The extraordinary 1921 Ner-a-Car motorcycle

For a hundred years, motorcycle designers have been toying with different ways to connect the front wheel to the frame. And there’s always been someone trying to make hub center steering work. The machine you’re looking at here was probably the first attempt: called the Ner-a-Car, it was designed by American Carl Neracher during the tumultuous years of WWI. After the war finished, production began in factories in England and the USA, with a seven-year run finishing in 1928. It’s an extraordinary piece of engineering innovation, and the steering was just one of many elements that broke the mold. The...