American Fours

When most people think of American motorcycles they probably think of some heavily chromed V twin machine. At the turn of the century, however, American motorcycles came with singles, V twins, and four cylinder engines. The inline four design was originally created by FN a Belgium company. This design inspired a handful of top of the line American motorcycles in the early 20th century.

FN 1905-?

The Pierce Motor Company, makers of luxury autos and motorcycles, created their own design after being impressed with the FN. The four cylinder design produced little vibration, which was gave Pierces an "automotive like ride". Pierce motorcycles, however, would not make it past the first world war.

Pierce 1909-1913

The Militare motorcycle was a unique machine. It was designed as sort of a two wheeled car, built for, as the name would suggest, military purposes. The militare turn out to be a poor choice for off road uses, so only a few went to military use.

Militaire/Militor 1914-1922

Tom and William Henderson's motorcycles are synonyminous with four cylinders. The company got its start building long wheelbase touring motorcycles. Schwinn, owners of the Excelsior company, bought Henderson around 1917 and integrated it with Excelsior. Hendersons continued with Excelsior until they both died off after the great depression.

Henderson 1912-1917

Henderson (Excelsior) 1918-1931

William Henderson left Henderson shortly after the company was aquired by Schwinn and started Ace motorcycles. Ace built some of finest and fastest motorcycles of the time. Ace didn't really make any profit off of thier motorcycles and the company went under. Indian eventually purchased the assests and produced Ace motorcycles, before moving the engine into an Indian frame. Indian fours lasted for over a decade, and were the last of the American four cylinder breed.

Ace 1920-1927

Indian (Ace) 1929-1943
Cleveland was the last manufacturer to get into the straight four game. Engines started out at 600cc's and were later enlarged to 1000cc's. Cleveland fours didn't last long as the company folded with the advent of the great depression.

Cleveland 1926-1929?

Cars and Bikes: part 1 Ducati and Ferrari

It's amazing just how similar motorcycle history is to automobile history. Take any country and compare its motorcycle evolution to its auto evolution and similarities are striking. I've decided to do a series that shows exactly what I'm talking about. First up is Ducati and Ferrari. Ducatis are two wheeled Ferraris, if you don't believe me just look below.

Ducati 750 GT Ferrari 365 GTB

Ducati F1 750 Ferrari 288 GTO

Ducati 916 Ferrari 512TR

Ducati 1098 Ferrari 430

Ducati Desmosedici Ferrari Enzo FXX

Classics, new and old

I thought it would be cool to line up all of the retro bike we have today, with the originals. It's amazing to see how well some of these machines are recreated with modern touches.

Moto Guzzi introduced the V7 in the late 1960's. The V7 would go on to pave the way for all future Guzzis. In 2008 Moto Guzzi payed homage to their icon with the new V7. With the new V7 Moto Guzzi joins Triumph and Harley in the retro game.

Ducati loves making replica race bikes. Shortly after the limited Mike Hailwood Evoluzion Ducati intorduced the Sportclassic line. The most interesting of the line was propably the Paul Smart edition, which imitates the 750 Super Sport Ducati raced in the 1970's. It's difficult however to pick which bike is more beautiful.

One of the first models Kawasak introduced in the United States was the W model. The W was little more than a copy of any of the popular English twins of the day. In the late 1990's Kawasaki released a the retro W650. Conincidentally the W650 came out around the same time as Triumph's new Bonneville.

The Honda CB750 continued long after it was introduced in 1969. The model finally died out in the 1990's. Last year however Honda displayed the CB1100 concept which maybe put into production soon.

Another modern inturpritation of a Honda classic is the CB1300 Bol Dor edition which celibrates Honda's early 80's racer the CB900 Bol Dor.

Norton was one of the last of the English twins. The company continued with the Commando through the seventies and experimented with rotaries in the eighties and ninties. Eventually the company went under. In the 1990's an Oregon based frim began producing a modern version of the Commando. The operations recently switched to a UK based firm.

The Triumph has to be the most successful marque revivals, in fact is has to be one of the only successful marque revivals. Trimuph's most famous model the Bonneville recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, so here's a 1959 Bonneville and a 2009 Bonneville.
Vincents are among the most disireable classic motorcycles in existance. The Vincent Black Shadow was the pinicle of motorcycles in its day, yet it was produced for only a short amount of time. In the late 1990's a California based revival introduced a modern Black Shadow with a Honda V twin from the RC51. Unfortunately these machines don't seem to be available anymore.

Harley-Davidson is retro. The company has made a lot of money making motorcycles that look exactly like their 40-50 year old ancestors. The best example I know of is the Sportster, which recently had it's 50th birthday. So here's the oringinal, a 1957 Sportster and a 2007 model.
Indian is the king of the comebacks. The poor name has bounced from owner to owner, yet no one has been able to live up to the reputation of the once-largest motorcycle manufacture of the world. Here's a comparison of a 1941 Indian Chief and the current revival's attempt at an Indian Chief.

Multi-cylinder bikes

After searching through motorcycle history to find first I wanted to do a feature on production motorcycles with more than 4 cylinders.

The earliest six cylinder bikes that I'm aware of are Honda's grand prix bikes. Honda raced the in the 250cc class with their RC machines from 1964 to 1967.

The first production six cylinder motorcycle came from the Italian manufacturer Benelli. Benelli offered the the 750 and 900 Sei, "Sei" being Italian for six.
Honda later introduced, what has to be the most known inline six motorcycle, the CBX. The CBX was insipered by Honda's six cylinder race bikes, and the bike was a techinical marvel in its time. Dispite being Honda's flagship the CBX didn't sell well, and lasted only a few years.
Kawasaki also offered a straight six bike called the KZ1300. The 1300 was watercooled and weighed significantly more than most four cylinder bikes, and thus did not last very lone. Kawasaki's Goldwing competitor, the Voyager, was initally based off the KZ1300, but was later offered as a lighter four cylinder model.
Of course Honda revisited the six cylinder design when they added two additional cylinders to the four cylinder Goldwing. The result was a 1500cc watercooled flat six, that helped the Goldwing dominated the fully dressed touring market. The Goldwings displacement was later bumped to 1800cc's which is offered today. Honda also created the "standard" Goldwing cruiser model, the Valkyrie and the limited factory custom, the Rune.

The only production eight cylinder motorcycle that I'm aware of is the Boss Hoss. The Tennessee based company has been puting small block Chevy V8s into motorcycle frames since 1990.

Here's some V8 models that are more "prototypes" rather than production machines.

Curtiss V8

Honest Charlie Flathead Ford Motorcycle

Drysdale V8
Morbidelli V8