First Moto Cycle in Australia: 1896

The motorbike is an outdated idea.  The primary recorded picture of a two-wheeled car with an engine dates again to 1818, and the primary identified practical motorbike, Sylvester H. Roper’s ‘steam velocipede’, dates again to 1869.  A number of different steam-powered bikes have been inbuilt France and the USA within the 1870s and Eighties, however the first motorbike to be constructed on an industrial scale was the Motorrad constructed by Hildebrand and Wolfmüller from 1894-1897.   Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand have been steam engineers, and the preliminary (1889) prototype of their Motorrad was steam-powered, however they teamed up with Alois Wolfmüller to supply a gasoline-powered model in 1894.  One take a look at the development of the Motorrad reveals its steam heritage, and makes it in contrast to every other motorbike: the engine’s cylinders have uncovered connecting rods that act immediately on the rear wheel hub, in the identical method as a steam prepare, making the rear wheel successfully the flywheel of the motor.   A rubber strap helped rotate the rear wheel on the ‘return’ stroke, and might be seen laying on the bottom within the illustration beneath. With no clutch doable in such a direct drive, the Motorrad is a push and go starter, with no bicycle pedals as with different early gasoline bikes, because the Hildebrand and Wolfmüller chassis had nothing no matter to do with conventional bicycle design.

Moto-historian Dennis Quinlan despatched this charming account of the primary motorbike witnessed in Australia, on March 26 1896.  Whereas not talked about, the accompanying {photograph} clearly reveals a Hildebrand and Wolfmüller Motorrad.  Different ‘moto cycles’ might have been made in Australia previous to this occasion, however we’ve no report.  Curiously, the primary motorbike documented in Japan was additionally a Hildebrand and Wolfmüller: the corporate made round 2000 over three years, and so they clearly made their manner world wide.   Take pleasure in this account from Down Below:

The Moto Cycle: A Great Invention

Sydney Day by day Telegraph, March 26 1896

Yesterday afternoon the Cycle Austral Company gave a public exhibition in George Road of the motocycle, which is inflicting such quite a lot of public curiosity all through the world.  Because the introduction of this machine in England, France, America, Germany, and different international locations, it has precipitated an infinite quantity of newspaper controversy. The machine has been connected to carriages and completely different sorts of automobiles, and lots of the London and provincial papers have revealed illustrations purporting to indicate that in the midst of a couple of years, carriages drawn by horses can be not often seen. Already races have been held, for a couple of months in the past a race passed off from Paris to Bordeaux and again for motocycle, or horseless carriages, as some select to name them, and it proved to be very profitable. Totally 100,000 individuals witnessed it. A race has additionally been held in America. The Prince of Wales has had a number of rides in certainly one of them, and the mail which arrived in Sydney on Tuesday introduced phrase that His Royal Highness had ordered one, in order that it’s prone to grow to be highly regarded.

The motorbike yesterday was a whole success. Lengthy earlier than the time mounted for the exhibition, individuals started to congregate around the Austral Cycle Company in George Road, and when the machine was introduced out at 4 o’clock there will need to have been totally 5000 individuals current. The truth is George Road was utterly blocked, and it took the companies of quite a few police to clear sufficient of the highway to permit the buses to go. Mr. H Knight Eton, belonging to the company, had cost of the machine, and he rode it down the George Road to the Round Quay and again. Mr. WJC Elliott led the way in which to clear the observe, and Messrs. Lewis and Davis on a tandem adopted, however they have been unable to tempo it, so quick did the machine journey. The machine is pushed by benzol, and can run at a pace of 40 miles an hour on good roads. Mr. Eaton has ridden it at 32 miles an hour, and when at full pace the engine develops a 3-horse energy. The load of the machine is 250 lbs, and the machine itself is on the identical strains because the bicycle, besides that there are not any pedals. The benzol gasoline blended with air is carried to the cylinders from a tank fitted above the engine, close to the place the sprocket wheel is on a bicycle.  It’s then compressed into hole nickel tubes fitted into the bottom of the cylinders and these are saved heated by a benzol lamp specifically made for the aim.  Gasoline is exploded within the nickel tube supplying the ability to the engines. Each cylinders are single-acting, and as one is filling the opposite is driving.  The filling of the cylinders is regulated by valve gearing specifically constructed, which is labored by an eccentric working on the driving wheel of the machine, which after all is the again wheel. The exploded gases are carried away below the machine in order that there isn’t a odor or annoyance to the rider.  The machine is managed by a lever fitted with a cone screw connected to the best of the best deal with bar, and by this the pace is regulated.  Two gallons of benzol will run the machine 200 miles, and Mr. Eaton has already travelled many a whole bunch of miles.

The machine is to be exhibited on the Agricultural Present, and Mr. Henslow, on behalf of the league, final night time concluded preparations with Mr. Elliott, the supervisor of the Austral Cycle Company, to present an exhibition of tempo on the Agricultural Floor on April 25^th, on the race assembly which is to be given to Mssrs. Lewis and Megson previous to their continuing to England. The machine will tempo most likely Lewis or Megson a mile, after which will run 5 miles at its high pace, below the care of Mr. H Knight Eaton.

Again in 2009 I encountered an unique, unrestored 1895 Hildebrand and Wolfmüller on the Deutsches Zweirad Museum Neckarsulm, which was ‘in between engagements’ in a storage attic.  It was a uncommon alternative to look at a historic machine that had not been molested or restored, and represented Nineties handiwork.  A exceptional machine!  Take pleasure in this vide of my hosts demonstrating the way it works: the then-curator of the museum, Peter Kuhn, with Wolfgang Schneider translating:

A couple of extra photographs with fascinating particulars: