It's name became Ner-a-car. It was just what Sam intended to do. "The smallest, nicest reliable, and cheapest motorcycle next to the car". This was what the ads said.

Neracar was aimed for people who wanted to get a comfortable and easy driving vehicle for a low price.

Neracar had a horizontal front fork frame made by U-beams, link steering for the front wheel. All mechanisms where protected just like a car except the one cyl two stroke engine. This had a volume of 269 cc and the open top just for the cooling.

The fly wheel had three purposes. The engine should have a soft running and work as a clutch through friction driving. Last it was also the place for the magnet and it's generator poles.

The power was 5 ps and gave the cycle a top speed of 56 km/h. Fuel consumption was 0.3 l pro 10 km. The price in USA was $225. The success was not only limited to USA. The English company Sheffield-Simplex had mounted a stronger Black Bourne motor with 347 cc. They had a production license. This version was also equipped with handbrake which worked on the front wheel and had also a brake on the rear wheel.

1926 the prize was raised to £858 and the sales reduced so dramatic that production ceased. The cycle terminated it's sales. The sales were ceased in USA 1924.

1953 it was on the way to be a catastrophe for HD when Norton was the name on all lips at Daytona Show.

HD could not accept this so the gave their test driver, Paul Goldsmith, order to bring back record from Norton, to drive again with a 37 hp bike and raised the record for highest speed with 42 km/h. HD was though created long before by the 2 mates William Harley and Artur Davidsson. They started to produce motorcycles in Milwaukee.

The two men were a good combination and already after some years they had developed a V-twin, a layout that should remain till today. They understood that in order to sell they must have several resellers and they created that. Already 1912 they had over 200 in America.

At these types of tracks the English bikes could not compete. There only fighter was Indian, but this mark was ceased 1953.

The main engine was designed 1926 and was still in production till 1972. American Machinery Foundry bought the company 1969 and it came into finance difficulties because of the US Tariff Commission. The company went down on number of employees and become in conflict with the labors.

The quality fell drastically and the cycle got the nickname "Hardly able some". AMF sold 1981 and HD got its good reputation back. New models were developed and with background of nostalgia HD can sell cycles with a much higher price than the Japanese bikes and yet they have full time job.

83 cc 1 hk 1925 produced in Germany on licenses. The construction was from the beginning done  in Austria. The name ÖWA is from Austria Motoren Werke Arsenal.

After WWI this motor was produced as a substitute for war material. Determination came that the area for the factory had to be scratch.

The Swede Bertil Gylling whose wife had connections with the owners at ÖWA, went down there 1925 and offered a low price. He got it all and for this reason got quite a lot of ÖWA Wheels sold. About 3000 from the 4000 engines he brought to Sweden.

Several countries bought production licenses and all parts and production tools which was left were sold. There is unclear though how this closing down carried through.

A planet gear gave the right rotation speed before the power was left to the wheel. The engine was a single cyl 2 stroke.

The motor had a low current system with 6 volt. A so called hammer made contact to an anvil instead of a spark plug, when the piston was in it's top position. The very insignificant spark hopefully activated the fuel mixture. It was able to change this anvil from outside by the driver.

Two copies were driven from Stockholm to Helsingfors over Haparanda and according to newspapers they succeeded to make it.

The remaining copies left in Sweden 1939 were sold for 65:- a piece. One ÖWA can also be seen at Rydaholm museum.

He realized, after the WWII, that people needed transportation vehicles and bought one stock of surplus mc engines. With these he built his first mc 1947 and called it Type A. (Bugatti called his first car for Type 1).

1948 he formed Honda Motor Company. When he got his partner Fujisawa, who also had the knowledge how to handle finances, they succeeded to roll the company through the difficult years after the war.

1968 the CB750 four was announced. This was a mc with several new things like electric starter and disk brakes. Now Honda was controlling the market and produced one after the other several hits. Very much depending of that he never let a bad construction leave the works. He never got a bad reputation.

The Honda cycle on this picture is another big selling cycle Honda 305. This hit the world and every youngster wanted one.

