The World's Oldest Recorded Motorcycle: The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen
The World's Oldest Recorded Motorcycle: The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen

The World’s Oldest Recorded Motorcycle: The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen

7 May 2026
0 Comments

From a Garden Shed in Germany to the Birth of an Industry — The Extraordinary Story of the Machine That Started It All

Picture a wooden frame, iron wheels, a seat prone to catching fire, and a top speed barely faster than a brisk jog. It doesn’t exactly conjure the image of a sleek, throaty motorcycle thundering down an open highway — and yet, this peculiar contraption, built in a garden shed in Stuttgart, Germany in 1885, is widely recognised as the world’s oldest recorded motorcycle. Meet the Daimler Petroleum Reitwagen: the machine that — quite accidentally — started one of the greatest transportation revolutions in human history.

Who Built the World's First Motorcycle?

The Daimler Reitwagen was the creation of two German engineering visionaries: Gottlieb Daimler and his gifted colleague Wilhelm Maybach. Born in 1834 in Schorndorf, Germany, Daimler was a trained engineer who spent his career obsessing over one idea — building a small, high-speed internal combustion engine that could be fitted into virtually any form of transport. He earned the title “Father of the Motorcycle,” though, as history would reveal, he never actually intended to build one.

The two men had been working together since the early 1870s and shared an almost singular vision: to create a compact engine capable of running at speeds far higher than existing designs. In 1882, Daimler established a private experimental workshop in the garden shed behind his house in the Cannstatt district of Stuttgart. Away from the politics of large engine manufacturers, he and Maybach were free to innovate at will.

By 1885, the pair had perfected what they affectionately called the “grandfather clock engine” — so named because of its striking visual resemblance to a large pendulum clock. It was a single-cylinder, four-stroke internal combustion engine that ran on petroleum, and it was unlike anything that had come before it. Now they needed to prove it could power a vehicle. The only problem? The engine wasn’t yet powerful enough to move a full-sized carriage.

So they did what any resourceful engineers would do — they bolted it to the lightest frame they could build.

The Accidental Invention of the Motorcycle

Here lies one of history’s great ironies. Daimler and Maybach did not set out to invent the motorcycle. The Reitwagen was, in their eyes, nothing more than a test bed — a way to prove their engine’s capabilities before fitting it to the four-wheeled automobile that was their true ambition. As motorcycle historian Melissa Holbrook Pierson memorably observed, the first motorcycle looks like “an instrument of torture,” created along the way to Daimler’s real goal, earning him the title of motorcycle inventor “malgré lui” — in spite of himself.

And yet, in building their engine testbed, they created something world-changing.

What Did the 1885 Reitwagen Look Like?

The Reitwagen — the word translates from German as “riding car” or “riding wagon,” also known as the Einspur (“single track”) — was a remarkable-looking machine, though not in the way we might expect from a revolutionary invention.

  • Frame: Solid beechwood, crafted by hand
  • Wheels: Two iron-treaded wooden wheels, front and rear
  • Stabilisers: A pair of spring-loaded outrigger wheels — effectively training wheels — to keep the machine upright
  • Engine: A 264cc single-cylinder Otto cycle four-stroke internal combustion engine, mounted on rubber blocks
  • Power output: A modest 0.5 horsepower (0.37 kW) at 600 rpm
  • Top speed: Approximately 11 km/h (6.8 mph) — barely faster than a brisk walk
  • Ignition: A hot-tube ignition system, in which a platinum tube inside the combustion chamber was heated by an open external flame
  • Drive: A belt drive system (later upgraded over the winter of 1885–1886 to a two-stage, two-speed transmission with a ring gear on the rear wheel)

It was primitive by any modern standard, but it was a working, petroleum-powered, two-wheeled vehicle — and that made it unlike anything that had existed before.

The World's First Motorcycle Ride: 18 November 1885

The maiden voyage of the Reitwagen is one of the great — and slightly chaotic — moments in engineering history. On 18 November 1885, Daimler’s 17-year-old son, Paul Daimler, climbed aboard the machine for its first test ride. He set off from Cannstatt and rode approximately 5–12 kilometres to the town of Untertürkheim in Stuttgart.

It did not go entirely smoothly.

The hot-tube ignition system — that open flame sitting directly beneath the rider’s seat — did exactly what you might fear. The seat caught fire. Fortunately, Paul survived unscathed, and the Reitwagen itself completed the journey. It was, by any measure, an extraordinary accomplishment. The internal combustion engine had proven it could power a personal vehicle. The world would never be the same.

Were There Any Motorcycles Before the Reitwagen?

This is where history becomes delightfully complicated. Whether the Reitwagen truly deserves the title of “world’s oldest motorcycle” depends heavily on how you define the word motorcycle.

There were steam-powered two-wheelers that preceded the Reitwagen:

  • The Michaux-Perreaux Steam Velocipede (c.1867–1871): French inventor Louis-Guillaume Perreaux fitted a small steam engine to a Michaux velocipede frame. The exact date is disputed due to the absence of verifiable records.
  • The Roper Steam Velocipede (c.1869): American inventor Sylvester Roper built a steam-powered two-wheeled machine around 1869 and continued developing it for decades. He died in 1896 while testing a newer version.

