Historic Motorcycle Brands
Cyclone
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 cyclone was an innovative, no-compromise bike that sold for the heady price of US$350, back in 1912. Initially, that looked OK for a high-quality motorcycle, when the price of a new Ford Model T was US$690. However, by 1915 the price of a Model T had dropped to US$440 and by 1925 a Model T could be bought for US$290.00.
On the subject of pricing, a 1915 Cyclone Board Track Racer, restored by Stephen Wright, was sold for US$1,330,000 at a Mecum auction in February 2025 – then the highest price ever paid at auction for a motorcycle. Quality and rarity – fewer than 20 still exist – have helped lift the value of Cyclones.
Cyclone was a short-lived brand that made its mark by doing very well on the board track racing circuits in the 1910-1920 era. Cyclones also did well in dirt track racing.
In 1914, an Excelsior lost its one-mile speed record title to a Cyclone and three years later, Excelsior bought out Cyclone.
The powerful heart of the Cyclone was its key to success. Designed by engineer Andrew Strand, this 61 cubic inch (996cc) 45-degree V-Twin engine featured an overhead camshaft on each cylinder head and developed 45bhp. To put that into performance perspective, the famed Manx Norton didn’t produce much more than that – some 40 years later! The Cyclone was capable of more than 100mph.
The Cyclone’s overhead cams were driven by vertical shafts and bevel gears, and the cylinder heads had hemispherical combustion chambers.
All internal bearings were self-aligning roller types, in an era when most motorcycle engines used plain bearings. However, the Cyclone used primitive drip-feed oil lubrication of its overhead camshaft, which led to overheating of the camshaft and valves in long-distance races of 100 miles or more that were popular on board tracks.
Cyclone’s demise came in 1917, when the Joerns Motor Co determined that it could not compete with lower cost competition that by then had caught up with the Cyclone’s performance.
The design was sold to Ignaz Schwinn of the Excelsior Motor Co and a few Excelsior SOHC racers based on the Cyclone engine were built. However, Excelsior’s Big Valve F-head (inlet-over-exhaust) racer was made faster and more reliable, so the SOHC project was dropped in 1922.
Cyclone at the Bulli (NSW) Antique Motorcycle Weekend, 2022. Note the white board-track tyres, the plunger on the tank left hand side and a tan saddle.
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