Worth the wait

Captivated by sight of one as a small boy, finally our man has the chance to try an NSU Max.And a ‘Spezial’ one at that…

- ANDY WESTLAKE

With the NSU’s shiny blue paintwork gleaming in the autumn sunshine, my thoughts wandered back to a cold February Saturday, six decades ago. I was aged six and a driving licence was 10 years away, but, as my big brother Rod had already taken to two wheels aboard a rorty Triumph Tiger Cub my interest was piqued; it was not surprising that sometime in the future I, too, would become a motorcyclist.

Accompanying my mother on our weekly shopping trip meant going past our local motorcycle dealers and while mum went into Cayford’s Butchers to purchase a joint of meat for our Sunday lunch, I decided to spend the time looking at the line-up of bikes in the Difazio motorcycle garage workshop next door.

Most of the showroom floor space was taken up by a range of British singles and twins, but, on that particular day, my eyes were drawn to an unusual looking machine with the letters ‘NSU’ on its petrol tank. I had never heard the name before but its sparkling blue paintwork, its unusual front forks and an oil-tight engine, it looked – even to my child’s untrained eye – obviously a top quality machine. For the rest of our shopping trip, I had a mental picture of me kicking the 250cc single into action and heading off to some far flung place…