CZ THE DAY!

On one of those rare sunny and dry days in January, my daughter decided she wanted a ride out to our favourite cafe for tea and cake. Alas the faithful B44 was off the road due to a slipping clutch. Strangely the clutch only slips when the temperature approaches zero degrees. When you do manage to get it started, the BSAthen performs faultlessly for the rest of the day. Has anyone else come across this phenomenon?

As the Moto Guzzi was hibernating for the winter, that left no option but to press the CZ into service. Hannah pressed the button on her Yamaha YBR125 and I did the eccentric'push the gear pedal inwards , rotate to kick start position, and perform kick start with left leg'thing and we were off. She purred away and I smoked away, such is the way with aging eastern European twostrokes. During its suitably lengthy warm-up period, the VBRbecame a distant speck! The old CZ soon reached its optimal cruising speed of 50mph. Hannah waited for me to catch up and we then had a real hoot charging around the lanes of rural Leicestershire.The cafe was reached and goodies consumed. We repeated the exerciseon the way home with me reaching the giddy heights of 60mph, trailing blue smoke and just about keeping said YBRin sight. It really was fun and reminded me how much fun can be had on the most unlikely machines.

This CZ Model 487 was bought as a non-runner on eBay for £200 about six years ago . A new piston and a thorough service soon had it up and running, and it has been my winter hack ever since. A couple of years back the big end failed and I rebuilt the engine for less than £ 150. I had the

only model of CZ175 with a conrod 5mm shorter than all the others. None of the major suppliers could help, but one was eventually tracked down in Poland at a cost of €26 Euros (I bought two).

A lot of fun can be had for a little money - although the CZ costs more to insure than the B44!

Rob Nelson, member