how fast did commercial three wheelers catch on? Pretty fast once they proved a mailman could do the same route in 60 minutes, as a mailman on a horse, in 280 minutes. Suddenly the Czech Laurin & Klement LW tricycle was getting exported all the way to Mexico

Two young Czech entrepreneurs and enthusiastic cyclists: mechanic Václav Laurin with bookseller Václav Klement started in modest conditions with the repair of bicycles (1895).

In the following year they offered bicycles with the patriotic designation Slavia. In November 1899, they launched their own motorcycle design with an air-cooled single cylinder engine.

In 1903, one of the world's first serially produced two-cylinder motorcycles, the CC, added a wide variety of single-cylinder engines. The following season 1904 brought not only the introduction of licensed production of L and K forked twin cylinders in Germany under the name Germania or the debut of the unique four-cylinder in-line CCCC, but also the expansion of the Laurin and Klement range with water-cooled engines.

In their case, the type designation contained the letter W (Wasser / water), a cylindrical cooler with fine ribs encircling the frame at the head of the steering, or the single cylinder model LW based on the most widely used model L, a truck reaching speeds of up to 70 km / h.

The Laurin and Klement brand innovations were first used by postal employees in Vienna, then in Budapest and Prague.

On 20 June 1906, a motorized mailman, Mr. Kundert, was able to pick up shipments from 37 Prague mailboxes in just 60 minutes - as opposed to the two and a half hours that the same work had taken from a colleague - a horserider.

In 1908, a series of tricycles and motorcycles with freight sidecars headed to Mexico.

https://autoroad.cz/historie/98853-trikolka-laurin-klement-lw-vite-co-je-roztrapovani#photoInArticle-374733