Four-Runners

Four-Runners

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO INLINE-FOURS

TIME FOR A LITTLE TRIVIA, FOUR-CYLINDER-STYLE. THE world’s first production Four? Simple, that would be the 1905 FN from Belgium; bonus points if you knew that FN stands for Fabrique Nationale D’Arms De Guerre—when it wasn’t making motorcycles, the company turned out rifles, bombs, grenades, cannons, etc.

America’s first four-cylinder? None other than the 1909 Pierce. Billed as the “Vibrationless Motorcycle,” the Pierce borrowed heavily from FN’s inline, longitudinal design. In fact, company boss Percy Pierce, son of Pierce-Arrow carmaker George Pierce, returned from a European vacation toting a 1908 FN for his engineers to dissect. At a time when most bikes were belt-drive Singles, the shaft-drive Pierce cleaned up in the popular endurance contests of the day, but at a price. The Four retailed for $400, much more than the competition, and by 1914 Pierce was belly-up and out of business.

Other American Fours? Well, there was the Henderson, the Ace and the Indian 4, all of which share a common denominator: one William G. Henderson. In 1912, he and brother Tom built the strikingly elongated Henderson Four, the first commercially viable American Four. So viable that in 1917, Ignaz Schwinn, he of bicycle and Excelsior V-Twin fame, bought-out the company and put the Hendersons to work as executive advisers. This arrangement lasted for a couple of years until it was time to design the next-generation Four. Schwinn wanted more features and added weight; the brothers wanted lighter and faster. Bye-bye ExcelsiorHenderson, hello Ace-at least for William; Tom went off to form an export business.

In Philadelphia, Henderson found an angel willing to front the start-up of a new motorcycle company, and in 1920 the Ace Sporting Solo was bom, powered by a 75-cubic-inch Four advertised to have “power unknown in a two-wheeler...more speed than you’ll ever need.” A stripped-down, hi-po version made good on the claims, gunning to a world record of 129 mph in 1923 with the fiery Red Wolverton twirling the dials. Sadly, William Henderson was not around to share in the champagne. Road-testing one of his beloved Ace Fours, he had been struck and killed by a drunk driver in December of ’22.

Ace wasn’t long for this world, either. Dogged by financial woes, the company folded in late 1924. Henderson’s design lived on, though, the manufacturing rights sold to Indian in 1927. From 1928 through ’41, first as the Indian Ace then as the Indian 4, Henderson’s handiwork, with appropriate updates, powered the grandest of highway cruisers, the last of the American Fours.

Over in Europe, four-cylinders met with varying degrees of success. FN bit the dust in 1926. Denmark chipped in with the Nimbus, an advanced design for 1919, with an ultra-efficient oiling system, overhead cam, foot-shift and a flat-steel perimeter frame. Unfortunately, the parent company saw more money in its vacuum-cleaner line, ceasing bike production in 1928. Nimbuses (Nimbi?) rolled off the assembly lines again in 1934, but after 12,715 were built—20 percent going to the Danish military-production was halted forever in 1959.

Germany had one of the most interesting, if shortlived, Fours. This was the Windhoff, made from 1927 through ’32. Based around a massive, heavily finned, 746cc motor that packed a whopping 1.3 gallons of oil, the Windhoff-much like BMW’s new Boxer Twins-had no frame as such. The steering head and leaf-spring fork bolted to the top of the engine; the rear wheel and shaft-drive assembly were located by four aluminum bars plugged into the crankcase’s posterior.

Gone with the Windhoff, it would be 51 years and the BMW K100 before Germany once again had a four-cylinder streetbike in production-well, except for crazy old Friedl Munch and his handful of car-motored Mammoths.

Besides the Wilkinson Sword Company’s oddball Four of 1909 to 1913-more parlor chair than motorcycle-England never really cozied up to the inline-Four configuration. Matchless tried its hand at Multis with the 1931 Silver Hawk, a very narrow-angle air-cooled V-Four of 593cc displacement. Ingenious but complex, and expensive to manufacture, the Hawk was terminated in 1935. Next up was Ariel, with a bike that become known as the “Squariel” for its square-Four engine. Penned by a young Edward Turner, later of Triumph Speed Twin distinction, the elegant 500cc ohc motor was basically two counter-rotating 250cc Twins geared together. Later models would grow to 600cc, then in pushrod form to a full liter. After a 28-year production run, Ariel built its last Square Four in 1958.

It was Italy that pioneered today’s familiar across-theframe Fours, laying the groundwork way back in 1939 with Gilera’s 500 Four racebike. After World War II, Güera was joined by MV Agusta on the transverseFour front. Benelli entered the fray in 1962 with a 250cc Four.

Then came Honda. First with a screaming, 18,000-rpm 125 racer in 1965, then a 250 and 350, and finally a fearsome, wonky-handling 500 that gave Mike Hailwood fits, Honda made the inline engine configuration its own. It was hardly surprising, then, that when Honda pulled the wraps off its blockbuster CB750 in 1969, the streetbike that would usher in the modern superbike era was powered by a Four.

David Edwards