glenn h. curtiss and the age of motorcycles

by Richard L. Leisenring, Jr.

In July of 1902, Glenn H. Curtiss founded the G. H. Curtiss Mfg. Company in Hammondsport, New York with the express intentions of offering to the public not only a motorcycle but a one-cylinder internal combustion engine of high quality and efficiency to build their own motorcycle or use for other purposes. History tells us that Glenn, by the age of 24, was already a champion bicycle racer, married and a business owner with two bicycle shops. 

Always looking ahead with his eye on speed, Glenn had begun experimenting with motors and motorcycle designs in 1900 with his wife’s uncle, Frank Neff, and friend Charles Kirkham.  By 1902, they had developed and built not only a practical cycle frame but a light weight, one-cylinder 2.5 hp engine utilizing ball bearings in the casing which was said to attain 40 mph. After successfully selling two machines, Curtiss decided to go public with his creation. The various components would be manufactured for him and the cycles were initially assembled in his Hammondsport bicycle shop. The engine was improved the following year by switching the ball bearings to roller bearings in the casing for a smoother operation. Looking for a label that would be as strong as the machines he built, Curtiss would settle on the name Hercules for both his motorcycles and his engines.

His need to stay in competitive sports prompted Glenn to try his hand at racing his machines. This endeavor on a one-cylinder Hercules took place on Labor Day, September 1 on Coney Island Boulevard in Brooklyn, New York, sponsored by the New York Motor Cycle Club. Curtiss would win a third-place medal in the 10-mile Handicap Race and a second-place trophy for overall time. As an unheard-of newcomer, this placing garnered him more than a curious notice by the racing community.

Curtiss, now totally absorbed in motorcycles, issued his first catalog in February 1903 and by April dropped sales of bicycles and closed his retail shops. The Hammondsport shop was now a manufacturing facility and was retained at least through 1905. As the company grew, it was eventually relocated to his home property.

1903 was proving to be very successful for Curtiss. He reportedly produced and shipped twenty cycles as well as an unknown number of engines in the first five months. Glenn’s wife Lena would join the business as the office manager. Less than a full year in business, the shop now employed up to seven men on a regular basis.

Not happy with the outcome of his first race, Glenn set out to make a more powerful engine with his friend Charles Kirkham. Their new creation the V-Twin or two cylinder, 5 hp engine (the first of its kind in the United States), which powered his new Hercules made its debut in New York City at the New York Motorcycle Club Riverdale Hill Climb on May 30, easily taking first place. Heading directly to the Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, Glenn took first place medals for the one-mile and the five-mile races vindicating himself for the poor placing the year before.

Glenn’s V-Twin immediately became the focus of the industry with other companies looking to add his engines to their cycles or develop their own. For a timeline reference, Indian publicly offered their first V-Twin in 1906 and Harley-Davidson in 1909. Demand for his engines increased, with another new mode of transportation, aeronautics, taking a big interest. Builders of lighter-than-air balloons, known as dirigibles, looked to Curtiss for help. By the end of 1903, Glenn was not only building single and V-Twin engines for these aeronauts and the motorcyclists, but he was now experimenting with larger engines such as his V-4 cylinder designed for aeronautical use.

In January 1904, Curtiss headed to Ormond Beach, Florida, with his V-Twin Hercules to enter the newly formed speed trials there. Undaunted by the competition, Glenn won the mile race in 59 seconds and the 10-mile race in 8 minutes and 54 seconds, breaking all previous American records. He would next revisit the New York Hill Climb that May, taking second place with his one-cylinder Hercules. While continuing to race, he expanded the plant and workforce to meet
the increasing demand for his products. That November, Thomas S. Baldwin, a celebrity aeronaut, would travel to Hammondsport to present Curtiss with a medal which his engine won at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Baldwin had used a Hercules V-Twin on his dirigible to win the exposition competition. A significant change also came that year: after finding another company held the rights to the brand name Hercules, all models of cycles and engines were now branded Curtiss.

