http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motorb...-auctioned.html

Their design was powered by a twin-cylinder, water-cooled, four-stroke engine displacing 1,488cc, which until relatively recent times was the largest power unit ever fitted to a motorcycle. Despite a maximum power output of only 2.5bhp at 240rpm, the H&W was capable of speeds approaching 30mph

technology has certainly made some strides in the last 100 years.

I am curious how they managed to get 1488 cc's into this moto....is it possible it's 14.88 cc's....the 2004 Harley Davidson Electra Glide has a 1450 cc engine and it's a tad bigger moto...just a curious that's all.

148.8 cc's perhaps

Old brittle steel - like making a engine out of iron plumbing (if the Titanic had been made out of more modern steel, it wouldn't have just cracked open and sank). Engine weighs 50kg. Bike probably more!

240 rpm 4-stroke 2 cylinder. Each fires every second revolution. 240 fires per minute (I think that's correct). Each cylinder says "bang" twice per second.

You can say "bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang" much faster than this engine can...

2 1/2 hp

So yes, it had to be big - just to have any power at all - 1488 cc's of brutish, slow, crude, explosions -with a compression ratio of probably 2 or 3.

Interestingly enough, a Model T, twenty years later, had a four cylinder 3,000 cc with similar bore and stroke to this old bike (just double the number of cylinders). Specs: compression 4.5, 1800rpm, 22 hp (5.5/cyl vs 1.25).

very cool video of the 1870's first 4-stroke working (look at the size of that piston - under 2 hp)!):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...R_Montage_2.ogg

Nice photo of a mint bike:

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbt...p;Number=560703