34 iconic black and white photographs of motorbikes through history

The beginning of summer in the capital marks motorcycle season, the few months of the year that many bikes will be brought out of retirement from garages across London and put through their paces on the open road.

But these pictures illustrate that owning a bike back in the early 20th Century was very different to the monster machines that dominate the roads today.

We have American inventor Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury to thank for the modern motorbike. In 1868, he developed the first twin-cylinder steam velocipede, with a coal-fired boiler between the wheels.

Roper's contribution to motorcycle development ended suddenly, and sadly, when he died demonstrating one of his early machines in Massachusetts.

But his inventions lived on, and at the turn of the century the first major mass-production firms Triumph and Royal Enfield were founded in the UK.

One of the earliest photographs in this gallery shows the infamous General Handicap motorcycle race in progress at the British Motor Cycle Race Club meeting at Brooklands in 1910, when motorbike racing became a sport in the UK.

But that’s not to say that it has always been a man’s pursuit. One of the most striking photographs from this collection comes from the roaring Twenties, depicting the Debenham sisters out motorcycling in their fur coats in the capital.

Nancy and Betty Debenham were poster girls for BSA motorcycles in 1925 and they were well-known for being hardy, tough, brave, knowledgeable and resilient motorcyclists.

All manner of daredevils and heroic feats feature in these pictures, including Marjorie Dare riding hands free around 'The Wall of Death' sideshow at the Kursaal amusement park in Southend in 1935, 16 members of a motorcycle display team balancing on one motorcycle in 1953 and stunt motorcyclist Bill Deegan driving his motorcycle through a wall of blazing straw 1964.

In one of the most astonishing photographs, a contestant at a motorcycle gymkhana and horse leaping competition balances on his moving bike.

The notorious Devil’s Henchman motorcycle gang, a military procession and the dawn of the battery-powered 'Winn City Bike' in the 1960s also feature.

The pictures span a period of six decades, taking us on a journey from the 1910s up until the 1970s.

Click on the image at the top of this page to browse the gallery.

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