Everything To Know About The FN Four Motorcycle

Motorized transportation has advanced tremendously since its inception, but without early trailblazing inventions, the world would look dramatically different today. Before Henry Ford's Model T offered the public the first affordable and mass-produced car, there was the FN Four motorcycle. The FN Four featured an inline-4 cylinder engine and debuted at the 1905 Paris Motorcycle Show. Back then, these machines were referred to as "Modern Motor Bicycles," and one glance at the design explains why.

The FN Four was developed by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium but wasn't the first motorcycle ever made. The first gasoline-powered motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen, was created in 1885 by German inventors Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler. Twenty years later, the first production four-cylinder motorcycle, the FN Four, would take the world by storm. Nowadays, the FN Four is found primarily in museums and occasionally up for auction at prices at or above $55,000.

The FN Four used components from bicycles, which had been around since 1817 and were very familiar. The frame of the FN Four was modified from a bicycle, and it had a bicycle seat, pedals, and no suspension. The pedals were used initially to get the motorcycle going before they were eventually replaced by a kick start mechanism in 1913.

While it featured a four-cylinder engine, there wasn't much power available by today's standards, with only 3.4 horsepower. But what was worse was that the FN Four didn't come equipped with a gearbox, so a rider only had access to one speed instead of multiple gears. Most bicycles of the time only had one speed as well, so the public didn't blink at this limitation from a motorcycle. However, the lack of multiple gears on the FN Four made regulating speed on hilly terrain challenging, forcing many riders to climb off the seat and walk the motorcycle up inclines.

Sometimes, manufacturers veer away from their base products and try out other avenues for potential success. After Fabrique Nationale (FN) successfully produced rifles for the Belgian armed forces and worked with John Browning (a big name in American weaponry), they started building their own motorcycles. FN was successful in their new venture and would go on to set the world record for the fastest production motorcycle in 1911. The FN Four was made from 1905 until 1923, and various upgrades were added over its lifetime. The last model offered a multispeed transmission, a more robust 7 horsepower, and was described as "the car on two wheels."

The Belgian manufacturer continued to make motorcycles and headlines with a later FN model 500cc single motorcycle reaching an incredible 138.9 mph in 1934, according to Cycle World. Without the FN Four, which was very advanced for its time, enthusiasts may never have witnessed all the amazing bike designs over the decades, including five of the most underrated motorcycles ever made. Although the company stopped making motorcycles in the late '60s, it continues to craft various firearms for military forces and law enforcement agencies across the world.