The Megola was a German

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

produced between 1921 and 1925 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Like

Bimota Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of ...

, the name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

derived from the names of its designers Meixner, Gockerell, and Landgraf.

Design

The Megola had a unique design, laid down in 1920 by Fritz Cockerell, whose real name was Friedrich Gockerell. He used a

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

mounted within the front wheel. It has a five-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

flathead engine A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, a ...

. Each cylinder has a bore and stroke of and displaces , making the total displacement . The cylinders rotate around the front

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

at six times the wheel speed; thus while the cylinders are at maximum of 3,600 rpm the front wheel turns at 600 rpm, or roughly (given the wheel diameter). A hand-controlled butterfly valve in the hollow crankshaft regulates the

throttle A throttle is a mechanism by which fluid flow is managed by construction or obstruction. An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases (by the use of a throttle), but usually decreased. The term ''throttle'' ha ...

. Power output was , applied directly to the wheel. This creates a very low

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For a ...

and gives excellent handling. The first prototype was the "PAX", built in 1918 with a three-cylinder engine within the rear wheel. This was followed in 1920 by a five-cylinder prototype, but still with the engine in the rear wheel. For the production model, the engine was relocated in the front wheel. Unusual features on the production models included two fuel tanks. The main tank is hidden inside the extensive bodywork, and the fuel from it is hand-pumped to a smaller tank above the engine. The rear wheel has two independent brakes. Megolas came well-equipped, with a fuel gauge, tachometer and ammeter as standard equipment. Two models were offered: sporting and touring. The touring model has a sprung rear wheel and soft saddle. The sport lacks rear suspension but has a more powerful engine. The top speed is . Motorcycle racer Toni Bauhofer achieved on a sports-model on the

AVUS The ('Automobile traffic and training road'), known as AVUS (), is a public road in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1921, it was also used as a motor racing circuit until 1998. Today, the AVUS forms the northern part of the Bundesautobahn 115. C ...

racing circuit in Berlin. In 1924 he won the over-500cc-class on a Megola at the German Motorcycle Road Championship. The engine was very flexible, lacking both a

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...

and a

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

. To start the engine, the rider had to either spin the front wheel while the cycle was on its stand, or push-start the cycle. The cylinders could be disassembled without having to remove all the wheel

spoke A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface. The term originally referred to portions of a log that had been riven (split ...

s to reach them. The lack of a clutch meant the engine had to be stopped when the cycle was stationary. As an alternative, the owner's manual suggested the rider make small orbits in the road if at any point they had to halt. The tires were

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/electronica producers Arndt Rör ...

d with the front inner-tube being a circular sausage-shape rather than a complete doughnut-like

torus In geometry, a torus (: tori or toruses) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space one full revolution about an axis that is coplanarity, coplanar with the circle. The main types of toruses inclu ...

shape, so that it could be changed without removing the wheel and engine. At the time, this type of tube was produced commercially so it was likely not created specially for the Megola. The box-section frame contained the main

fuel tank A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for Flammability, flammable fluids, often gasoline or diesel fuel. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine sys ...

which fed by gravity a smaller tank mounted on the axle. The front

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

consisted of semi-elliptical springs.

Legacy

During less than five years of production, about 2,000 machines were built and sold. About 15 survive. One was displayed at the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: * The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Ne ...

' Art of the Motorcycle' exhibition in New York City. An example of a sport version of the Megola is part of the automotive collection of

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno ( ; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Tonight Show'' from 1992 until 200 ...

. About eight replica Megolas have been built between the 1980s and the present day. One replica, fitted with an original engine, was sold by

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought t ...

auction house in London in 2016 for £82,140.

Killinger and Freund

In 1935 a group of engineers tried to make an improved version, the Killinger and Freund Motorcycle.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

ended their plans.

Design

Legacy

Killinger and Freund

Sources

See also