Episode 1 of 2
Reitwagen Creation
- When
- November 1885
- Where
- Cannstatt
In November 1885, Daimler installed the engine in a wooden two-wheeler frame, creating the first internal combustion motorcycle.
The vehicle, known as the Petroleum Reitwagen, was built on a wooden frame with two outrigger wheels. It was patented as Patent 36-423. The original design used a belt drive and a twist grip on the handlebars for braking and power transmission.
Sources
- Wilhelm Maybach Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-05
- Gottlieb Daimler Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-18
- Daimler Reitwagen Wikipedia, revision of 2025-08-29
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.