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For daily usage
I have
a
YAMAHA
XV 535 Virago,
which,
when I bought it
in spring 1993,
nearly nine years after getting the driver's license,
formed the
start of my active motorbike career.
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I do not drive any
Motorbike races,
so far,
although there are some signs,
which could give that impression.
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Instead,
I am interested in the
typically slower,
but more characteristic,
motorbike oldtimers.
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In summer 1994,
I was the owner
of a
motor scooter
Heinkel Tourist
Modell 103 A-2
(Bj. 1962)
of the
Ernst Heinkel A.G.
from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
That is
why I am a member of
Heinkel-Club Deutschland,
as well.
After a short period of time,
I sold the scooter to
Thomas Stingl,
who takes care and drives it since then
together with several other two- and four-wheel air-cooled oldtimers
(Corvair,
NSU Prinz).
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My
Triumph BDG 125,
which was built in 1951 from the
Triumph Werke Nürnberg (TWN),
I enjoy to use for small excursions
within my swabian homeland,
as long as I do not actually need to turn some screws on it.
Technically,
the most interesting feature is the driving motor,
a
single-cylinder double-piston two-stroke engine
with 123cc.
Besides that,
this motorbike is exactly the right one for me,
because
that time it was written in some advertisement,
where the success of Triumph in motor sport was reported:
From Men and Machines (Von Männern und Maschinen).
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My home town Neckarsulm
was also the home of the legendary company
NSU.
As one of the first companies in Germany,
it produced a motorbike
already in 1901
in large quantities.
Around the middle of the 20th century,
NSU was on the top of its success
(The Rise and Fall of the NSU Empire).
At the end of the 50s,
the construction of motorbikes was reduced more and more,
and stopped completely in the beginning of the 60s,
finally.
From then on,
NSU concentrated on the construction of cars.
But short time later,
in the year 1969,
NSU lost its independency.
Nowadays,
the plants are part of
VW/Audi
(Volkswagen AG,
AUDI AG,
Volkswagen of America,
Audi World Site,
Audi History).
Well-known vehicles built by NSU
were
the motorbike Max,
the motorized bicycle Quick,
the small motorbike Quickly,
the motor scooter Prima,
the small car Prinz
and the futuristic automobile Ro 80
with a Wankel rotary combustion engine
(Wankel Rotary Combustion Engines (RCE) and Vehicles:
NSU - First Manufacturer of Wankel Rotary Engines,
Deutsche NSU Wankel Spider Seite,
NSU Prinz und Wankel Homepage,
NSU und Wankelseite).
The last development of NSU
was the mid-class automobile K 70,
but which was then built and sold as Volkswagen K 70
(K 70 Info von Scot J. Kleinman).
From its fascination,
the brand NSU
has lost not a bit,
at least not by its enthusiasts.
I,
myself,
own a
Quickly S
(Bj. 1959)
as well as a
125 ZDB
(Bj. 1950)
since short time,
and I hope
that those will be joined
by a Max,
sometime.
Just remember
what the creative writer from the NSU advertisement section,
Arthur Westrup,
wrote already in the 50s:
When you say motorbike, you mean Max (Mit Motorrad meint man Max)!
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