An Up-to-date “Featherweight” Model
Along in the late nineties a keen interest in bicycle racing led to the introduction of what is known as the motor-paced tandem. This consisted of a regulation tandem bicycle on which was mounted a gasoline motor geared up to the rear wheel with a chain drive. The tandem rider on the forward seat did the steering and the foot pedaling, and the rear rider operated the motor. It is believed that the first of these tandems came over here from France.
By 1898 the popularity of the motor-paced racing bicycle became so great that attention was soon directed toward their manufacture. Chief among the bicycle manufacturers who took up the making of the motor-paced tandem was Oscar Hedstrom, a racer with many notable victories to his credit. He believed that he could make a motor tandem which would prove far superior to any other American machine made, if not better even than any foreign machine.
Cradle Spring Frame Construction
The machine which he produced with a motor of his own design was entered in some big races at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 where nearly every record was broken. Mr. Hedstrom’s partner on this tandem outfit was Henshaw, a bicycle racer of some repute. Following their début on the motor tandem at Buffalo, this pair proceeded to make records throughout the country, several of which still stand today.
In 1901 a bicycle manufacturer of Springfield, Mass., foresaw a future for a motorcycle designed for pleasure purposes instead of exclusively for racing. Hitherto, all motor-propelled cycles had used the power of the engine of whatever form it was merely as an aid to locomotion. None had been successful in producing a machine that could proceed anywhere solely under its own power. Convinced that such a machine could be produced, and certain that it would find a ready market, this manufacturer set about to put his ideas into execution.
