Megola - a unique motorcycle

You may think your example of Japanese/British/German/Italian/American engineering is the greatest, and I would not venture to disagree. You might even say it is the most beautiful, and again I would go along with that. But unique? No, that title goes to the Megola, which is the only commercially built motorcycle with front-wheel drive there ever was.

The Megola series was produced in Munich between 1921 and 1925, the name being taken in a loose fashion from its designers, MEixner, COckerell and LAndgraf. The key design feature was a five-cylinder side-valve rotary engine mounted in the front wheel with a magneto and carburettor on each side. The engine displaced 640 cc, and delivered 14 bhp directly to the wheel. This arrangement produced a very low centre of gravity, giving excellent handling, and the top speed of 85 kph (52 mph) was sufficient to win the German Championship in 1924. Later sports models were said to be good for 140 kph (88 mph). The engine was also extremely flexible, which was just as well because the Megola lacked both clutch and gearbox. Starting it involved either kicking the front spokes with the bike on its stand, or giving it a push (not very practical these days, alas).

The box section frame, of welded and riveted sheet metal, ingeniously contained the main fuel tank, though fuel had to be decanted, or possibly pumped, into the fork-mounted tank at intervals. The front suspension boasted semi-elliptic springs.

Servicing the engine must have been fun. It was possible to dismantle the cylinders without removing the spokes. The tyres were tubed, and apparently the front inner tube was a circular sausage shape rather than a complete doughnut, so it could be changed without taking out the wheel and engine.

Only 2000 of these remarkable pieces were ever built, with some 10 rideable examples remaining today in the whole world. One is in the Guggenheim museum in New York.

Fritz Cockerell died in 1965 at the age of 76.

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