Motorcycles still good to go
Buying a motorcycle makes sense. Two-wheel vehicles get far better gasoline mileage than automobiles, prove easy to park, and reduce traffic congestion. Most south-of-Boston adults know where to shop for cars, since auto dealerships locate on busy highways and display vehicles outdoors. Owning a car somehow makes motorcycle dealerships and even motorcycles almost invisible. But thinking outside the glass-and-steel four-wheeled box yields glimpses of a future based in the past.
In 1867 Sylvester Howard Roper invented a motorcycle driven by a coal-fired, two-cylinder steam engine. But not until a German, Gottlieb Daimler, fitted a newly invented four-cycle gasoline engine to a bicycle frame in 1885 did the world realize two-wheel technology would succeed. By 1902, the Indian Motorcycle Company had begun mass-producing vehicles in Springfield. A year later, William Harley and Arthur and Walter Davidson founded
Feminism collided with motorcycling immediately. Already concerned that bicycling produced split skirts and worse, conservatives argued for drop-frame girls' bikes that eliminated the need for throwing one leg over the saddle when mounting and dismounting. In the 1890s, police arrested radical feminists for riding bicycles in sweaters and tights, but the probability of skirts tangling in spoke wheels forced the issue of women wearing pants. With its mid-body engine forestalling any chance of a dropped center, and its chain and spoke wheels likely to entangle skirts, conservatives unfairly shoved the motorcycle into the male-only arena. Proper young women did not ride motorcycles, although a few tried riding in sidecars.
As automobiles became cheaper and more comfortable, motorcycles became almost raw. Riders endured cold in winter, and wore rain suits in downpours. By the 1920s, automobiles had transformed courting into dating, and men understood the necessity for buying vehicles in which they could take out women. In the 1920s and throughout the Depression, the motorcycle somehow symbolized the willingness of some men to do without women, at least for a year or so. Even during World War II, when so many women worked in defense and other industry, riding a motorcycle remained a male-focused activity.
Safety issues bedeviled motorcycling after the 1930s. Teenagers studying for learner's permit tests discover what motorists must do when approaching horses, especially if the equines appear frightened. Legislators struggle to define bicyclists as pedestrians, even as bicycles attain highway speeds. Horses and bicycles preceded motorcars, legislators argue, and thus deserve attention due to the legal philosophy known as ''first in line." Why motorcycles, which also preceded motorcars, get no special attention is a mystery in American legal history. Requiring drivers of trucks and buses to pull over when a motorcycle approaches in the opposite direction or giving motorcyclists the right of way at intersections seems sensible. After all, alone on the road, motorcycles are safe.
No intoxicated rider can balance a motorcycle. Almost three-fourths of motorcycle wrecks involve collisions with an automobile, and another cluster involves collisions with animals and road obstructions. Researchers argue that two-thirds of motorcycle-car collisions involve the car trespassing on the right of way of the motorcycle. Not surprisingly, the law and motorcyclists believe in keeping motorcycle headlights on in daylight. But helmets, protective clothing, and shining headlights cannot safeguard riders against automobilists who often claim they did not see the motorcycle they crushed. Perhaps motorcyclists should be allowed on sidewalks.
Concerns about gasoline prices, physical exercise, pollution, and sprawl now combine to create a resurgence of motorcycles, and to produce offbeat offspring. Miniature engine-powered sidewalk scooters costing about $450 compete with sit-down electric scooters good for 12 miles at 15 miles per hour (and costing about $350). Technological marvels like the eGO-2 cycle, a hybrid bicycle, scooter and moped for sale at EV Deals on South Street in Plainville for about $1,400, suggest great changes ahead. EV Deals also sells high-tech devices reminiscent of Daimler's invention -- tiny motors that push bicycles, some of which recharge themselves coasting downhill. Only a few antisprawl, smart-growth planners and developers realize the astounding implications of motorcycles and their offspring. Trift-minded adults, environmentalists, and even children now wonder why automobiles get so much of the pavement.
The manufacturers always found a market, even as European, Japanese, and other competitors shipped their products to the United States. Nowadays, the range of motorcycles surprises inquirers, as anyone who walks into Armands Power Sports on Route 104 in Halifax discovers. Gleaming beside snowmobiles and other off-road machines stands a rank of gorgeous motorcycles built by Triumph, Harley, and Victory. Replete with safety devices, specialized mufflers, and other improvements unknown even a few years ago, stock motorcycles open on another aspect of ownership -- owner modification. Rahns Motorcycle Engineering on Adams Street in Abington sells parts that enable owners to make their machines nearly unique. Within the confines of Registry of Motor Vehicle regulation, an owner can produce a genuinely ergonomic vehicle perfectly fitted to leg and arm length and body weight in ways automobilists scarcely approach.
Motorcycles reward backyard invention and reengineering nearly impossible with computer-equipped cars, and provide simple mechanical pleasure to a generation overwhelmed with high-tech cars.
Norwell resident John Stilgoe is Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at Harvard University.
