Never had a pre-WWII gents NSU bike, and when a friend had this old wreck for sale for a very nice price I bought it yesterday.
Now a lot of work waits; all bearings have inacceptable play, the tires are rotted, and the whole thing needs seeing to. The front dropouts had to be welded as the NSU showed the typical 1930s German bike illness: Front dropouts are created by inserting a thin liner into the ends of the fork legs, and then a few cm are just flattened and sawed out to receive front hub the axle ends. This method of building front forks shows that the good old bike days often weren´t. Both ends had cracked badly, rendering the bike a lethal trap in as found condition. Luckily the friend I bought the bike off of has welding equipment.
The bike is dated according to the stamping on the rear Torpedo hub and a matching frame number taken from http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/html/nsu-rahmennummern.html. Also both rims have the same very worn paint scheme.
The “Sulm” model was named after one of the two rivers that flow through Necharsulm, the town in Southern Germany where NSU was situated. The model was in the cheaper range.
The bike has lost its original saddle, tool pouch and, worse, the original bottom bracket and chainset. However, as NSU were made in great numbers and had identical chainsets with Opel too, I hope to be able to find a replacement for the horrible 70s stuff eventually. The carrier rack of course also dates from much later and will be removed. The sadle will stay on as I hope to ride the bike too.
Positive elements are the headbadge, the mudguard mascot, the wide NSU specific mudguards and the bell, all of which seem to be original. In the case of the bell this is no less than a miracle; one major cost factor in getting old bikes right is buying a bell as nearly all of them are lost and cannot be replaced by a generic one as all German makes had their names stamped/cast into the bells. The better known the marque, the costlier an original bell from the correct era.
The missing brake parts aren´t; they were taken off when the bike was partially disassembled to weld the front dropouts. Headbearing is still servicable. Phew: NSU had their own size.
Those of you who know what a steering damper is, skip the next para. The knob in the front top headlug actuates a it. Nearly all German bikes up to the thirties had those, and lost them after WWII with the exception of some Nuremberg makes who fitted them for a few years into the fifties. You turn the knob and a threaded part tightens a bronze band around the fork column. Simple but effective when leaning the bike to something (stands were not provided then) or of course when riding on sand or gravel roads, not uncommon in the day.
A nice touch: Some old tools in the pouch, among them the original (it seems) Torpedo tool and some cone spanners which the former owner(s) certainly never used.
And lastly the front hub which bears a tiny NSU flying toadstool sign. The shape of the hub shell screams Fichtel und Sachs though, so I wonder if NSU might not have bought the hubs in. I will perhaps find out when disassembling the hub for regreasing and adjusting. Let´s hope the cones are still alright. Surprisingly the wheels are still true.
I`ll keep you posted.
starostneradost 