Emblem Emblem - Specifications & Review

Company History

Emblem operated in western New York during the brass era, when small American factories built motorcycles with a craftsman’s pride and a mail-order catalog’s practicality. Emblem’s machines—singles and V-twins—featured neat castings, tidy cable runs, and the kind of hand-finished details that turn century-old motorcycles into arresting artifacts. Like many contemporaries, Emblem assembled bikes from a network of specialists: magnetos, carburetors, and transmissions supplied by firms whose names still animate vintage-garage conversations. The company’s sales pitch emphasized reliability and refinement for riders graduating from bicycles to motor transport: clean belt or chain enclosures, comfortable saddles, and lighting options for early evening rides on unpaved roads. Racing mattered as proof, but most Emblems lived as daily companions—carrying workers to mills, farmers to town, and adventurous couples to picnic grounds farther afield than a carriage could easily reach. The rise of affordable automobiles and consolidation among motorcycle makers eventually squeezed small shops like Emblem, and production faded. Historically, Emblem symbolizes an American moment when industry felt personal; you could visit the factory, see your motorcycle assembled, and shake hands with the people who machined your fork legs. Restorers cherish Emblems for that intimacy and for the way they ride: gentle, rhythmic, and mechanically lucid. Each start-up ritual—petcock, tickler, spark—becomes a conversation across time with the people who built and first rode them.