# 1930s NSU



## gben (Apr 8, 2017)

My sister and I used to work for this 90-somthing year-old guy, she cleaned his house and I helped him with maintenance projects.
       When he was 18 years-old, in the 1930s, he bought this NSU bicycle over in Europe and toured Europe and the Alps on it, then he brought it back to the USA and used it around his hometown in New York and eventually moved to my hometown in Pennsylvania. Long story short he died and I ended up with his bicycle. Another project........yay! Grateful for any observations, I know nothing about these bikes.


----------



## cyclingday (Apr 9, 2017)

I don't see much of a project there.
That thing is a classic and a testament to its original owner.
Anything that that you do to it will deminish its character and devalue its historic nature.
Take one thing off or add one thing to it, and you've got a generic European Roadster just like the thousands that were built during that era.
NSU was a well known German brand of cycles.
Their motorcycles were of good quality.
My dad had a NSU Fox when I was a kid, and he would ride me around the neighborhood while sitting on the gas tank.
I'm sure that had a lot to do with my love of cycles.


----------



## tripple3 (Apr 9, 2017)

Awesome. Service and riiiide....


----------



## moparrecyclers (Apr 9, 2017)

I did not know that Bosch was that old of a company.
My 2 favorite things on this bike include:


----------



## gben (Apr 9, 2017)

I am pretty sure Bosch goes back to the 1800s, there was even a USA Bosch which supplied ignition components to early USA motorcycles and automobiles. At first I thought the generator was missing off this bike, but when you open up the headlamp bucket there are instructions inside for fitting a 6-volt battery, so it must have been the low-end Bosch setup. 

 If I did not know the owner of this bike I would not have even bought it. The original owner's name was David S. Preston, he was born in 1919, bought this bike in 1937 or 1938. He went to a Naval Academy and was Captain of a ship in WWII, then he went to school and was a mechanical engineer from the late 1940s-on. His mother used to hang out with Rose Kennedy! I will of course keep the bike as he owned it for all those years. I will just have to find tires that fit it and some bar grips and get the shifter working. I am wondering if modern 700c tires will fit it .


----------



## rustjunkie (Apr 9, 2017)

*Great bike! *



I'm with @cyclingday and wouldn't do much of anything to that bike except maybe add grips. Installing new tires (not sure on the size but am betting something is available) and servicing the bearings would make it a good rider. You might consider not cleaning or polishing either.
A few blasts of compressed air, very minimal cleaning to get at the bearings, and the history and character will be preserved...Much easier that way too! 
Looks like the hub might be a Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Zweigang (2 speed). It might have a date stamp, pics of one below.
The shift control and pushrod for these hubs aren't easy to find.


----------



## Andrew Gorman (Apr 9, 2017)

There is a lot of information on pre-war German bikes at:
http://www.altesrad.net/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=7ddd1ea859521e2647a48831298a54da
In German, but google translate will get you close. Grips from that period would have been bakelite- they show up sometimes on eBay, or from German old bike suppliers:
https://velo-classic.de/oxid2/Fahrr...22mm.html?listtype=search&searchparam=bakelit
That looks like a great bike!


----------



## gben (Apr 10, 2017)

Thank-you for all the great links to parts and information for this bicycle. I will try to get a pair of those bakelite grips for it and I will see if maybe some 700c cyclo-cross style tires will fit on the rims. Old tires say they are 28x1.70. I do not think anything is missing from the bike, it just needs some cleaning and lube. I might be too tall for it though, I am about 6'2" but I will see if the seat will adjust. If I can not ride it then I will hang it on the wall or find it a good home someday.

  Notice the brackets on the back of the frame, it must have had some sort of luggage that attached to the rear of the bicycle maybe?


----------



## Oilit (Apr 10, 2017)

gben said:


> Thank-you for all the great links to parts and information for this bicycle. I will try to get a pair of those bakelite grips for it and I will see if maybe some 700c cyclo-cross style tires will fit on the rims. Old tires say they are 28x1.70. I do not think anything is missing from the bike, it just needs some cleaning and lube. I might be too tall for it though, I am about 6'2" but I will see if the seat will adjust. If I can not ride it then I will hang it on the wall or find it a good home someday.
> 
> Notice the brackets on the back of the frame, it must have had some sort of luggage that attached to the rear of the bicycle maybe?



Maybe a rear stand? The kick stand is maybe a later addition?


----------



## gben (Apr 10, 2017)

Oilit, I looked at it again and you are right, the bike used to have a rear-stand. At some point someone took it off and put the sidestand on the bike, the side-stand looks USA-made. 

 I did some cleaning on the bike and took some photos of details I thought were interesting. I noticed the front hub and pedals were marked "NSU", and the hub and shifter says "Doppel". I stopped at the local bike shop today and they said bring in one of the wheels and they would see if they had a tire that would fit it. So it might be on the road before too long. I will measure the handlebar diameter next and see how many millimeters they are so I can purchase some bakelite grips for them. 



