Yale was one of many American motorcycle manufacturers, which disappeared by the 1920s. It started out as the Yale 1912 California, produced in Sacramento. but were bought out by the Consolidated Manufacturing Company and production moved to Ohio.

Yale motorcycles were a byproduct of the Consolidated Mfg. Co. of Toledo, Ohio, acquiring the rights to the California motorcycle. The California motorcycle gained fame for being the first internal combustion vehicle to cross the American continent in 1903. Consolidated put the Yale name on the