CURTISS V-8
EIGHT-CYLINDER bikes might be few and far between but the idea has been around since the dawn of motorcycling. We can go back nearly 120 years to find the first viable eight-cylinder machine in the form of the one-off Curtiss V-8.
It was built in 1906 by Glenn Curtiss, who had been manufacturing motorcycles since 1902 and had recently expanded to build engines for the new-fangled flying machines that were springing up in the wake of the Wright brothers’ escapades. He made the, er, logical decision to slide one of his 4410cc, 30kW (40hp), air-cooled Model B-8 aircraft engines, with eight individual cylinders mounted on a
