The Holden Four Cylinder

Holden were motorcycles produced between 1897 and 1902, from a design by Brig. Gen. Sir H. C. L. Holden.

(Patented in 1894, the Holden was the world’s first four-cylinder motorcycle).

It used the same inefficient design that Pennington, Hildebrand and Wolfmuller and others used, with the connecting rods directly driving the rear wheel.

1897 The motorcycle was first produced in air-cooled form. The horizontal cylinders drove the rear wheel directly and the camshaft was driven from this by chain and worm gear. It had coil ignition, a surface carburettor and geared pedals for the front wheel.

1899 The version for that year had water cooling and went into production, but the result was heavy and expensive.
1902 By now the Holden was an obsolete relic of a by-gone age so production ceased.

The Holden of 1897

The first 4 cylinder motorcycle appeared in 1895. It was designed by Colonel Capel holden who also was the designer of the Brooklands race track. His machine had a flat water-cooled 4 cylinder motor which had only two connecting rods. the engine in effect had double acting pistons. the connecting rods were directly linked by cranks to the rear wheel which made control difficult at low speed.