The motorcycle was an accidental byproduct of a quest for the car

History · Published 9 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Gottlieb Daimler didn't set out to invent the motorcycle. He wanted to build a car, but his engine was too small for a carriage. To test it, he built a two-wheeled machine that was so unstable it required outriggers—making it a "crude makeshift" that happened to spark an entire industry.

In 1883, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach achieved a breakthrough by developing a high-speed explosion engine capable of 600 rpm. At the time, the industry standard engines produced by N.A. Otto & Cie were too slow and bulky for transportation. Daimler's goal was to create a compact, throttling engine that could power a wide range of equipment. Because his initial prototype lacked the power to move a full-sized carriage, he mounted it onto a two-wheeled test frame in 1884, creating the "Petroleum Reitwagen."

The Reitwagen is often cited as the first motorcycle, but its status is technically contested. While it was the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, it featured four wheels—two main wheels and two spring-loaded outriggers—because it lacked the modern principles of rake and trail required for stability. Some historians, like David Burgess-Wise, dismissed it as a bicycle that was "20 years out of date." However, others argue that because it successfully utilized the liquid petroleum engine type that would eventually dominate land, sea, and air travel, it remains the true ancestor of the modern motorcycle.

The machine's first ride occurred on November 18, 1885, when Daimler's 17-year-old son, Paul, traveled 5–12 kilometers from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim. The journey was perilous; the seat actually caught fire because the hot-tube ignition system was located directly underneath. By 1886, the Reitwagen was abandoned as Daimler moved toward four-wheeled vehicles. Though the original was destroyed in a 1903 fire, its legacy persists through various replicas held in museums from Stuttgart to Las Vegas.

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