It was two brothers William and Edward who 1882 started a smithy. From their product there were mostly casted details. In the beginning of 1900 they got commission to cast details for a motorcycle named Fée. This name was later changed to Fairy. In the motorcycle company there were two constructors Joseph Barter and Walter Moore. They developed a 200 cc engine for bicycles. The progress for Light Motors was not good. Joseph Barter was hired at Douglas which at this time had included machining works.

Joseph got now the opportunity to develop a boxer engine where the cylinders were placed along in the frame. This became the identity for Douglas during a long time.

1907 their first cycles was presented on the market. The selling was not as high as expected and Douglas survived on their main competence which was casting and machining.

1910 started in a good way and they got orders for 1300 cycles. This created a certain stability in the company. 1913 they produced with 400 employees about 100 cycles a day. This was a remarkable figure at this time, when neither transports or selling organization were created.

Douglas was known for quality and their motorcycles kept going without service for long distances. This made that for the coming WWI they got orders from the defence and the company had an economical stability up to 1918. The production was during this time 25000 machines.

The company developed itself in a modern way and tried both rear suspension and disc brake in front, although the buyers had no acceptance for these novelties.

After the WWI the requirement for all the military machines, which were sold back on the civil market, a rebuilding set to change them for private use. Here Douglas had much work to do. In the same time the demand for new vehicles was large in the beginning of 20th.

Pullin and Dixon developed new types of engines and also a new gearbox. Douglas also tried to sell so called cycle cars 1913 till 1922, but this was just a parenthesis.

In the end of 1920 a new model was shown. This was not sufficient tested and they got big problems which almost led to bankruptcy. The two constructors stopped their employments with large internal frictions with the board and the company had no competent people for developing. The lead succeeded to solve all problems with the model EW.

Douglas also hoped for a new type of competition class in England. It was called Dirt Track. For this the founders of Douglas wanted to sell the MC part of the company to Bond Aircraft Eng. 1935. Douglas wanted probably to put work on casting and machining. They were economical hard pressed by the depression.

After WWII Bond had not the power to adopt itself for the new marked which showed up and the demand sank drastically. In this situation most investment trust companies try to solve problems in a short term way. They search for a license to build an other product. But normally the company has no heritage for the new production. The lead only hide what they should have done earlier.

A license was bought, for production and development, in England of Vespa Scooter. This was the way up to 1957 when production of Douglas machines was ceased. Before this happened the company had developed a new type of Douglas machine.  This was sold under the name of Dragonfly. This cycle was too simple and vacant with it's weak engine and high weight and it was not what people wanted.

Now after WWII the marked search for big, heavy and impulsive things even if people didn't really needed that kind.

They wanted to see what such a thing was good for. They got together. Hendee wanted to build, Hedström designing and Henshaw was a helper.

These three was happy with the design and started to take orders before it was on wheels. This happened in Springfield 1901. The selling went on good. Perhaps in America in those days everything were able to sell and specially motor vehicles.

For a long time they ordered engines from Thor factory, but soon they realized that there were more money in manufacturing if they had their own engine.

The competition team pushed everything forward. Electric starter and also electric light came before WWII. Indian should become the only bike mark that could give Harley Davidsson a match as far as up to 1953.

Despite many attempts, with joining of Royale Enfield, Vincent and Matchless, to start again there were not any continued existence.

The Indian mark is so loved by people that production of parts has been started for all models.

Buying an old Indian is no spare part problem.

France was in the end of 1800 and beginning of 1900 the leading country when talking about motor vehicles.

Roads were built, cars and motor cycles were developed in this country where the drivers didn't need a flag carrying man in front as a warning.

Already 1887 France invited foreign investors  to start factories. One of these were Charles Terrrot and Wilhelm Stücklen. They moved their machine shop 1887 in Germany to Dijon in France. The meaning was to start with bicycles and then when settled 1902 motorcycles.

From this neighbour country Terrot bought their first 2 hp engine. Later also Mag and Defeauc and the English Chater -Lea, Gieraudan and JAP.

The engine made by Terrot was presented 1926-29 Terrot had made 100000 motorcycles. 1951 the first scooter was on the market and also a large production of mopeds.

Peugeot bought the company 1958. When the bad days for motorcycles appeared in the end of 1950 the mark Terrot was terminated 1961.
Free text from Wikipedia. 

