1894 Hildebrand and Wolfmuller, 1st Motorrad

It started on a dreary rainy day with a visit to the



Trev Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition which is located inside their large Harley-Davision dealership



It had been a few years since we have visited their museaum which used to be located in their Richmond warehouse and was not open on the weekends. Now that they have moved into their new building on Boundary Road they brought their bikes here and are now open on Saturdays.

From the moment you walk inside you cannot help but notice the older models of HD all restored and on display



Brand new models of HD and accessories are straight ahead, and the exhibit is on the left



This is the current exhibit which will be changed from time to time. When the complete collection was housed at their previous location bikes were scattered onto two floors.



The bikes are grouped in a sort of logical order by dates of manufacture or by type and there is a timeline of motorcycle development



They are grouped by type being; during the war, dirt track, racing and purpose built bikes for hill climbing



My camera was going nuts clicking away. I like to see old technology from the turn of the century. There were many rare bikes, more like bicyles with engines during the early development of motorized power.

and then I saw IT . . . a Hildebrand & Wolfmuller, 1894 model



I don't know what attracted me to it. Perhaps because it did not look like a bicycle like the others. It resembled something more related to a scooter in design with the step through frame

This was the first vehicle to be called a Motorcyle, Motorrad. Introduced in 1894 it had an unusual engine design





Water for cooling is in the fender, and the lubricating oil is inside the frame tubes



The rear wheels are driven on each side by connecting rods in locomotive style.

here is a closer view of the drive



That rod is the connecting rod and you can see the bottom of the piston which is more or less open to the atmosphere



This is the linkage system which enables the rider to pull to located TOC for starting. It is not an easy engine to start. First you have to light a flame, locate TDC then you need to run with the bike to get it started. hard to believe that the engine is a 1498cc 4-stroke, twin cyclinder water-cooled engine



That irregular do-nut ring is the camshaft, which pushes on the camshaft rod

I don't think you want to be going too fast on this particular machine as it only has friction block brakes on the front (only)



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There were also some sidecar rigs for Charlie6 and Chris





The left foot lever is for engaging/disengaging the clutch. You hit it on the back to disengage, the move the shift lever, then push the front pedal forward to engage. The left handlbar lever is for the front brake. The pedal on the right is for the rear brake



Another thing I learned today is that the shift lever is on the left for Harleys and on the right for Indians



This is one of the bikes that you are allowed to sit on for photos

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A few months ago back in August 2010 Bucky visited Vancouver and came to the Deeley Exposition. He is technically more adept than myself. He must have brought a voice recorder or a large pad of paper and lots of pens, or he has a photographic memory as his descriptions are so detailed. There is no use to reinvent the wheel so here is a link to his report (<-- click)

He had come such a long way and I really wished he had let me know he was coming. I hope there is a next time . . .