Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by handlebars from a saddle-style seat, built variously for commuting, long-distance touring, sport riding and off-road use. The 1885 Daimler Reitwagen, built by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Germany, is generally credited as the first internal-combustion, petroleum-fueled motorcycle, though the first mass-produced motorcycle came later, from Hildebrand and Wolfmuller in 1894. Motorcycles are a major means of transportation worldwide rather than chiefly a recreational vehicle: in 2021 around 58.6 million new motorcycles were sold globally, a figure comparable to that year's car sales of 66.7 million, and they are especially prevalent across Asia and Africa, where small-capacity machines under 300cc dominate the market and Indian manufacturers, led by Hero MotoCorp, are now the world's largest producers of two-wheelers.