YAMAHA ’ S FIRST SUPERBIKE
THE COLEMAN LEGACY
1961 Vespa
“ The motorcycle is an immortal cultural icon that changes with the times . More than speed . It embodies the abstract themes of rebellion , progress , sex , and danger ” I can understand how some will be mildly confused , or even puzzled by a motorcycle being described as rebellious , progressive , sexy , and dangerous , but I suspect that is what happens when an imaginative writer , at one the world ’ s most celebrated museums , is asked for the description of a motorcycle . Not surprisingly in the work of a museum , historic facts are plentiful , and some of them surprising . To begin with , around a hundred and fifty years ago neither the bicycle nor the engine existed in forms with which we are familiar . “ From 1868 to 1871 Louis Perreaux installed , and patented , a steam engine in the first commercially successful pedal bicycle . By 1894 the Hildebrand brothers and Alois Wolfmuller had patented a water-cooled twocylinder gasoline engine in a bicycle type frame . More than a product of the industrial revolution , the motorcycle took on broader significance ”. Motorcycle usage has changed dramatically in this country . From the 1950s through to the 60s , universities , and almost anywhere young people were active , or employed , were usually surrounded with hordes of motorcycles . Cheaper cars changed all that , and the motorcycle took on a whole new character . It became a vehicle of choice , and not simply cheap convenient transport . The two exhibitions covered these changes , and gave a detailed description of just where the motorcycle belongs in the history of transport and also the more sporting and recreational side of motorcycling . Let ’ s hope the museums do it again .
Note : VROOM ran at the Auckland Museum from December 2000 until March 2001 . The Art of the Motorcycle in New York ’ s Guggenheim Museum from November 1998 until March 1999 .
86 KIWI RIDER