Motorcycle Firsts

I originally wanted to do a piece about the very first water-cooled motorcycle. This, it seems, turned out to be more complicated than I expected. Apparently some of the earliest motorcycles had water cooled engines. I was thinking, however, about the first "modern" (post war) water-cooled motorcycle. Anyway here are some of the motorcycle firsts I discovered along the way.

1867 First steam powered "motorcycle" - S.H. Roper

1885 First gasoline powered "motorcycle" - Daimler and Maybach
1893 First multi-cylinder motorcycle - Millet

1894 Fist commercially available motorcycle - Hildebrand and Wolfmuller

1898 First American production motorcycle - Orient Aster
1905 First four cyclinder motorcycle - FN
1907 First eight cylinder motorcycle - Curtiss
1913 First overhead cam motorcycle - Pugeot

1971 First watercooled "modern" motorcycle - Suzuki GT750

1972 First production six cylinder motorcycle - Benelli Sei1980 First fuel injected production motorcycle (carborated model shown)

1988 First ABS equipped motorcycle - BMW K100

2006 First motorcycle equipped with air bags - Honda GoldwingI found a lot neat stuff, but there were still some firsts that I just couldn't find.

First ohv motorcycle?

First diesel motorcycle?

First two stroke motorcycle?

First V twin production motorcycle?

Maybe I'll have to leave that for next time.