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MR. CURTISS AND HIS MARVELOUS MOTORCYCLES by Richard L. Leisenring, Jr. Curator, Glenn H. Curtiss Museum
Young Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a native of Hammondsport, NY, first got his thirst for speed while temporarily living in Rochester, NY, and working as a Western Union bicycle messenger in the mid-1890s. Returning to Hammondsport in 1896, he quickly became a champion racer for a local team caught up in the bicycle craze of the era. Curtiss’s life moved quickly on many levels. By 1899, at the age of 20, he was married to a local girl, Lena Neff, and was a new business owner with his first bicycle shop and his own brand of bicycles known as The Hercules. He would open a second shop in Bath, NY, the following year.
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owever, a new era of transportation was simultaneously starting that would dramatically change his life—The Age of Motorcycles. Always looking ahead with his eye on speed, Curtiss began experimenting on his own motorcycle design with the help of his wife’s uncle, Frank Neff, in the summer of 1900. That October, they publicly announced their one-cylinder machine was about ready for road testing. Using stock engine castings purchased from E. R. Thomas Motor Co. in Buffalo, New York, the first design proved underpowered. More experimentation continued through 1901, with the second machine too heavy and overpowered. Frustrated over the outcome, this prompted Curtiss to design, with the help of his friend Charles Kirkham, a light-weight, high-powered, one-cylinder 2.5hp engine, utilizing ball bearings in the casing, which could attain 40 mph.
sale, and an order from a New Jersey customer, Curtiss went public that July. Forming the G. H. Curtiss Manufacturing Co. and opening a third shop in Corning, New York, he offered for sale not only a complete motorcycle, but also the engine separately under The Hercules name. This success and need to
In the spring of 1902, his third machine—a tandem— proved extremely successful, which he promptly sold. Encouraged by a number of inquiries, his first
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Seen here is Frank Neff (in 1900) on Curtiss’s second experimental cycle with large, heavy engine. While a poor quality image, it is believed to be the only documentation of their early experiments.
