Caption: 1951 Indian Chief. Courtesy of Dick Shappy Classic Cars.
Sometimes (okay, every time) when we’re creating an exhibit there’s just way more good stuff than will fit. We end up letting go of a lot of great stories and snippets because there just isn’t room for them. This was especially true with the Born to Ride motorcycle exhibit on view now in the Auto Museum.
Caption: 1931 Crocker. Courtesy of McGraw Family museum.
Curators collect information from lots of places when doing research for an exhibit. The collectors who lent us their motorcycles are full of fantastic anecdotes and tidbits about the histories of their bikes. Our own research into the early history of motorcycles also unearthed some fascinating material. Director of Collections & Exhibitions Jennifer Madden, who curated the show, had a hard time choosing among them. It seems a shame to waste it, so here we’ve gathered some of the great material that was left on the cutting room floor, as well as some gems from the exhibit that you might have missed.
- Dog-powered bikes?! The merging of bicycle with motor seems to have occurred to multiple manufacturers in the 1880s. At that time folks were experimenting with different modes of power. They tried all kinds of possibilities including steam engines, clockwork mechanisms, even dogs running in cage-like rear wheels! Eventually the new (and much more practical) internal combustion engine took the lead.
- Early steam power: If you count the first successful additions of engines to bicycles as the world’s earliest motorcycles, several people seem to have tied for that honor. Paris blacksmith Pierre Michaux invented a steam-powered bicycle (or velocipede, as they were called) in the late 1860’s. At the same time, Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts invented his own steam velocipede, which ran on a coal-fired boiler that sat between the wheels. Talk about lighting a fire under someone!
- Death in the saddle: In June 1896, Roper died of heart failure while riding his latest model steam velocipede near the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Moto Bicyclettes: French brothers Michel and Eugene Werner began experimenting with what they called “moto bicyclettes” in the 1890s. They had varying degrees of success installing gasoline engines in the early models, one of which tended to burst into flames. But by 1901 they had developed what would be the form of the modern motorcycle by splitting the frame in front of the pedals and mounting the engine in the gap. This new layout with the engine low and centrally located gave the machine much better balance.
- Motorcycle innovation races ahead: Once this basic form was in place, the number of motorcycle manufacturers skyrocketed, with many small companies getting in on the action. Competition was fierce and was driven by the new and popular sport of motorcycle racing. With its powerful incentive to produce tough, fast, reliable machines, motorcycle racing pushed manufacturers to experiment and innovate, creating better bikes that then quickly found their way to the general public.
- Ford’s Model T gives more transportational bang for the buck: By 1911, some 150 makes of motorcycles had already been built in the United States, sales were buoyant, and the future seemed bright for the industry. Indian, whose products were exported worldwide, was the biggest manufacturer in the world. Then came the hammer blow: in 1908 Henry Ford’s everyman’s car, the Model T, debuted and within a few years became cheaper than many motorcycles. By the mid 1920s, the number of significant motorcycle manufacturers had shrunk to just three – Indian was the largest, followed by Harley-Davidson, and finally Excelsior, whose machines were built in Chicago by the Schwinn Bicycle Company. In the end, Harley-Davidson was the only one to survive the Great Depression in good shape.
Caption: 1909 Pierce. Courtesy of Glen Wiglesworth. Photo (c) Kevin Sprague 2011.
- It’s me or the bike! The 1909 Pierce had been in pieces for nearly a century before being put back together for our Born to Ride exhibit. When the original owner asked his sweetheart to marry him, she had one condition: get rid of that dangerous bike! Love conquered all, and the bike was disassembled and packed away for decades. The current owner purchased the boxes of parts nearly 40 years ago but never fully reassembled it until this year. Among the interesting features of this bike is its original early Massachusetts medallion license plate. And if you’re looking for the gas tank, it’s in the bike’s frame! The upper and rear frame tubes could hold seven quarts of fuel while the front downtube carried five pints of oil. This bike went 55 mph, almost unheard of at that time. No wonder his sweetheart was worried!
Caption: 1911 Flying Merkel. Courtesy of Dick Shappy Classic Cars.
- The fabulous Flying Merkel: Along with its signature bright orange body and memorable name, the Flying Merkel had a number of great advertising slogans. Among them: “The only motorcycle that doesn’t shake the daylights out of its rider,” “The next thing to flying,” and “All roads are smooth to The Flying Merkel.”
Caption: 1936 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. Courtesy of David Howland.
- What a Knucklehead: The arrival of Harley-Davidson’s overhead-valve Big Twin inspired ecstasy among dealers. The unveiling of the “Knucklehead” caused such excitement that one Texas dealer shot the chandelier with joy.
You can learn more fascinating “fun facts” in our Born to Ride exhibit, on view through October 31st.
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