Dirt Bike History 101 - Page 14

Eurobiker · 01-30-2008, 10:19 AM

Hey Gordy, Cousin Weedy's got yur CZ right here.

RocketJ · 01-30-2008, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nachtflug

and in fairness to the 125 this applied to the 250 only, as the 75-125 was still the same. I think...

This was very typical of Honda. They spent and lost lots of money on the innovations of 73/74. They then had to try to get some return on investment. Problem was, everyone else was scrambling to catch up and many did so in a leap frog manner.

RocketJ · 01-30-2008, 11:02 AM

There was a shop in Port Chester(pa,ny?), that in 74 was building custom 4130 framed CZs. Exact same size/geomtery but much thinner/lighter tubing. They turned down the hubs, yamaha front brake, drilled and lightened everywhere all pastics etc. They had them down to about 185lbs dry. I got to ride one once, awesome.

kittycactus · 01-30-2008, 11:08 AM

What do they call this tank? It's the most beautiful one I've seen yet - way too nice to be on a bike that's going to get thrown on the ground!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trailing Jack

1966 - right side shift.

Gordy · 01-30-2008, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eurobiker

Hey Gordy, Cousin Weedy's got yur CZ right here.

If I can quit spending $$ on the house and have two nickels left to rub together this summer, I will have a 250 CZ. A rider. Not a looker like that pos original cherry Husky that I picked up.

Curvy · 01-30-2008, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordy

If I can quit spending $$ on the house and have two nickels left to rub together this summer, I will have a 250 CZ. A rider. Not a looker like that pos original cherry Husky that I picked up.

Do ya keep it in your bedroom like TeamDennis?

Eurobiker · 01-30-2008, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curvy

Do ya keep it in your bedroom like TeamDennis?

Damn close.

Valleyrider · 01-30-2008, 04:11 PM

Well, had to dig a bit, but found these pictures of the Suzuki RH67. This was a very limited production MX bike. Preston Petty rode one for a period of time. I had a frame and some random parts for one of these. I searched for all the rest of the parts, but they were real hard to find. The frame weighed a ton!!

Eurobiker · 01-30-2008, 04:39 PM

Hey Valley,

That's a Flug approved photo. You spun the bike around to remain on the sunny side. Nice.

Valleyrider · 01-30-2008, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eurobiker

Hey Valley,

That's a Flug approved photo. You spun the bike around to remain on the sunny side. Nice.

Wish I could take credit for the photography, but I found these on the web some time ago.

Sal Paradise · 01-30-2008, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketJ

There was a shop in Port Chester(pa,ny?), that in 74 was building custom 4130 framed CZs. Exact same size/geomtery but much thinner/lighter tubing. They turned down the hubs, yamaha front brake, drilled and lightened everywhere all pastics etc. They had them down to about 185lbs dry. I got to ride one once, awesome.

Check out this light weight CZ:

Sal Paradise · 01-30-2008, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valleyrider

Well, had to dig a bit, but found these pictures of the Suzuki RH67. This was a very limited production MX bike. Preston Petty rode one for a period of time. I had a frame and some random parts for one of these. I searched for all the rest of the parts, but they were real hard to find. The frame weighed a ton!!

Very nice VR. Heres some RH photos I scrounged.

RH66

RH67

RH68

RH 68

RH69

RH70

Sal Paradise · 01-30-2008, 06:52 PM

This is another interesting Suzuki. It is the only Suzuki produced by Mr Tilken that utilized the cantilever rear suspension. It is the same system as the CZ used earlier (also produced by Tilkens.) The CZ was tested by DeCoster who ran better laptimes than on his lightweight Works Suzuki. When it came time to pitch the bike to Suzuki DeCoster vouched for it but Tilkens couldn't prove mathematically that it was any better, so it was quasehd. This bike was tested by DeCoster and Goebers but it never went into production. Anyway this is the only known photo to exist, enjoy.

The rider is Guy Tilkens, son of Lucien Tilkens, photo taken in 1971

P.S. if you want more works Suzuki (I've also got some Honda stuff) photos just holler! Cheers Amigos.

nachtflug · 01-30-2008, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittycactus

I also keep hearing a lot of mentions here and elsewhere about the Maico. But it also sounds like they broke down a lot. So I’m curious - did they perform so well for their time that everyone put up with the unreliability?

