It’s entirely appropriate that the best-known original Pierce four-cylinder motorcycle in existence should come to market at the 22nd Annual Copake Antique & Classic Bicycle Auction on April 20 in Copake, New York. The Pierce is a select addition to the second of three unreserved sales of the Buffalo Pedaling History Museum, which will include 200 bicycles and 400 memorabilia items from 1850-1950.
The fine old firm that would become the Pierce-Arrow Motor Company traces its origins back to Buffalo in 1865 as Heinz, Pierce and Munchauser. They were known for household goods, especially their gilded birdcages, which must have been spectacular, based on what the company went on to make. Those products included gigantic luxury cars (the Great Arrow boasted a 13.5-liter six-cylinder engine), heavy trucks, fire engines (the Pierce-Arrow V12 engine was in use until 1970!), bicycles and the first four-cylinder motorcycles in America, when most manufacturers built singles or twins.
