You are here: Index — Complete Motorcycle Compendium
The Complete* Motorcycle Compendium
– H –
2004 Honda Rune
HADC see Motosacoche
Haggo Sweden, 1970’s, Hagglunds, a large industrial manufacturer, won a contract to build a military motorcycle. Husqvarna took over the production of the Hagglunds designed motorcycle
Haleson England, 1903 – 1914 Steam powered
Hampden
Harley-Davidson USA. 1903-Today. Bankrumpt in 1969 and was sold to AMF in 1969, purchased back from AMF in 1981. America’s second oldest motorcycle brand after Indian Motorcycles. America’s longest running motorcycle company. See the whole huge history here
Harper England, 1950’s Scooters
Harper USA, 1911. The Harper Engineering Co. built and sold a 45 degree V-twin engine for motorcycles
Harris England, 1970’s – 1980’s, Cafe racer builders, using various Japanese engines
Hartford
Hausmann USA
Haverford USA, 1911 – 1924 Haverford Cycle Co.
Haveloc Australia -Tasmania, 1903
Hawker England, 1920’s
Hawthorne
HB England, 1919 – 1923, Made by the Hill Brothers. Blackburne engines
Healing Austrailia, 1903. JAP and other engines. Rebadged as Mostyn, Bullock, De-Luxe, Blue Bird, Pearless, Big Four and more.
Heavy Duty Canada, Donny Petersen builds custom Harley clones
Hec England, 1922 – 1924, Hewins Engineering Company
Hec England, 1938 – 1940, Hepburn Engineering Company. Used Levis engines
Hecker Germany, 1922-1956
Hedlund was a Swedish company 1955 to 1987
Hedstrom USA, Oscar Hedstrom built his first motorcycles around 1898. They were tandem seat motorcycles that were used to pace bicycle races. Also called Henshaw-Hedstrom. He later went on to establish Indian with George Hendee
Heinkel Germany 1952 – 1965, Started as an airplane manufacturer in 1922 – 1945. Started making scooters and mopeds around 1952
Helios Germany 1921-1922, was the first motorcycle made by BMW that used their own engine, a 486cc side-valve
Henderson Was started in Detroit in 1912 by Tom W. Henderson and his brother William G. Henderson, who later started Ace Motorcycles. They built mostly inline four engines up to 1340cc and was sold to the Schwinn bicycle company in 1917 and then marketed by Excelsior which was also purchased by Ignatz Schwinn. Both bros continued to work for Excelsior, Tom until 1917 and Bill until 1920 when he left to Start Ace Motorcycles. In May, 1922 at the Tacoma Speedway, here in Washington where I live, a rider named Wells Bennet set a new 24 hour endurance record of 1,562.54 miles on a stock Henderson De-Luxe. The depression started in 1929 and Schwinn stopped all production of both Excelsior and Henderson in 1931
Hemingway USA
Herring
Hercules USA, 1902 – 1905?, The name Glenn Curtiss used for the first motorcycles he made. see Curtiss
Hercules Germany, made their first motorcycles in 1904. Taken over by Sachs in 1963. Sachs built bikes and sold Yamahas and other makes under the name Hercules until around 1995
Hercules W2000 Germany, Was the first production rotary motorcycle in 1974. It had a Wankel engine and was made by Sachs and was also sold as DKW because Sachs owned the name.
Hercules Australia
Hero India, Started in the 1960’s and became the largest bicycle maker in the world. They make small 100cc motorcycles and mopeds
Hesketh England, 1981 – 1983
H&G Australia, They build the Sporton, a Harley Sportster engine in a copy of a Norton featherbed frame
H & H
Highland Sweden, 1997, They build a 950cc V-Twin dirtbike as one of their models
Hilaman USA, 1906 – 1912? The A.H. Hilaman Co.
Hildebrand and Wolfmuller In 1889, Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand of Munich made a prototype motorcycle using with a small steam engine. After their prototype steam motorcycle, the brothers joined with Alois Wolfmuller to manufacture a design patented by Wolfmuller and Hans Geisenhoff in 1894. It is considered to be the first production motorcycle, it was made in both Germany and France until 1896. The engine was a twin cylinder, water cooled, four stroke with 1488cc. The pistons traveled together (firing alternately) with their connecting rods pushing cranks on the rear wheel, like a locomotive engine. The rear wheel acted like a flywheel and it used rubber bands to pull the pistons back up the cylinders. There are still many examples of the Hildebrand & Wolfmuller “Motorad” in the Deutsches Zweirad-Museum, Neckarsulm, Germany, the Science Museum in London, England and the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit
Hobart England, 1920’s
Hodaka was a Japanese/American company that started shipping bikes in 1964 and lasted about 16 years. They started the street/trail bike craze. They had some of the best model names like, Wombat, Combat Wombat, Super Rat, Road Toad and Thunderdog
Holden Motor Bicycle England, 1896 – 1902, Brig. Gen. Sir H.C.L. Holden had a four cylinder design in 1896. It used the same inefficient design that Pennington and Hildebrand Wolfmuller and others used with the connecting rods directly driving the rear wheel
Holley USA, In 1897 George and Earl Holley a single-cylinder three-wheeler. They started the Holley Motor Co. in 1899 to build engines and then started producing motorcycles around 1901 using Holly engines on frames made by the Olive Wheel Co. but stopped making motorcycles in 1903.
Horex (Horex-Columbus) Germany
Honda Japan, Started by Soichiro Honda and was making motorbikes in 1946. Entered the U.S. market in 1959
HRD England, Started by Howard Raymond Davies in 1925, he won the 1925 Isle on Man Senior TT on one. Originally HRD created three racing models using JAP engines. The company went bankrupt in 1928. The name was later sold for the price of 500 pounds to Phil Vincent who produced the Vincent HRD
Hudson England, (New Hudson) 1914, Used to deliver mail in England
Humber England, 1899, Built motorcycles and cars
Hummel Germany, 1965, built by DKW, only about 200 made
Hummer USA, 1948 – 1965, made by Harley-Davidson, first called the model 125. Hummer is the name usually associated with this line of bikes which had several different models. It was a copy of a German DKW. BSA made the same bike and called it the Bantam. The design was taken by the allies after WWII
Hunwick Hallam is an Australian Superbike manufacturer. The Hunwick Hallam X1R has a high tech frame, carbon fiber components and a 1000cc V-twin engine that makes more that 170 hp at the rear wheel
Hunwick Harrop Australia, They make limited production cruisers
Hurley-Pugh England, 1904 – 1943, established in by Sir John Hurley and Alaric Pugh. The Excalibur model had a 1212cc side valve single engine. They made a military model in the 1930’s called the “Wildebeeste Cavalryman All-Terrain MkVIII” that had a single track in place of the rear wheel
Hurricane Japan, 1953-1968, manufactured by Fuji Kogyo (Fuji Heavy Industries) . The engine was a 346cc overhead-valve single
Husaberg Sweden, Was started in 1988 by a group of former Husqvarna engineers and make top of the line off-road and enduro four stroke racers
Husqvarna Sweden, Started production in 1904 and was bought by Cagiva in 1986
Huy
Hyosung Korea, 1978, affiliated with Suzuki