By 1905, more trophies, awards and new speed records helped increase the demand for his machines and engines, bringing about plant expansions and workforce as well as additions to the
product line.

As a result of his engines, Hammondsport quickly became the center of aviation experimentation, and by 1906, a variety of inventors sought out Curtiss’ help with their designs looking for the perfect engine. Thomas S. Baldwin and another aeronaut, Charles O. Jones would move to the village to work directly with Glenn.

For Jones, Glenn designed and built the first practical aeronautical V-8 engine in America. At the same time, Leonard “Tank” Waters, a childhood friend of Glenn’s, relocated his Motorcycle Equipment Company (MECO), from Buffalo to Hammondsport, to be affiliated with the Curtiss Co., initially using their facilities to produce the Erie Motorcycle and MECO cycle kits.

To ensure the V-8’s power, Curtiss mounted it on a modified motorcycle frame and took it to the Speed Trials at Ormond Beach, Florida in January 1907. There on the 24th , he set an unofficial world land speed record of 136.4 miles per hour with the monster cycle earning him the title of “Fastest Man On Earth” as well as becoming a world media sensation. He also set speed records on his single-cylinder and V-Twin cycles. Glenn soon found himself spending more time running the business and acting as an engine man for Baldwin and others. He would build the first private dirigible hanger in the United States to accommodate these aeronauts. Curtiss eventually stopped motorcycle racing, allowing others to represent him. Later that November Glenn would set his first aeronautic record by staying aloft in a motorized Baldwin dirigible for four hours while demonstrating the durability of his engine to the U.S. Army.

With all of this publicity focused on Curtiss, Alexander Graham Bell sought out Glenn to supply an engine for a flying machine of Bell’s design and enticing Curtiss to join Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association in late 1907. The flying bug now had a hold of Glenn. He would set the first officially witnessed heavier-than-air-flight in America on July 4, 1908, in an aircraft of his design. In 1909 he sold his first aeroplane and won the first International Air Meet in Rheims, France followed by the first long distance flight in the U. S. from Albany to New York City in 1910.

But what of motorcycle production? From 1907 to 1909 Curtiss motorcycles could be had in five different models as well as the short lived 3-cylinder model offered in 1909. This year the company was reorganized under the new name of the Herring-Curtiss Company. Curtiss had joined partners with Agustus Herring, a pioneer aeronaut, to develop and manufacture aircraft, promising the public that it would not affect the motorcycle production.

In 1910, while still building Curtiss brand cycles, Glenn, with his friend “Tank” Waters formed the Marvel Motorcycle Company and a new high powered one-cylinder Curtiss engine was designed for the Marvel.

Sadly, 1910 heralded the demise of the Curtiss motorcycle with Herring-Curtiss partnership dissolving. The production of Curtiss brand motorcycles and engines on a very small scale was transferred to the Marvel plant to keep the brand alive and meet existing orders.

In 1911, the Curtiss Aeroplane Company was formed in April followed by the Curtiss Motor Co. to occupy the old Curtiss Hammondsport plant. In the meantime, both the Marvel and Curtiss cycles appeared on the market as one-cylinder machines, the V-Twin being discontinued. With sales quickly diminishing, 1912 would be the last year motorcycle and motorcycle engine production would take place in Hammondsport. Curtiss and Marvel would no longer be offered.

While Glenn H. Curtiss and Hammondsport are famous for their major role in aviation history, it should be noted that when it comes to the motorcycle industry their influence is just as great. For ten short years from 1902 to 1912, Curtiss and representatives set world speed records, won countless races and inspired other companies to move on to bigger and better accomplishments. Motorcycles under five brand names - the Hercules, Curtiss, Erie, MECO and Marvel – were produced in Hammondsport as well as supplying engines to several companies for use on their products. No doubt had Glenn kept his interest in motorcycles on an equal par with that of aviation several famous brands might not be where they are today.