This mc was produced by Monark/Albin.
Motor 500 cc. 19,6 hp. Cylinder diameter 79 mm. stroke 101,2. Dry sump lubrication. 3 gear box, activated by a pedal combination with clutch.
 

Front and rear wheel exchangeable.
Adjustable hydraulic absorber inbuilt in the front parallel spring fork.
 

This engine became later the model for later construction of an army mc. This project was not brought to an end. After the war the 2 prototypes built by NV were used as idea for the project by Bengt Berggren and his Union mc.

Velocette was an English mc company and it worked during 1904-1968. The production was situated in Hall green Birmingham and the product was first called Veloce.

Success within road racing was made during the 1960 th.

The company was founded by John Goodman born as Johannes Gütterman. He Changes later name to John Taylor before formally changes name to John Goodman. His co assistance was William Grue. When started it became Taylor & Grue 1905. His sons Percy and Eugene were also members in the firm.

Their first mc was named Veloce. Later the same year the name of the company became Veloce Limited. The aimed to produce motor bikes, and service. First they sold a  four stroke mcs. The first 2 stroke mcs came 1913 got the name Velocette. All following models got this name.

1933 the board decided to introduce a new mc with OHV engines. The main cause was that they wanted to lower the production price and offer a mc for a larger group of buyers.

The first of these engines named MOV used 250 cc had a square cylinder of 68 x 68. This cycle became a success at once. 1934 the MAC 350. This became even more popular and Veloce company earned much money.

They had now money to make the more expensive model ready. 1935 this mc Velocette MSS 550 was offered on the market.

This motorcycle got also a new more rigid frame and the meaning was that it should be used with a side wagon. 

John Goodman's sons Percy and Eugene were also involved in the company.
 
They terminated to produce motorcycles 1971.

Here he opened an import export firm 1883. This was, 1885, named Triumph Cycle Company. The factory was placed in the industry town of Coventry.

He also started TWN in Germany. 1902 the first motorcycle was produced with a Belgian engine. Triumph has a very up and down history and among, it went bankruptcy during time between wars.

Bettman disappeared from the board 1933 and Jacob Sangster bought the company 1936. The mark Trumpf-Adler office machine was a cooperation between Triumph and Adler.

Government money was put in the industry to keep the production to continue and despite more money and joining companies the production decreased.

As the last death scream the unions didn't accept a movement of production and the company Norton-Villers-Triumph went bankruptcy 1983.

The mark Triumph became in private hands and 1990 new production started 1990.

All was ended in bankruptcy 1907. This is one way for other companies to procure something cheap which match the buyers own interests. This was also done by All days and Onions. This is a name that indicate an import company.

1910 Royal started to produce cycles with, as most did, an imported engine. In this case Motosacoche and later JAP-motors. WWI brought of course side car models with a Vickers machine gun mounted. See links.

Just like BSA during the 50th Royal had a cheap 2-stroke 150 cc bike. But mostly they produced 350-500 cc bikes. For WWII Enfield produced a military machine and also a lightweight model which could follow the paratroopers in their gliders.

After war shows both up and downs. The most known model was the Bullet. This bike was later sold to Indian army and in this way it was preserved to the motorcycle world as a retro machine.

Today you can get a newly manufactured Royal Enfield to be bought all over the world. Note that it is named only Enfield because India could not accept the name Royal.

During time between the wars DKW was the largest mc producer. After WWII the Zschopay factory was in the east zone and cycles from here were named MZ. Compare with the BMW situation. East Germany was not allowed to use the name DKW.

In the 50th DKW designed several models which were copied on the terms of war compensation claims and were sold almost identically. For ex. the RT 125 cc was copied by BSA to a new name Bantam.

Several fusions took place on the market and when those have ended, DKW as a mark came to a halt. DKW is replaced by Auto-Union with parent VAG concern 1964. The last 2-stroke engine was made 1976.

Already 1920 they had their own 550 motor and later a 1000cc. With this they went into competitions. It was a success mostly due to the brilliant designer Folke Mannerstedt. Huskvarna won several World Championships.

During the 30th they brought in line with what people wanted. Cheap 2- stroke bikes were sold. With successful models of these types Huskvarna managed till end of 50th. With the help of world known drivers like Bill Nilsson, Håkan Carlqvist and Torsten Hallman Huskvarna became a Cross machine with a high reputation.

