The
Daimler Reitwagen ("riding wagon") or
Einspur ("single track") was a
motor vehicle made by
Gottlieb Daimler and
Wilhelm Maybach in 1885, and is widely recognized as the first
motorcycle. Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle" for this invention. Even when the three
steam powered two wheelers that preceded the
Reitwagen, the
Michaux-Perreaux and
Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884
Copeland, are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first
gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, and the forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use its overwhelmingly popular engine type.