The Neander motorcycle was designed by Ernst Neumann, who made his name first as a painter and graphic artist, and later turned to motorcycle and car design, going into production in 1928 under the Neander name, and changing his own name to Ernst Neumann-Neander, a doubling of the German and Greek words for 'new man'. Neumann-Neander designed and built a series of unusual prototype and racing motorcycles with lightweight pressed-aluminum beam frames from which the motors hung, and unique pivoting forks that used a spring box near the steering head. In 1926 he founded Neander Motorfahrzeug GmbH in

Düren Düren (; ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people ...

and went into production, using a pressed-steel frame that was cadmium plated instead of his aluminum prototypes. These novel frames housed a variety of motors, from small 122cc Villiers two-strokes to 350cc and 500cc single-cylinder engines by Küchen, to large v-twins by

J.A.P. JA Prestwich Industries, was a British engineering equipment manufacturing company named after founder John Alfred Prestwich, which was formed in 1951 by the amalgamation of J.A.Prestwich and Company Limited and Pencils Ltd. History John Pres ...

and

Motosacoche Motosacoche was founded in 1899, by Henri and Armand Dufaux, in Geneva, Switzerland. Motosacoche was once the biggest Swiss motorcycle manufacturer, known also for its MAG (Motosacoche Acacias Genève) engines, used by other European motorcycle man ...

. The Neander motorcycle had futuristic styling, with a curved, padded leather seat behind an egg-shaped fuel tank, and very clean lines. With excellent handling from the pressed-steel frame, Neanders won quite a few races, and have a very comfortable, stable, and predictable ride. Neander also designed a sleek, torpedo-shaped

sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...

to accompany his motorcycles. In 1929 the

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

automobile factory licensed the Neander design, and built the Opel Motoclub in 1929 and 1930 only.

Fritz von Opel Fritz Adam Hermann von Opel (4 May 1899 – 8 April 1971) was a German rocket technology pioneer and automotive executive, nicknamed "Rocket-Fritz". He is remembered mostly for his spectacular demonstrations of rocket propulsion that earned him an ...

famously attached a series of rockets to an Opel Motoclub in 1930 as a publicity stunt. There was also a briefly licensed Neander sold under the E-O (Elite-Opel) name in 1931. It’s estimated around 2000 Neander motorcycles were built, before Neumann-Neander turned his attention to a series of experimental 'Fahrmaschinen' small cars with motorcycle engines (1934–39), motorcycles with differential wheel sizes (1937–40), and a few final experiments in 1977-48 with two, three, and four-wheelers.'Neander: Ernst Neumann-Neander und seine Fahrmaschinen', Trapp, 2002, HEEl AG, Schindellegi Schweiz. More recently, the Neander name has been applied to a diesel-powered motorcycle, produced in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Neander AG Neander may refer to: ;Surname * August Neander (1789–1850), a German theologian and church historian * Ernst Neumann-Neander (1871–1954), founder of the now defunct Neander motorcycle manufacturer * Joachim Neander (1650–1680), Calvinist te ...

References

{{Authority control Motorcycle manufacturers of Germany