May 2020
CENTRAL HAWKE’S BAY BRANCH of the VINTAGE CAR CLUB of NZ (Inc) Lamb Country Branch Email: centralhawkesbay@vcc.org.nz
Contributions to the BLEAT should be emailed to the Editor no later than (25th of each month) joycecalder@gmail.com
Club Nights
7.30pm 3rd Wednesday of every Month
The Reitwagen—The First Motorcycle built in 1885—by David Goran
Postal Address C/-73 Porangahau Road Waipukurau, 4200 NOMINATED POSITIONS CHAIRMAN Lynn Cross secross@xtra.co.nz 06 858 9814 SECRETARY Ken Lyons Ken.lyons@xtra.co.nz 06 858 8093 TREASURER Kaye Carswell wpkmotors@gmail.com 021 124 3620 CLUB CAPTAIN Rod McKenzie rod.mckenzie.wpk@xtra.co.nz 06 858 9562
COMMITTEE Bruce Poole The first motorcycle was built in 1885 and it was called Reitwagen or riding car. brucepoole1930@gmail.com 06 858 9940
A Reitwagen replica at the Mercedes-Benz Museum
The Daimler Reitwagen (“single track”) was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885 and is widely recognized as the first motorcycle. Daimler is often called “the father of the motorcycle” because of this invention. Even when the three steam powered two wheelers that preceded the Reitwagen, the Michaux-Perreaux and Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884 Copeland, are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, and the forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use this common engine type.
The Reitwagen’s status as the first motorcycle rests on whether the definition of motorcycle includes having an internal combustion engine. The Oxford English Dictionary uses this criterion. Even by that definition, the use of four wheels instead of two raises doubts. If the outriggers are accepted as auxiliary stabilizers, they point to a deeper issue in bicycle and motorcycle dynamics, in that Daimler’s invention needed the training wheels because it did not employ the then well-understood principles of rake and trail. For this and other reasons motoring author David Burgess-Wise called the Daimler-Maybach “a crude makeshift”, saying that “as a bicycle it was 20 years out of date “ ..........
Gary Weaver janetmweaver@gmail.com 06 858 9908 Iain and Eva Gollan nga-oki@xtra.co.nz 06 858 9105 Ruth Parker brparkrz@xtra.co.nz 06 858 5411 John Foot V.I.C. (I.D. Card) Coordinator jsfoot@xtra.co.nz 06 858 8301 PUBLICITY/WELFARE OFFICER Sandra Cross secross@xtra.co.nz 06 858 9814 EDITOR: joycecalder@gmail.com 022 166 1403