 



 

 A rusty old lock:



 

 Logo on pedals:



 

 Shifter for rear hub: 



 

  Rear fender logo:


----------



## Andrew Gorman (Apr 11, 2017)

Lots of NSU information at:
http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/index.html
Including a sales brochure for your bike!


----------



## gben (Apr 12, 2017)

Andrew Gorman said:


> Lots of NSU information at:
> http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/index.html
> Including a sales brochure for your bike!




  Thank-you Andrew, awesome pages there. I like this old ad because the girl is holding a Zeiss Contax II camera, which by coincidence I am currently shooting film with:


----------



## gben (Apr 12, 2017)

Well new tires are on, seat and bars are adjusted and some cleaning and lubrication has been done. I rode it today. 

   Shifter shifts the rear hub. I would not put money on the original seat or shifter cable lasting that long in use. 

   Any bicycle like this that has been sitting for decades is going to be a huge project if it is done up right both in time and money. Doing it right means complete disassembly, cleaning, lubricating and adjusting of every component and replacing any that are beyond repair. I did the bare minimum to this bike so it can be ridden on short rides to the grocery store or cafe, trips measured in city blocks only. One of the front bearing cones is pitted so in regular use it will destroy the entire bearing assembly, and I did not check or adjust the rear hub, crank or headset bearings. 

   Here is the bike with the new tires put on this morning etc.: 



 

   I think this bike may have had it's original tires and tubes from the 1930s. The tires were hard, cracked and crumbling, the tubes were soft and supple and could probably hold air except for the valves  having problems. 

   The rims did not have rim strips, but notice how the tires have overlapping flaps to encircle the tube completely and protect it from the rim. Really cool....



 

  The old Continental tubes were natural color:


----------



## Andrew Gorman (Apr 12, 2017)

I went ahead and posted a link to this thread in my lousy German at Altesrad:
http://www.altesrad.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19007
There is a reply with a picture of your rack and the missing integrated rear stand, and a link to a couple of modern similar stands.  I'm glad to see it's on the road again!  I wouldn't worry too much about pitted bearing races in a bicycle.  Any big lumps can be stoned off with a slipstone, and new balls and grease will keep it running smoothly


----------



## WetDogGraphix (Apr 12, 2017)

Andrew Gorman said:


> I went ahead and posted a link to this thread in my lousy German at Altesrad:
> http://www.altesrad.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19007
> There is a reply with a picture of your rack and the missing integrated rear stand, and a link to a couple of modern similar stands.  I'm glad to see it's on the road again!  I wouldn't worry too much about pitted bearing races in a bicycle.  Any big lumps can be stoned off with a slipstone, and new balls and grease will keep it running smoothly




I guess I'm going to have to brush up on german to view the rack & stand.


----------



## gben (Apr 12, 2017)

Thank-you Andrew Gorman. Yes, you do have to join the forum to view it's contents, maybe I will get together with Google translate someday and give it a try. Just by looking at the stand mounts I can pretty much tell what is needed to fit. I was planning on getting some heavy-wall steel tubing sized to fit into the spring-clamps and fabricating a stand at some time. I am good with the acetylene torch, mig-welder etc.. so it should be a fun project for the near future.


      According to the 1938 brochure, the model with the rack on back is an model 82, and it is one of the more expensive models in the brochure at 82 German Marks.


----------



## gben (Apr 12, 2017)

The little knob is some sort of steering dampner that when tightened makes the steering harder to move.


----------



## Andrew Gorman (Apr 12, 2017)

There is one on my Adler too- I thought it was a ground connection for a generator light set-up.
Apologies to Wet Dog- here is a set of pictures of an NSU Wehrsport model with the same rack:
http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/html/meineraeder/1936_NSU_Wehrsport_Details.pdf


----------



## gben (Apr 12, 2017)

Nice details in those photos Andrew. I can see the stand is steel tubing riveted together and I think I can handle that easily.


----------



## WetDogGraphix (Apr 12, 2017)

Andrew Gorman said:


> There is one on my Adler too- I thought it was a ground connection for a generator light set-up.
> Apologies to Wet Dog- here is a set of pictures of an NSU Wehrsport model with the same rack:
> http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/html/meineraeder/1936_NSU_Wehrsport_Details.pdf



Thanks. I wasn't sure what the tabs on the rack were for. That is pretty cool idea to hold the stand.


----------



## bikejunk (Apr 15, 2017)

most Euro bikes from that period have the adjusting knob on the fork --it's for parking the bike so the front wheel does not flop around and fall really nice period piece


----------



## gben (Apr 16, 2017)

Forum would not let me edit information into the start of the thread. I wanted to add to the photos that I ran the words on the lead tags hanging on strings through a translation website and they say Customs France and Central Customs Paris, so although it was easy to guess what they were it was nice to have that confirmed.


----------

