In the Beginning

Choose an answer from the three choices and True or False offered after each question and then "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1. Motorcycles are descended from the “safety bicycle,” a bicycle with front and rear wheels of the same size and a pedal crank mechanism to drive the rear wheel.

• True or False?

2. The inspiration for the earliest dirt bike, and arguably the first motorcycle, was designed and built in what country in 1885? The first petroleum-powered vehicle, it was essentially a motorized bicycle.

• United Kingdom
• Japan
• Germany

3. However, if one counts two wheels with steam propulsion as being a motorcycle, then the first one may have been American. The machine pre-dates the invention of the safety bicycle by many years, so its chassis is based on the “boneshaker” bike. In 1867, who from Roxbury, Massachusetts built the bike?

• Sylvester Howard Roper
• Augusta G. Harper
• Maynard G. Creebs

4. Boneshaker is a name used from about 1869 up to the present time, to refer to the first type of true bicycle with pedals, which was called “velocipede” (from the Latin for “fast foot”) by its manufacturers. “Boneshaker” refers to the extremely uncomfortable ride, which was caused by the stiff wrought-iron frame and wooden wheels surrounded by tires made of iron.

• True or False?

5. Chief August Vollmer is credited with organizing the first official Police Motorcycle Patrol in the United States in 1911. Where was the community?

• Boston, Massachusetts
• Denver, Colorado
• Berkeley, California

6. By 1904, motorcycles were no longer just bicycles with engines; they had their own technologies, although many still maintained bicycle elements, like the seats and suspension.

• True or False?

7. By 1931, there were only two American manufacturers producing commercial motorcycles. Who was NOT an American motorcycle manufacturer?

• Indian
• Harley-Davidson
• Mustang

8. What company purchased Triumph Motorcycles in 1951 to become the largest producer of motorcycles in the world claiming “one in four”?

• The BSA Group
• British Motor Company
• Norton

9. Currently, the largest motorcycle market is the small machines market for the developing world, hence the claim from an Indian motorcycle company to be the world's new biggest bike firm.

• Hero Honda
• Small HOG
• Vespa

10. The small-capacity scooter is very popular through most of the world. What Italian company is one of the world's largest producers of two-wheeled vehicles.

• Piaggio
• Venetian
• Buenno

Check Your Answers

• 1. True
• 2. Germany
• 3. Sylvester Howard Roper
• 4. True
• 5. Berkeley, California
• 6. False. The year was 1914.
• 7. Mustang
• 8. The BSA Group
• 9. Hero Honda
• 10. Piaggio

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