The Orient, the Marsh, and Metz

  The Orient that the Waltham Co. and Charles Metz debuted in 1900 was the first truly modern motorcycle. It had a 250cc engine, a flat leather belt drive with a tensioning lever, and separate gas and oil tanks mounted under the rider's seat. It was unveiled in July of that year at the Charles River race track at Boston.

  There at Boston, at the first recorded speed event for a modern motorcycle, it ran a 5 mile course in 7 minutes at an average speed of just under 43 mph (69 km/h). The following year in May of 1901, it came in 1st place in the first recorded head-to-head motorcycle race against three other riders, in Los Angeles, CA. The Orient covered 10 laps around a 1 mile long horse track in 18 minute and 30 seconds at an average speed of 32 mph (51 km/h).

  Once again, the public put their money down. Winning races = selling motorcycles. Metz was quick to seize the opportunity and promptly left the Waltham Manufacturing Company to build motorcycles exclusively as the Metz Motorcycle Company. 

  In 1905 Metz merged with the Marsh brothers of the Marsh Motorcycle Co. who themselves had built a 1 hp engine driven bicycle in 1899.

Together they formed the American Motorcycle Company and began to market motorcycles called the Marsh & Metz, or the M.M.

  Unlike other manufacturers, the Marsh brothers developed their own successful engine instead of importing them. By 1902 they had built a 6 horsepower racing model that reached nearly 60 mph (96 km/h). 

  Marsh & Metz was one of the earliest American motorcycle companies to market a production V-twin engine in around 1906, beginning with a 45° twin and then a 90° twin a couple years later that offered smoother running due to better engine balancing. 

  In the early years of the 20th century there were many manufacturers getting into the motorcycle business. Around 300 brands came and went in America before the Great Depression forced many of them under. There was strong competition from not only other motorcycle companies, but the ever growing automotive industry. 

  In 1913, amid stiff competition, the American Motorcycle Company closed it's doors, Charles Metz switched his attention to building autos, and the motorcycles that he helped create are now another piece of history. 

  

The Need For Speed: How Bicycle Racing Brought the First Motorcycle to America

  It's hard to understand the history of any one thing, or moment in time, without taking a step back to look at the bigger picture. History is like a spiderweb, each strand that you try to focus on intersects with countless others. To understand the birth of the modern motorcycle, we need to understand excitement fueling the late 1800s. What was it that inspired men to continue strapping an engine to their two-wheeled contraptions and defy death? There was undoubtedly safer and more reliable modes of transportation. 

  The world was still feeling the high from the Industrial Revolution. It was a new age with new technology being unveiled practically every day. Edison perfected the light bulb and Bell made his famous first telephone call. The world was becoming modern and civilized. America's Civil War was won, the South was being rebuilt, and the wild west was tamed. It was the Victorian Age and cities were bustling with energy. The whole world was on the move and a new mode of transportation was gaining popularity. 

  A Scottish blacksmith is said to have been the first to build a pedal driven bicycle in 1839. It had iron-hooped wheels and wooden spokes. In 1869 the "high wheel" bicycle was developed in Paris. It used wire spoked wheels that weighed much less. The pedals were attached directly to the front wheel's axle. The larger the front wheel, the farther the distance traveled for each revolution. The oversized front wheel alowed for increased speeds and comfort over rough surfaces. (Note the front brake in the photo of the same design used on Hildebrand and Wolfmüller's Motorrad)

  The daredevils of the world found a new pastime. The thrill of speeding around on two wheels soon led to speed contests and formal racing. The drawback of the high wheel design was the seating position high above the front wheel. It made for a substantial fall to the ground in the event of a spill. A "header" over the front end often proved fatal. 

  In 1880 the "roller chain" was invented. This paved the way for the development of the "safety bicycle" in 1885. The safety bicycle used a sprocket and chain assembly to drive the rear wheel. This allowed for a lower and more rearward seating position and tires of equal size. The rider sitting closer to the ground, resulted in less chance of serious injuries as result of a fall. Varying the sprocket sizes for different drive ratios allowed for speeds even greater than the high wheel design.

   Soon there were multiple manufacturers turning out countless variations of the safety bicycle. Racing events began to be held across America and manufacturers sponsored racing teams to compete on the tracks. People filled the stands to watch the excitement and put their money down to own a bike like the champions rode.

  Charles Herman Metz was an engineer and bicycle racer, winning the New York state championship in 1885 on a high wheel bicycle. In 1893 he convinced a group of business men to back him in the founding of the Waltham Manufacturing Company of Waltham Massachusetts. It  manufactured and sold a variety of machines under the names Orient, Waltham, and Waltham-Orient. The company was well known for it's racing bicycles and it's winning riders. 

  Charles Metz was soon looking for a better way to train his racing team and to build their speed. Among it's other ventures, the Waltham Co. also imported and distributed small internal combustion engines of French design, the Aster and the De Dion-Bouton. Luckily for us, Metz soon put two and two together, realizing that he could fasten one of these engines to a frame similar to the safety bicycles his company was building. He could then use this machine to run ahead of his bicycle racing team to set the pace. 

  The idea was a great success. Using a tandem design, his first "pacer" had a pilot mounted in front to steer and a passenger in the rear to operate the engine. The bicycle racers chased it around the track, working to keep up and maintain a steady pace. Soon the Waltham racing team was one of the winningest in the country and the Waltham Co. had a new product to market, listing their single seat pace machine as the "Orient Motor-Cycle" in it's 1899 catalog. Practically instantly, other bicycle enthusiasts began to build similar machines. The American motorcycle industry was born.