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Preface
In 2006, my wife and I were waiting in Hirtshals, Denmark, for the ferry to come, when my eye was caught by a heavily loaded motor cycle fitted with a four cylinder in-line engine with open valves, making a peculiar sound. It appeared to be a Nimbus motor cycle from the fifties, made in Denmark. I decided that such a motor cycle would be an excellent addition to my small collection of bikes, especially because of the exceptional construction and applied techniques.
At home, I quickly found information about this motor cycle on the Internet. I bought the Danish book “Nimbus-teknisk udvikling”, written by Knud Jørgensen, which is considered to be the book for (future) Nimbus owner. A year later, during our holidays in Denmark, I bought myself a bulky Danish-English dictionary, to be able to better understand Knuds book. Although I didn’t speak a single word Danish, I managed to ‘translate’ the whole book, using the English dictionary, into Dutch, a nice exercise by which I did not only learn a lot about Nimbus, but also about the Danish written language.
Knud Jørgensens book shows the differences between the various years of manufacturing and is basically an excellent support for someone who wants to buy a bike in its original condition. At first sight, all models look alike and some practice to be able to recognise the differences is certainly necessary. It was going to be a pre WWII machine, as original as possible. I therefore made a check list per year of manufacture, from 1934 till 1940, with frame and engine numbers and with the specific characteristics per year. During the same holidays that I did the translation in the evening hours, we visited the Nimbus museum in Horsens to learn more about Nimbus, the models and prices at that time. A visit to the Nimbus museum is highly recommended; it is small and convenient, it has special bikes and is manned with knowledgeable English speaking volunteers.
As soon as I thought I had sufficient knowledge about the different years of manufacturing, I started looking on the internet site http://www.dba.dk/ for over a year. There is a continuous offer of Nimbus bikes, nearly all of them in a restored condition, recent or old. As the design modifications are upward compatible, leading to all new parts to fit the old bikes, almost all machines were a collection of parts from various years. Late 2007 a standard 1934 model was for sale in Ålbæk, in the north of Jylland, overhauled and restored by the well known Danish Nimbus expert Vagn Gjerlang from Bagsværd near Copenhagen, with frame and engine number 1350.
I travelled with my son Stefan to Denmark to take a closer look at the machine. Stefan and I worked in a biting cold wind through our check list; “are the rivets visible on the handle bars, have 150 mm brake drums been fitted, is the drive shaft without rubber blocks, is the carburettor from 1934, are Riemann head light and horn fitted” and many more checks. Almost everything looked original. We made a deal and happily returned to The Netherlands.
A photo copy of the title page of a book called “Nimbus model C 1934, Teknik og historie” written by Jens Bisbjerg Andersen came with the bike. As the book was no longer for sale, I spotted Jens on the Internet. He appeared to be lecturer at the technical college school in Frederikshavn and still had a few copies at home which he was willing to sell. I bought one and with my earlier experience I started to “translate” it (my way) and noticed that Jens was a remarkable man and 1934 Nimbus a remarkable motor bike.
Jens was my oracle in technical matters and he taught me a lot; questions were always immediately skilfully answered, sharing his knowledge of this specific bike. Meanwhile I started taking Danish lessons and when Jens asked me at the annual meeting of Danmarks Nimbus Touring in 2009 to translate his book into English, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I gave the old Dutch translation a rub and started to translate the book into English. Jens and I went trough the book chapter by chapter, to prevent losing any of the fine details, resulting from his many years of research. We initially succeeded for the Dutch translation. With respect to the English translation, David Moreton meticulously reviewed the text and converted it into proper English.
Through these translations, the book about the prototype of Nimbus Model C has been made more accessible to a larger public.
I wish you a lot of reading pleasure.
Ben Geutskens, Norg October 2014
Note: The page numbers of the translation correspond with the page numbers of the original Danish book
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