HISTORIC MOTORCYCLE BRANDS

The company that later produced the Motosacoche motorcycle brand was founded in 1899, by Henri and Armand Dufaux, in Geneva, Switzerland. Motosacoche was the largest Swiss motorcycle manufacturer and producer of MAG (Motosacoche Acacias Genève) engines, used by many other European motorcycle manufacturers.

The Australian Whiting Spring Frame motorcycle never went into series production, but exhibited sufficient innovation to warrant its inclusion in this Motorcycles Brand section.

The Lewis motorcycle brand, produced by Vivian Lewis Ltd, in South Australia, was one of the country’s earliest; operating between 1901 and 1925. It featured a water-cooled engine option from 1905.

Puch was founded in Graz, Austria, in 1899, by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced automobiles, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles. It later became a subsidiary of the Steyr-Daimler-Puch conglomerate.

Dunelt Motorcycles were produced by Sheffield engineering company, Dunford & Elliott (Dunelt is a combination of their names), from 1919 until 1935. 

The Scott Motorcycle Company was a manufacturer of innovative motorcycles and light engines, founded by Alfred Angas Scott in 1908. Scott and Scott-origin Silk motorcycles were produced until 1979.

By 1896, Coventry-based Humber’s bicycles had a reputation for innovation that led to experiments with powered versions. Humber’s motorcycles soon rose to prominence, but bike production gave way to car-only Humbers from 1930.

The UK’s retail had Marks & Spencer and Fortnum & Mason; shipbuilding had Harland & Wolff and its automotive industry had Phelon & Moore, who produced motorcycles in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, England from 1904 to 1967, mainly under the Panther marque.

Cyclone is a high-quality motorcycle that was manufactured by Joerns Motor Manufacturing Company, located in St. Paul, Minnesota and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, from 1912 until 1917.

The Hercules Company was founded in 1886, by Carl Marschütz in Nuremberg, Germany, to make bicycles and began producing some motorised versions in 1904. The brand is best known for its 1970s Wankel-powered models.

New Imperial was a British motorcycle manufacturer, founded originally in 1897 in Birmingham as a bicycle parts maker by Norman Downes. The company became New Imperial Motors Ltd in 1912, when serious motorcycle production commenced. 

Not many motorcycle makers have been able to survive by making competition-only bikes, but Paton managed to do just that, until 2007. The brand was revived by exhaust-system specialist SC-Project in 2016 and international racing success immediately followed.

Derbi has been a manufacturer of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds since 1944, but Derbi’s origins began back in 1922, with a little bicycle workshop in the village of Mollet, near Barcelona.

Janus Motorcycles is an American manufacturer of retro-design, small-displacement motorcycles, located in Goshen, Indiana. The company was founded in 2011 by Richard Worsham and Devin Biek, and has been delivering motorcycles since 2013. 

Aprilia was founded in 1956, by Cavaliere Alberto Beggio, to produce bicycles in a factory near Venice. Motorcycle production began in the 1960s.

Waratah motorcycles were manufactured in Sydney, from around 1911 until the late 1940s, although Waratah-badged motorcycles were sold into the 1950s.

Magni is an Italian company that began building specialist motorcycles in 1977. In addition to building the bikes that bear its name, is also a supplier of special parts for the restoration of MV Agusta classic motorcycles.

The Husqvarna brand was founded more than 300 year ago, near the town of Huskvarna in Sweden, in 1689.  As a subsidiary of the Husqvarna armament firm, it began manufacturing motorcycles in 1903, making it the longest-lasting, continuously-produced motorcycle brand in history.

The Dot Cycle and Motor Manufacturing Company was established by Harry Reed near Manchester, in 1903. By 1906 Dot had built its first motorcycle, using a Peugeot engine and scale production was interrupted by the Great Depression and finally ended in 1966.

Bultaco was a Spanish manufacturer of two-stroke motorcycles from 1958 until 1983. In May 2014, the Bultaco brand was reintroduced on a range of electric bikes.