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Pioneers of the Two-Wheeler: Gottlieb Daimler's Reitwagen, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, and Other Forerunners
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ISBN13: 9781923545694
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 24 2025
Pages: 306
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.64 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
From the smoke-wreathed sheds of Cannstatt to the wind-scoured sands of Ormond Beach, the motorcycle's first three decades unfolded as a pageant of restless curiosity. Pioneers of the Two-Wheeler follows that arc with forensic clarity, charting how steam dreamers, petrol pragmatists, and factory visionaries turned wobbly wooden draisines into chain-driven, multi-gear machines capable of reshaping armies and daily commutes alike.
Drawing on patent filings, military trial reports, and production ledgers, the book illuminates the breakthroughs-spray carburetors, high-tension magnetos, triangulated steel frames-that still underpin twenty-first-century superbikes. Equally vivid are the personalities: Muriel Hind and Madame Lefèvre shattering gender barriers on 400-mile endurance runs; Glenn Curtiss coaxing 136 mph from a beach-bound V-eight; factory managers at FN, NSU, and Bianchi teaching assembly lines to hum in six-minute rhythms.
Set against the gathering thunder of world war, these stories reveal why balance, simplicity, and open-road exhilaration remain the motorcycle's immutable core. Whether you restore veteran bikes, ride modern café racers, or simply relish industrial history, this narrative delivers a front-row seat to the birth of mechanised freedom.
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