10 interesting facts about motorcycles
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that in 2000, 631 motorcyclists were saved by wearing their helmet.
- The German inventor Gottlieb Daimler is generally credited with building the first practical motorcycle in 1885.
- Up to eight motorbikes can fit in the same parking space occupied by one car.
- Motorcycles and scooters are, on average, about twice as fuel efficient as cars.
- The first rider to ever go over 300mph was Don Vesco in 1975, on a 1496cc Yamaha-engined streamliner.
- Kawasaki also makes spaceships.
- The fastest motorcycle s the Dodge Tomahawk, a prototype with an unusual design, featuring the 500 hp (373 kW) 8.3 L V10 engine from the Dodge Viper.
- MV Agusta is currently producing the F4 1078 RR 312. 312kph being the recorded top speed at the Salt Flats in Utah in 2007.The RR312 reached a recorded top speed of 195, but since speeds are averaged, it’s recorded top speed is 194mph, or metric, 312kph.
- When Valentino Rossi was five, his dad Graziano built him a go-cart to discourage him from getting into bikes
- Harley-Davidson built push-bikes between 1917 and 1923. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.
