Ya ever heard of a Michaelson motorcycle?

[Chris Haynes]

[Jerry Wieland]

Chris Yes The last couple of years I have seen one at one of the AMCA meets - cannot remember where. Jerry

[pem]

I have heard of them too. Don't ask me when. There are so many motorcycles still out there to be rediscovered. Prior to 1911 in Wisconsin alone I found
76 different makes of motorcycles registered to include 44 home build's or prototypes or production motorcycles where less than 5 were built. And nobody has ever heard of some of them. I can only imagine how many home builds and low production motorcycles were made in cities like Chicago, Indianapolis and Los Angeles plus
countless smaller cities all over our country. I would venture to guess it could approach 500. I have found numerous home made motorcycles that never made it in the
registrations.

Did ya find one?

[indian301]

Michaelson

A friend of mine who lives in NJ owns a Michaelson. It is all original.


Dave

[AFJ]

The Michaelson factory (Michaelson Motor Co.) was at 526-530 Fifth St. South, Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1910 to 1915. What's there now?

AFJ

[talbot-2]

Brief history of the "Michaelson" motorcycles

“Minneapolis” motorcycles were manufactured in Minneapolis from 1908 through 1913. In 1911, the founders of the Minneapolis Motorcycle Company, Joseph Michaelson and his brother Walter, left their company and formed the "Michaelson Motorcycle Company" and marketed their first Michaelson motorcycle in 1913. The tenure of Joseph and Walter with the Michaelson Motorcycle Company was short lived as well. Joseph moved to the Brasie Motor Car Company as sales manager in 1914. And Walter was employed as a foreman at the Hendee Manufacturing Company in Minneapolis. In 1914 the "Shapiro-Michaelson Company" offered a Michaelson twin and a Michaelson cycle car. By 1915 the Michaelson Company had disappeared. In May of 1916 the “Pan-American Motor Company” took over the manufacture of the Michaelson motorcycle and introduced the “Model C” for 1916, a twin rated at 10-13 hp with a number of changes from the previous Model C, Michaelson motorcycles. Pan-American was located at 408-410 Sixth Avenue, South, in Minneapolis. During this effort to manufacture Michaelson motorcycles, the Michaelson brothers once again joined in the manufacture of motorcycles. Joseph Michaelson was the chief engineer and brother Walter was a machinist. Otto Thorson was President, and I.A. Webb was VP and General Manager. Then the Michaelson motorcycles once again disappear.

It is interesting to note that a September 20, 1913, article in the "Motorcycling" magazine reviewed the "1914 Minneapolis" line, then 3 months later in the January 14, 1914, edition of the same magazine an article noted that the Minneapolis Motor Company is no more, having been absorbed by the Wilcox Motor Company, with the plant closed. The Minneapolis met it's demise with that article.

The same can be said about the Michaelson motorcycle. It is doubtful that any Michaelson motorcycles were produced in 1916 as well by Pan-American.