Both of these machines are legitimate contenders for the title of “world’s first motorcycle” — if you accept steam power as qualifying. However, the critical argument for the Reitwagen’s primacy rests on engine type. As Cycle World Technical Editor Kevin Cameron succinctly put it: “History follows things that succeed, not things that fail.” Steam-powered transportation was ultimately a dead end. The internal combustion engine was the future — and the Reitwagen was first.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “motorcycle” specifically references an internal combustion engine, further cementing the Reitwagen’s claim. By that standard, the 1885 Daimler Reitwagen stands alone as the world’s oldest recorded motorcycle.

The "Grandfather Clock" Engine: An Engineering Breakthrough

To truly appreciate the Reitwagen, you need to understand what made its engine special. Before Daimler and Maybach’s work, internal combustion engines were large, slow, and impractical for personal transportation. The engines of the era could barely exceed 200 rpm and had no throttle control — making them useful only for stationary applications like pumps and factory machinery.

Daimler’s goal was an engine that could reach a minimum of 600 rpm with proper throttle control. By 1885, he and Maybach had achieved exactly that. The “grandfather clock” engine was:

  • Air-cooled, keeping it lightweight
  • Fitted with a float-metered carburetor (which they designed themselves in 1885) to mix gasoline and air
  • Equipped with automatic intake valves that opened via piston suction
  • Controlled by hot-tube ignition — later replaced by Bosch electrical ignition in 1897

This engine wasn’t just a curiosity. It was the blueprint for every internal combustion engine that followed — in motorcycles, cars, boats, and eventually aircraft. The Reitwagen was, as historians have noted, the forerunner of virtually every motorised vehicle on land, sea, and in the air.

What Happened to the Reitwagen After 1885?

By 1886, the Reitwagen had served its purpose. Daimler and Maybach upgraded its transmission over the winter of 1885–1886, but with the engine’s capabilities proven, their attention shifted entirely to their true goal: the four-wheeled automobile. The Reitwagen was set aside.

Tragically, the original Reitwagen was destroyed in the catastrophic Cannstatt Fire of 1903, which razed the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft plant. The world’s first motorcycle no longer physically exists.

However, several highly detailed replicas have been constructed and can be viewed today at:

  • The Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
  • The Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany
  • The Honda Collection Hall, Twin Ring Motegi, Japan
  • The Barber Motorsports Museum, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

The Road From the Reitwagen to the Modern Motorcycle

The Reitwagen lit a spark — quite literally on that November day in 1885. Within a decade, the motorcycle had evolved dramatically:

  • 1894 — Hildebrand & Wolfmüller: The world’s first series-production motorcycle, built in Germany. It was also the first machine to which the word Motorrad (German for “motorcycle”) was officially applied and patented. A surviving example sold at Bonhams auction for approximately £170,000.
  • 1896 — Excelsior Motor Company: Britain’s first motorcycle enters production.
  • 1898 — Orient-Aster: America’s first production motorcycle hits the market.
  • 1898 — Peugeot: Reveals its first motorcycle at the Paris Motor Show — and remarkably, Peugeot still produces motorcycles today, making it the oldest continuously operating motorcycle manufacturer in the world.

By the early 20th century, motorcycles had evolved from rickety wooden curiosities into powerful, reliable machines, with manufacturers like Harley-Davidson (founded 1903) and Indian Motorcycle defining an era. The Japanese manufacturers — Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki — entered the world market after the Second World War and went on to dominate global sales.

Why the Daimler Reitwagen Still Matters Today

More than 140 years after Paul Daimler rode those first smoky kilometres through Stuttgart, the Reitwagen’s legacy is impossible to overstate. Every motorcycle on the road today — from a 200 mph superbike to a weekend cafe racer — traces its lineage directly back to that wooden, fire-prone machine in a German garden shed.

But the Reitwagen’s importance extends far beyond motorcycles. The “grandfather clock” engine that Daimler and Maybach perfected was the direct ancestor of the automobile engine, the marine engine, and ultimately the aircraft engine. Without the Reitwagen, there is no Benz Patent-Motorwagen (1886), no Wright Flyer (1903), no modern transport as we know it.

It is, in every meaningful sense, the machine that moved the world.

Conclusion

The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen is more than a museum curiosity or a footnote in engineering history. It is the founding moment of an industry that today encompasses hundreds of millions of riders worldwide. Born from practicality and necessity — not from any grand vision of building a motorcycle — it proved that small, efficient, gasoline-powered engines could transform personal transport forever.

The next time you throw a leg over a motorcycle and feel that engine fire to life beneath you, spare a thought for Paul Daimler, riding through the streets of Stuttgart with his seat on fire. He had no idea what he’d just started.

Nationwide Motorcycle Delivery

No corner of the UK is too far for the delivery team and it’s partners at Mallory Motorcycles. We proudly deliver to all major cities, towns, and even remote areas across the entire nation, including:

East Midlands based used motorcycle and scooter dealership - focused on customer experience with finance, delivery and part exchange available on all of our bikes!
saf_logo
Copyright Mallory Motorcycles © 2023-2026. All rights reserved.

Mallory Motorcycles Ltd is registered in England and Wales (Company Registration number 13948787). Registered Address Unit 2 Griffon Road, Derbyshire DE7 4RF. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (number 1037062). Mallory Motorcycles Ltd is a credit broker and not a lender. We can introduce you to a limited number of finance lenders and for such introductions we will receive commission. The commission payment can be either a fixed fee or a fixed percentage of the amount you borrow. The lenders we work with could pay commission at different rates. The commission we receive will not affect the amount you repay under the credit agreement. All finance is subject to status. Terms and conditions apply. Applicants must be 18 years or over.