I don't think they broke down more than anything else. like Hunky said if you rode one if was almost like cheating. though I can't say that from personal experience. I did see lots of them being raced and they definitely left an impression as the bike of choice for the rider that was more into riding well than doing crazy crossups. they stuck like glue and you could just see the difference in how they worked compared to other bikes.

which is why a lot of privateer pro's rode them.

Strong Bad · 01-30-2008, 09:01 PM

I worked for a Maico dealer and I don’t know why the Maico-Breako name seemed to stick. Many of the outsourced components were the same as other Euro bikes used Bing carbs, Bosh electrical, Mahle pistons. I ported a fair share of them the castings were rather crude. I seem to remember that one of the most common engine failures were cranks/bottom end bearings. The gearboxes were strong. The worst thing about Maicos were the ungodly stiff clutches which used Belville washers; a stack of alternating cupped washers used as a spring. You have to remember that it wasn’t uncommon for most of the bikes back then to break down on occasion. Maicos were rather expensive and didn’t have that great of a dealership network. The mighty 501 was one of the greatest bikes of all time.

01-30-2008, 10:19 AM	#196
Eurobiker Vintage Cat Herder Joined: Apr 2002 Location: Albuquerque, NM Oddometer: 5,738	Hey Gordy, Cousin Weedy's got yur CZ right here. __________________ Mark If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

01-30-2008, 11:02 AM	#198
RocketJ Studly Adventurer Joined: Nov 2005 Oddometer: 674	Cz There was a shop in Port Chester(pa,ny?), that in 74 was building custom 4130 framed CZs. Exact same size/geomtery but much thinner/lighter tubing. They turned down the hubs, yamaha front brake, drilled and lightened everywhere all pastics etc. They had them down to about 185lbs dry. I got to ride one once, awesome.

01-30-2008, 04:11 PM	#203
Valleyrider I Survived The '60s Joined: Apr 2007 Location: Idaho Panhandler Oddometer: 1,706	Well, had to dig a bit, but found these pictures of the Suzuki RH67. This was a very limited production MX bike. Preston Petty rode one for a period of time. I had a frame and some random parts for one of these. I searched for all the rest of the parts, but they were real hard to find. The frame weighed a ton!! __________________ http://www.flickr.com/photos/14934865@N07/ '07 1250 Bandit, '06 650 VStrom, '78 SR500E '68 Yamaha DT1, '78 TT500 and no money http://www.flickr.com/photos/48000856@N06/

01-30-2008, 04:39 PM	#204
Eurobiker Vintage Cat Herder Joined: Apr 2002 Location: Albuquerque, NM Oddometer: 5,738	Hey Valley, That's a Flug approved photo. You spun the bike around to remain on the sunny side. Nice. __________________ Mark If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

01-30-2008, 06:52 PM	#208
Sal Paradise Dharma Bum Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Morongo Valley, CA Oddometer: 1,267	This is another interesting Suzuki. It is the only Suzuki produced by Mr Tilken that utilized the cantilever rear suspension. It is the same system as the CZ used earlier (also produced by Tilkens.) The CZ was tested by DeCoster who ran better laptimes than on his lightweight Works Suzuki. When it came time to pitch the bike to Suzuki DeCoster vouched for it but Tilkens couldn't prove mathematically that it was any better, so it was quasehd. This bike was tested by DeCoster and Goebers but it never went into production. Anyway this is the only known photo to exist, enjoy. The rider is Guy Tilkens, son of Lucien Tilkens, photo taken in 1971 P.S. if you want more works Suzuki (I've also got some Honda stuff) photos just holler! Cheers Amigos. __________________ "Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me. - Jack Kerouac, On the Road Raoul Duke: There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. onanysunday screwed with this post 01-30-2008 at 07:06 PM

01-30-2008, 09:01 PM	#210
Strong Bad n00balicious Joined: Oct 2007 Oddometer: 2,943	I worked for a Maico dealer and I don’t know why the Maico-Breako name seemed to stick. Many of the outsourced components were the same as other Euro bikes used Bing carbs, Bosh electrical, Mahle pistons. I ported a fair share of them the castings were rather crude. I seem to remember that one of the most common engine failures were cranks/bottom end bearings. The gearboxes were strong. The worst thing about Maicos were the ungodly stiff clutches which used Belville washers; a stack of alternating cupped washers used as a spring. You have to remember that it wasn’t uncommon for most of the bikes back then to break down on occasion. Maicos were rather expensive and didn’t have that great of a dealership network. The mighty 501 was one of the greatest bikes of all time.

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