[6][7][8] Even when the steam powered two-wheelers that preceded the Reitwagen, the Michaux-Perreaux and Roper of 1867–1869, and the 1884 Copeland, are considered motorcycles, it remains nonetheless the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle,[9][10][11] and the forerunner of all vehicles, land, sea and air, that use its overwhelmingly popular engine type.

[1][11] If the outriggers are accepted as auxiliary stabilizers, they point to a deeper issue in bicycle and motorcycle dynamics, in that Daimler's testbed needed the training wheels because it did not employ the then well-understood principles of rake and trail.

[14][17] For this and other reasons motoring author David Burgess-Wise called the Daimler-Maybach "a crude makeshift", saying that "as a bicycle, it was 20 years out of date.

"[14] Enrico Bernardi's 1882 one-cylinder gasoline-engined tricycle, the Motrice Pia, is considered by a few sources as the first gasoline internal combustion motorcycle, and in fact the first ever internal combustion vehicle,[19][20] so Bernardi mounted his engine on the bicycle of his son,[21] while Dailmer designed and built the Reitwagen chassis to fit the needs of his machine and so the first all around motorbike.

Gottlieb Daimler visited Paris in 1861 and spent time observing the first internal combustion engine developed by Etienne Lenoir.

Daimler's goal was to build an engine small enough that it could be used to power a wide range of transportation equipment with a minimum rotation speed of 600 rpm.

This test machine demonstrated the feasibility of a liquid petroleum engine which used a compressed fuel charge to power an automobile.

"[29][30] It had a float metered carburetor, used mushroom intake valves which were opened by the suction of the piston's intake stroke, and instead of an electrical ignition system, it used hot tube ignition, a platinum tube running into the combustion chamber, heated by an external open flame.

[3][28] The seat caught fire on that excursion,[1][28] the engine's hot tube ignition being located directly underneath.

[28] The original Reitwagen was destroyed in the Cannstatt Fire that razed the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft Seelberg-Cannstatt plant in 1903,[37] but several replicas exist in collections at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Honda Collection Hall at the Twin Ring Motegi facility in Japan,[38] the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Ohio,[37] the Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada,[39] and in Melbourne, Australia.

The one at the AMA Hall of Fame is larger than the original and uses the complex belt tensioner and steering linkage seen in the 1884 plans,[33][37] while the Deutsches Museum's replica has the simple handlebar, as well as the ring gear on the rear wheel.