Is this a DKW?

[VintageBike]

A lovely old picture sent in by Steve Greczmiel of his grandparents riding a motorcycle. He's trying to identify the manufacture and year of it. So far, he's been told that it may be a DKW bike. The picture was taken in the early 1920's in Germany and as you can see, his grandfather (Opa) and grandmother (Oma) were enjoying their ride! Any ideas on the bike please?  N

[Martin S.]

Hello
no I don´t think it is a DKW, to me it is no 2 stroke , you can see the pushrod in front of the cylinder. It looks like a NSU, the pallas carb ...


Martin

[VintageBike]

Thanks for the feedback Martin.  It is further backed up by Wiebe who has emailed me to say:

This machine must be a NSU R 201 build in 1928 or 29. The frontfork gives the year away. The registration number is from the former German province of Silezia

[cardan]

I wonder if it's a bit earlier than 1928? Having a look at the very detailed NSU site http://www.nsu-greifzu.de/html/nsu_201_t.html#NSU2PS
the 1925 2 h.p. NSU "Pony" seems to fit the bill: 2 speed (with funny long gear lever), belt drive, no front brake, and the "new" springs-in-tension fork.
The 1928 201 R (R=belt drive - getting a bit old fashioned in 1928) seems to have a front brake, 3 speed gearbox and a bigger fuel tank.
Leon

[VintageBike]

Thanks very much for your feedback - I have let the owner of the picture know.

Cheers

Nigel.