A UNIQUE BIKE going on sale this week at The Grand Palais Ephemere auction in Paris. It’s a very unique bike, its builder or brand is unknown. From Dr Peter and Ulrike Buhner’s Motorcycles and Motorcycles Collection, a 1905 motorcycle simply known as the Unknown Veteran’s Motorcycle. We can often count on Bonhams to find some rare and interesting bikes from its famous auctions, such as a classic. Curtiss but this is very rare, no one knows what it is.
Even the experts at Bonhams can’t tell you who built this first motorcycle. There are a few clues, but not enough to solve the mystery. Many of these early motorcycles were built by private individuals, who assembled parts from various bicycles, while others were prototypes for later production motorcycles. After all, this is how Harley and Davidson started collaborating.
We know a few things about this funny bike, but it’s not the first mystery we wrote about. It has a chassis number of 31224 and an engine number of 32. It’s a single-cylinder engine mounted to a bicycle frame. Like many early motorcycles (and later motorcycles), you must pedal it to start. It has a direct belt drive.
Veteran has a Phanomen acetylene gas brass headlights, adding new meaning to “safety second”. The front wheel without brakes on the rudimentary spring-like front suspension also adds to the feeling that in 1905, safety and comfort were thought out.
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The collection is on sale following the death of Buhners. They display their pre-war collection of motorcycles and cars in local museums or archive them. Other great motorcycles from the collection include a 1921 lightweight Cyklop, which is another single cylinder frame motorcycle, as well as several other early tricycle delivery bikes.
