“Close-up” – the name of this series from the Mercedes-Benz Museum says it all. Each instalment tells surprising, exciting and interesting stories about vehicles from the exhibition. In the spotlight this time: the Daimler riding carriage in Legend Room 1: Pioneers – The Invention of the Automobile, 1886 to 1900.
No. 6/2025: Daimler riding carriage
The world’s first motorbike celebrates its anniversary: Gottlieb Daimler’s riding carriage ran for the first time 140 years ago. How does the two-wheeler with a single-cylinder engine ride? This can be experienced on 31 August 2025 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum – an authentic replica will be launched on the Museum hill at the open-brand classic car event Classics & Coffee.
The riding carriage is of course part of the Museum’s permanent exhibition. Legend Room 1: Pioneers – The Invention of the Automobile, 1886 to 1900 also features an authentic reconstruction. The original from 1885 was destroyed in a major fire at the Daimler plant in Cannstatt on 9 and 10 June 1903.
Technology platform: There are two simple levers in front of the driver of the Daimler riding carriage from 1885. The metal handle on the left controls the mixture formation, the wooden knob engages the drive system or decelerates the rear wheel via a block brake.
These controls represent the two fundamental innovations that revolutionised individual mobility 140 years ago: the development of the high-speed, compact combustion engine to series production readiness and its successful integration in a road vehicle.
This two-wheeler, developed by Gottlieb Daimler and his colleague Wilhelm Maybach and patented on 29 August 1885 (DRP No. 36 423, issued on 11 August 1886), was the first functional road vehicle with a combustion engine – a milestone in the history of individual mobility.
Caution, ignition: The small brass tank with hopper and pump behind the driver looks like a petrol tank. It also contains fuel – but not for driving the engine. Instead, the small tank supplies the flame of the Daimler engine’s glow-tube ignition.
This is the heart of the two-wheeler. On 3 April 1885, Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent application for the high-speed engine with vertical cylinder. The nickname because of its characteristic appearance: “grandfather clock”.
With half a horsepower: Daimler worked with Wilhelm Maybach for two years on the pioneering engine. In the riding carriage, the “grandfather clock” produces 0.37 kW (0.5 hp) at 600 rpm. Daimler’s vision: motorised mobility on land, on water and in the air.
A short time later it became a reality, and in 1886 the engine was also used to power Daimler’s motorised coach, motorboats (from 1886), rail vehicles (from 1887) and airships (from 1888).
Inventiveness meets craftsmanship: The test vehicle combines the craftsmanship and mechanical engineering of the time. The wooden frame and the wooden wheels – as are also customary for carriages – belong to the wainwright’s trade.
The robust iron tyres come from the blacksmith. The power transmission from the crankshaft to the reduction gearbox is provided by leather belts, like the ones used in the transmission systems of steam engines. There is no gear shift in the modern sense.
But the belt can be placed on two pulleys with different diameters – this offers two different fixed ratios. The reduction gearbox consisting of pinion and ring gear is a piece of the era’s modern engineering.
The straight handlebars were probably inspired by the so-called safety bikes with wheels of the same size developed that same decade.
Balancing act with support: Daimler and Maybach equip the technology vehicle, which can reach speeds of up to 12 km/h, with support wheels to stabilise the ride. Although these make tight bends more difficult to negotiate, they are a welcome safety feature, as today’s journeys with the riding carriage show.
While it is not particularly manoeuvrable –its main task is to demonstrate a road vehicle running with a combustion engine. This is exactly what you can experience at Classics & Coffee on 31 August 2025.
Pioneering: On 10 November 1885, Gottlieb Daimler’s son, Adolf, travelled the circa three-kilometre distance from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim and back in the riding carriage.
The vehicle idea works. One year later, the engine is transferred to a motor car – and a new era of individual mobility begins.