Ner-a-car motor bicycle, 1925.

While the general appearance of this motorcycle is unorthodox, it incorporates certain features technically advanced for the 1920s. In 1919, an American designer called Carl Neracher obtained a patent to build a motorcycle based in some respects on contemporary motor car lines, the resulting machines being subsequently built by the Sheffield-Simplex Company at Kingston, Surrey, and known as ‘Ner-a-cars’.

The object is an example of attempts by motorcycle designers to give the motorcycle and motor-tricycle more car-like features. The name, a play on Neracher and the idea that the vehicle was ‘nearly a car’, underline this intention. It was known for its stability and protection from the road, debris and the weather, inviting riders to ‘Go As You Are on Your Ner-A-Car’. About 1,000 to 1,500 were made every year between 1921 and 1926 and only about 50 (including this one) are known to still exist in England.