The history of the motorcycle goes back over 100 years, when an American gentleman made a steam powered motor that would be small enough to fit onto his bicycle. Howard Roper from Roxbury, Massachusetts, got tired of pedaling his bicycle over long distances. Taking months and months to draw diagrams and thinking just how he could make a steam engine that would be small enough to relieve the pressure from his legs and feet as he traveled from place to place on dirt roads and paths. Finally in 1867, Roper succeeded; it was powered by burning coal to create the steam. This bike has been displayed in many fairs and circuses over the years.

In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach (later to be the founders of the Mercedes, the forerunner of the Mercedes Benz), produced the first petroleum powered motor bicycle. However, not until 1894 was a motorized two wheeled vehicle (Hildebrand

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