Thomas (motorcycle)

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Thomas (1900) original

The 1900 "Thomas" was the first commercially produced motorcycle in the United States . The single - cylinder four-stroke engine was hung in a bicycle frame ( Motosacoche system ), developed 1.8  hp and allowed a top speed of 40 km / h. The drive was via belts on the rear wheel.

history

Erwin Ross Thomas, a former Cleveland bicycle factory employee, founded his own bicycle factory in 1898. In 1899 he developed a small engine based on De Dion-Bouton . In 1899 he exhibited the engine at the Toronto Fair and won a gold medal . In 1900 he built this motor into an existing bicycle frame and produced this motorcycle in series, manufactured by his Thomas Company in Buffalo , New York . In 1902 he merged his Auto-Bi brand with his newly established Buffalo Automobile Company to form ER Thomas Motor Car Company . The motorcycle production, with other models, ran under the name Thomas Auto-Bi . In 1909 Thomas sold his company, which was now producing engines as Greyhound Motor Works .

discussion

The question of who is considered to be the first manufacturer of motorcycles in the USA is controversially discussed in the literature. The Herring , built in 1899, was a one-off, Marsh (1900), Indian (1901) and Harley-Davidson (1903) came later. The bicycle manufacturer Waltham Manufacturing Company introduced the Orient-Aster , a machine for standing races , in 1899 . Regular production began around 1900 with Aster engines in replicas of the De Dion Bouton motor tricycle . The April 1907 magazine "The Bicycling World and Motorcycle Review" states that Thomas' motor bike was the first motor bike built in America . The magazine "The Dealer an Repairman" (April 1902) speaks of the "first commercially manufactured motorcycle" in the USA.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Auto-Bi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Guggenheim Museum New York : The Art Of The Motorcycle. 2001, ISBN 0-8109-6912-2 , p. 101. See also → The Art of the Motorcycle
  2. ^ Wolfgang Wiesner: American motorcycles. Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 2nd edition 1992, ISBN 3-613-01362-2 , p. 19
  3. ↑ Jerry Hatfield: Standard Catalog of American Motorcycles 1898-1981. Krause Publications 2006, ISBN 978-0-89689-949-0 , p. 438
  4. ↑ archive.org The Bicycling World and Motorcycle Review , p. 171 (accessed March 9, 2013)
  5. ↑ Jerry Hatfield: Standard Catalog of American Motorcycles 1898-1981. Krause Publications 2006, ISBN 978-0-89689-949-0 , p. 19
  6. ↑ Jerry Hatfield: Standard Catalog of American Motorcycles 1898-1981. Krause Publications 2006, ISBN 978-0-89689-949-0 , p. 438