Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
The first motorcycle made in series – and the one that gave the vehicle the name Motorrad.
The Hildebrand brothers and Alois Wolfmüller in Munich designed a motorcycle with two horizontal cylinders and connecting rods direct to the rear wheel. From 1894 it was sold under the name Motorrad, the word German still uses.
The machine was hard to start and its engineering had flaws, and the company went under after a few years. But it showed that a motorcycle could be made and sold in series.
Materials: Steel tube frame, two-cylinder four-stroke engine, rubber tyres
Manufacture: Made in Munich from 1894 to about 1897.
The horizontal cylinders in the lower part of the frame.
The connecting rods that drive the rear wheel directly, as on a steam locomotive.
The water tank that doubles as the rear mudguard.