Continuous directional rotation about an axis is a mode of motion that underpins macroscopic machinery and will likely prove crucial for future nanoscale machines. Synthetic systems that exhibit controlled molecular-level rotary motion are dominated by the light-driven rotary molecular motors pioneered by the Feringa group over the last 25 years, in which rotatory motion occurs about a C=C double bond. One example of autonomous chemically fuelled directional rotation about a single bond axis has been reported, in which an information ratchet mechanism leads to progressive changes in angular displacement about a C-N single bond rotor. In this mechanism, non-microscopically reverse acylation and ester hydrolysis pathways generate a cyclic reaction network which is coupled to the exergonic hydrolysis of a carbodiimide fuel. Directionality is imparted to each pathway by superstoichiometric additives: a homochiral fuel (acylation) and mediator (hydrolysis). Similar acylation/hydrolysis chemical reaction networks have also been harnessed to achieve directional translational motion and to fuel out-of-equilibrium supramolecular assemblies, but the lack of synthetic molecular motors driven by cyclic reaction networks based on alternative reactivities reflects the challenge of designing reaction networks comprising mutually compatible opposing reactions.