Cleveland Motorcycle Co.

We've seen a number of crazed new motorcycle companies launched in the last decade. In the early 1900s, there were some 300 companies making motorcycles of one sort or another. Gradually, that number was whittled down by bad management, a Depression, societal changes and new innovation, until one stood tall --Harley-Davidson. Even the big guy had to go to rehab a couple times to stay in the ring. It's tough out there trying to build and market a product that takes five years from concept to the street.

More recently we've had a surge of new bike companies from those they call clones to full-on motorcycle manufacturers such as Excelsior-Henderson and Victory by Polaris. Some were big and some were small and manageable, like Huey Schweb's company, Cleveland Motorcycle.

According to the “Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle” by Hugo Wilson, Clevelands were built by Egerton Price in Middlesborough, England, from 1911 to 1914 using Precision engines. Freddie Dixon made his TT debut in 1912 aboard a Cleveland machine. Then in 1915, the Cleveland Motorcycle Manufacturing Co. began production of a 13.5 cubic inch, two-stroke single with in-line crankshafts and chain final drive in the United States. Later, capacity was increased to a whopping 16.5 cubic inches and they sold well. In 1922, Cleveland bought the Reading Standard Co., and in '24 a 21.5 cubic inch side-valve single was introduced. It bombed. In 1925, a 36.5-inch, four-cylinder machine, based on the Fowler Four design, was introduced. It failed to compete with larger-capacity Henderson and Ace fours. In 1926, a redesigned 45-inch four appeared and subsequently a 61-inch version, but despite the fine quality injected into each model in 1926, the company was forced out of business when the stock market crashed.