The best ad at that time was "Do as Electrolux buy Huskvarna". Several of the designers and drivers started their own production. Husaberg! They had difficulties with money and had big problems to economically fight the Japanese dragoons.

Huskvarna was bought and all products that didn't suit Electrolux were sold. The motorcycle part was bought by Cagiva in Italy 1986.

Sorry to say all these kind of fusions are leading to that the mark disappears from market some time later. In this case Huskvarna, as a company, ended all production and lots of good engineers and workers went out of job.

The end result of the fusion with Electrolux, became only a short time higher book-keeping finances for Electrolux. For some time Huskvarna only produced freezers and alike.

He opened a import and export company 1886 and it was named Triumph Cycle Company.

The factory was started in the industry city of Coventry. 1902 the first motorcycle was produced with a Belgian engine.
 
He started also TWN in Germany 1896 and production start was 1903.

TWN is in fact short for Triumph Werk Nürnberg. This factory was initiated by Sigfried an his bank supports in the beginning of 1910. in order to produce Triumph mc in Germany. The engine was manufactured by Triumph Werke and was a two stroke double piston engine. Cylinder diameter was 2x53 mm, stroke 38 mm, cylinder volume 344 cc, compression 6,1:1, power 16 hp. Top speed was given as 45 km/h, weight 177 kg.
 

Brakes were hydraulics drums with diameter of 160 mm and full hub. Swedish agent was AB Motorkraft and price 3150 1953.

Triumph has a very odd history and was bankrupt between the wars. Bettman disappeared from the board 1933 and Jack Sangster bought the company 1936.

1956 the Nürnberg factory was united with Adler in Germany which produced type writers and MC by the owner Max Grundig. MC production was terminated.

In spite of government money and combining no one did not succeed  keep the production running in England. As the last nail the English unions refused to let the company to unite with Triumph-Norton-Villers and Triumph went bankrupt 1983

As the mark stayed in private ownership new production could start 1990.

Here they started to manufacture, what all other firms did, bicycles and motorcycles. The bicycle from FN had the curiosity to be driven by a prop shaft instead of a chain.

This bicycle was on the market 1898.

The first motorcycle came 1901. It had a 133 cc motor and was driven by a riveted leather strap for "chain".

By this reason it was called Type 700. FN is known for its unusual front spring construction which came after the WWI. They had bought it from Switzerland.

1959 they produced their own mopeds with several different names. For ex. the sport model Rocket.

Together with Sarolea they designed a type S.

1967 the last moped left the production line of FN.

Horex has a curious start in business. The mark is from Germany in spite of that it look very English.

Friedrich Kleemann was the man behind. He owned a glas ware factory named Rex. He bought Columbus motor factory Oberursel. This name is known for many who are interested in airplane engines.

This engine had a rotation design and was the best for fighter planes during WWI, The engine had the model name of Gnom.

The first mc that was produced also got this name. It was delivered by Columbus AG.

The son Fritz Kleeman started 1923 Fahrzugbau. He had cobined the letters HO i Homburg and his Father's glas factory Rex.

They got though financial problems 1925 and such things were not uncommon at this time in Germany. The two factory was the merged with the old Columbus company and his Horex.

Now they produced mc motors for their motorbike with volumes between 250 cc to 800 cc. Everything went on well up to WWII. During the war may be parts were manufactured for the German army.

In the 60 th the factory had god production and many motor bikes were sold. This lasted up to 1956 when only 2790 bikes left the factory.

The owners now decided to be a sub deliverer for Mercedes Benz. This could not end in any other way that Baimler Benz bought the Horex company. This happened 1960.

This is a motor bike produced by G.A. Hägg in Alingsås Sweden. It was equipped with a 2 cyl in line engine mounted along the frame. Just like an early Douglas.

The gearbox was situated between the two crancases.

Clutch was placed in the rear wheel. Lubrication is by a pump.

Light the best at that time with acetylen with a tank uner the saddle.

During WWII Rumi got job for details to submarines and torpedoes.

When war was over Rumi decided 1950 to start producing smaller motorbikes. For engine it should be a 2 cylinders.

During 1960 they got economical trouble and the company was liquidated.

The owner  Donnino Rumi went back to what he liked best to be a  sculptor.