australian jurisdictions, such asVictoria, New South Wales,[52] the Australian Capital Territory,[53] Tasmania[54] and the Northern Territory,[55] it is compulsory to complete a basic rider training course before being issued a Learners Licence, after which they can ride on public roads.

In Canada, motorcycle rider training is compulsory in Quebec and Manitoba only, but all provinces and territories havegraduated licence programs which place restrictions on new drivers until they have gained experience. Eligibility for a full motorcycle licence or endorsement for completing a Motorcycle Safety course varies by province. The Canada Safety Council, a non-profit safety organisation, offers the Gearing Up program across Canada and is endorsed by the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council.[56] Training course graduates may qualify for reduced insurance premiums.