How fond are you of
vehicles ! especially two-wheelers. Cars may be status symbols but a
few decades ago, owning a two-wheeler was macho !!
A few decades ago, there
were not so many automobiles on road – two wheelers were few. There
were scooters like Vijay, Bajaj, Vespa and Lambretta. Motor-bikes were
considered macho… the brands seen on road were – Rajdoot 175 cc; Jawa [later Yezdi]
250cc with twin silencers; and the most princely Enfield Bullet 350
cc… A Bullet motorcycle on road was the cynosure of all eyes ~ many
would put a rubber mat improperly cut near its silencer that would produce
thudding sound as the vehicle went majestically past..
The engine is responsible for converting the stored fuel into mechanical energy. An engine consists of a piston, spark plug, engine valves, cylinder heads, and crankshaft, among a few other things. Bike engines are usually distinguished by the number of piston cycles.
Remember in schools, we studied about Piston cycle / Combustion engines (though not much was understood !!) - the two-stroke and four-stroke engines used in bikes/ scooters are a type of reciprocating piston engine. These pistons move up and down capturing air and mixing them with fuel to create ignition. The intense pressure and temperature caused by this ignition convert into mechanical energy.
India transitioned from a predominantly two-stroke motorcycle market to four-stroke technology following the government's ban on two-stroke production around 2005 due to high pollution levels. The transition began a good two decades earlier – when players like Hero Honda CD 100 came in to market showing fuel efficiency in 100cc sector.
In the past, the word engine (via Old French, from Latin ingenium, "ability") meant any piece of machinery. A "motor" (from Latin motor, "mover") is any machine that produces mechanical power. Traditionally, electric motors are not referred to as "engines"; however, combustion engines are often referred to as "motors".
A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which requires four strokes of the piston in two crankshaft revolutions to complete a power cycle. During the stroke from bottom dead center to top dead center, the end of the exhaust/intake is completed along with the compression of the mixture. The second stroke encompasses the combustion of the mixture, the expansion of the burnt mixture and, near bottom dead center, the beginning of the scavenging flows.
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direction. The four separate strokes are termed: Intake, Compression, Combustion & Exhaust. Now Four-stroke engines are the most common internal combustion engine design for motorized land transport, being used in automobiles, trucks, diesel trains, light aircraft and motorcycles.
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion does not always result in fire, because a flame is only visible when substances undergoing combustion vaporize, but when it does, a flame is a characteristic indicator of the reaction.
An
internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the
combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion
chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit.
The force is typically applied to
pistons (piston engine), turbine blades (gas turbine), a rotor (Wankel engine),
or a nozzle (jet engine). This force moves the component over a distance. This process transforms chemical energy into kinetic
energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached
to.
The first commercially successful internal combustion engines were invented in the mid-19th century. The first modern internal combustion engine, the Otto engine, was designed in 1876 by the German engineer Nicolaus Otto.
The
Daimler Reitwagen ("riding car") or Einspur ("single track")
was a motor vehicle made by Gottlieb Daimler and
Wilhelm Maybach in 1885. It is widely recognized as the first
motorcycle. Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle"
for this invention. Even when the steam powered two-wheelers that preceded the
Reitwagen, the Michaux-Perreaux and Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884 Copeland,
are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal
combustion motorcycle, and the
forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use its overwhelmingly
popular engine type.
The Reitwagen's status as the first motorcycle rests on whether the definition of motorcycle includes having an internal combustion engine. The Oxford English Dictionary uses this criterion. It was the Reitwagen that inspired following designs and started the motorcycle industry.
Gottlieb Wilhelm
Daimler (1834 – 1900) was a German
engineer, industrial designer and industrialist. He was a pioneer of
internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the
high-speed liquid petroleum-fueled engine. Daimler and his lifelong business
partner Wilhelm Maybach were two inventors whose goal was to create small,
high-speed engines to be mounted in any kind of locomotion device. In 1883 they
designed a horizontal cylinder layout compressed charge liquid petroleum engine
that fulfilled Daimler's desire for a high speed engine which could be
throttled, making it useful in transportation applications. This engine was
called Daimler's Dream. In 1885 they designed a vertical cylinder version of
this engine which they subsequently fitted to a two-wheeler, the first internal
combustion motorcycle which was named the Petroleum Reitwagen (Riding Car) and,
in the next year, to a coach, and a boat.
In 1890, they converted their partnership into a stock company Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, in English – the Daimler Motors Corporation). They sold their first automobile in 1892. Daimler fell ill and took a break from the business. Upon his return he experienced difficulty with the other stockholders that led to his resignation in 1893. This was reversed in 1894. Maybach resigned at the same time, and also returned. Daimler died in 1900 and Wilhelm Maybach quit DMG in 1907.
Regards – S Sampathkumar
29.8.2025
By Gottlieb Daimler - http://www.emercedesbenz.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/Mercedes-Benz-History-464104_793714_3445_2774_1005255b42884.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13260618
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