Designed by Fritz Cockerell back in 1920, the Megola motorcycle uses a 5-cylinder radial engine mounted within the spokes of the front wheel. There are pros and cons for this design; little power was lost due to mechanical drag, and its simplicity contributed to reliability, however without a clutch, gearbox or neutral, one had to turn off the engine to stop. However, with traffic lights still rare back in the 1920s, that wouldn’t have been a problem.

Some versions of the Megola motorcycle, like the Touring version shown above, had both front and rear suspensions, a rarity for motorcycle design at the time. The seating position was unusual as well; the long handlebars made the rider feel as though they were sitting in an armchair. The Touring Megola even has a luggage rack on the back. The Megola’s monocoque body construction was also unique as it allowed fuel storage inside the frame with gravity feeding the petrol into an auxiliary tank mounted to the side of the forks. The downside of this design was that the body would be unusable with even a small amount of rust in critical areas. Perhaps that is the reason there are only ten remaining Megolas out of the 2,000 units produced.

The Megola’s radial engine has a capacity of 640cc, with five cylinders of 128cc each and a stroke of 52mm x 60mm. Although it could only produce 14hp, this power was delivered directly onto the front axle, helping the Megola to achieve a top speed of 85 km/h. Back in the day, Megola had an in-house motorcycle racing team, which won the 1924 German Championship in 1924, as well as a series of other races over its active years. The 1921 Megola Touring Motorcycle shown above is a complete restoration with an all-new body and an original engine. It was just sold by Bonhams on September 19th for £82,140.