A little more than a month ago, an example of the world’s first gasoline fuelled production motorcycle sold at a Bonhams auction. This particular 1894 Hildebrand and Wolfmüller, engine number 69, is thought to be the earliest example of a motorcycle that you or I — or, more accurately, our ancestors — could have bought just by walking into a shop. It sold for almost £200,000, or more than CDN$300,000.
Now, the Hildebrand and Wolfmüller is not the world’s first production bike. There were some — I wouldn’t
