c1913 NSU 500cc V-Twin Solo Motorcycle

Description

Although Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Stoll originally joined forces to manufacture knitting machines on the banks of the Danube River in 1873, their fledgling company soon moved to nearby Neckarsulm and began producing bicycles, initially of the Penny Farthing type. As was so often the case, this ultimately led to the development of a prototype motorcycle, in reality little more than an adapted bicycle, and NSU (an abbreviation for their adopted city) initially used proprietary Zedel engines to power their first machine in 1901. Within a couple of years NSU had developed their own engines, ranging from 2 to 3.5 horsepower and almost from the very beginning the company earned a reputation for quality and performance, one enhanced by widespread success on the track. In the period leading up to the First World War the NSU company expanded rapidly, offering a range of singles and twins of varying capacities, from the 1.5 horsepower Pony to an 800cc machine producing 6.5 horsepower. Racing success included Martin Geiger's victory in the 1904 Feldberg Trial and Karl Gassert's gold medal in the 1911 British TT, while one of Germany's most famous female riders, Gertrud Eisemann, set a string of records on long distance events. Between the wars NSUs fortunes continued to rise, thanks in no small part to British designer Walter William Moore, under whose guidance a new generation of OSL bikes were developed. By 1955 NSU had become the largest manufacturer of two-wheeled motorized vehicles in the world, producing around 300,000 units that year, the vast majority being mopeds. However the company struggled to compete with the Japanese invasion in the early 1960s and the doors to the Neckarsulm motorcycle factory closed for good in 1966. NSU continued building automobiles, including the revolutionary Wankel-rotary powered Ro 80 but the company was absorbed into the Volkswagen group, merging with Audi in 1969 and the NSU brand itself died with the Ro 80 in 1977.