CLASSIC MOTOCROSS IRON: COTTON COBRA 250 - Never seen one..until now

[Kenneth S (222)]

Anyone got one of these in the shed?

1965 CLASSIC MOTOCROSS IRON: COTTON COBRA 250

http://motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/CLASSIC-MOTOCROSS-IRON-COTTON-COBRA-250-4736.aspx

[jimg1au]

years ago i had a cobra and a telstar both complete .bought them of barry ryan in parramatta.he got both from same owner.swaped them for a pre62 cb72 and 4 jap engines.they went to mick mancell in taree nsw he road raced the cobra in pre62 dont know what happened to them.one of my jap motors when to snoey ware he road raced it in a bsa frame.it was a 5 stud with a quafe 5 speed i sold him as well.all my jap stuff went to len anderson i think he won some speedway meets with my 84s engines
jim

[Noel]

When I first joined Heaven about 2005 there was one racing in pre 70, but has since moved to NZ and took bike with him,

[albrid-3]

 my cotton 250 cobra is sitting in a shed here in victoria doing nothing.

[VMX247]

couple in west oz,VMXWA being a pre75 club only 

[the stig]

     I had a Cotton Trials Bike that Jill Savage bought to
     Australia when She came back with Allan Mc Beath
     Of the Preston Club.
     I later bought a Scrambler off Athol Paterson in Springvale
     with the Starmaker Motor . The first Starmaker Motors had
     a Twin Carburator arrangment that did not work too well
     they were one of the first pomy scramble bikes to have an
     Exspansion instead of a Short Noisy Megaphone Exhaust.
    
     The Stig
    
    

[firko]

Photos courtesy of Siege:http://www.wischt.com/siegeshirts-models.htm
Cotton Cobra's and Cougars are pretty good choices for the pre 65/250 class. The frame is made from Reynolds 531 tubing and is extremely light. The engine is the Villiers Starmaker, virtually the same as what was used in the pre 75 AJS Stormer and can be made to produce serious horsepower. Most serious Cotton racers replace the leading link forks with Cerianis or Betors and use REH or Rickman hubs as the bike above has. Back in the 60's many racers fitted T100 500 Triumph engines and Graeme Bartholomew even fitted a JAP speedway engine to one of his. I had a Cotton frame to which I fitted a Triumph engine but a Metisse came along before it was finished so I fitted the engine to that. I recently gave the Cotton frame to Yamaico Pete for one of his Frankenstein specials. It'll be interesting to see what he does with it.
                                                             
                                                             
                                                             
                                                             
                                                                   

                                                             

[FAT-TOY]

  Ken I still have my beautiful old 1963 Cotton Cougar fitted with a Parkinson barrel and head, apparently this was an option available from new and I think becoming harder to find these days.
  I have been trying to trace the history of the bike and so far I've got it back to George Watson (sidecar fame) but I dont think its something George would have ridden much and certainly never raced.
                                                                                                                  Zane

[firko]

Beautiful Zane. Compare a Cotton to a cobby looking Greeves from the same era and their's no comparison in the beauty stakes.
                                                               
                                                               
The Cotton marque was actually founded in 1918 by Frank Willoughby Cotton as a sporting street motorcycle with a unique for its time triangulated steel tube frame. It wasn't until 1961 that Cotton which had gone through several ownership changes entered the scrambles market. At that time the 250 Cougar Scrambler was introduced and a works racing team was formed with riders Bryan “Badger” Goss and John Draper.

Though the Cottons were similar in many ways to the Greeves and DOT motorcycle that were also manufactured in England with proprietary components, several features quickly distinguished the Cougar Scrambler. For one, the Villiers engines were set back and down in the frame and used the lightest tubing available. Match this with the very beefy Armstrong leading-link front forks and you had a very different, if not ugly motorcycle.

The theory of keeping the main weight distribution over the rear wheel and the center of gravity low, worked well in practice, though riding a Cotton was an acquired taste. These were low ground clearance wheely machines which needed to be ridden solely on the rear wheel.

The American models came with a 19” front wheel and an 18” rear wheel with the Metal Profile hubs used by most of the English manufactures. The power plant was standard issue Villiers Starmaker engine with claimed horsepower output of 26 at 6000 rpm's and a 4-speed gearbox. Rear shocks were by Girling, fenders were chromed steel, and the standard fuel tank was a 2 _ gal steel tank though a 1 _ gal fiberglass was available for motocross.

Any hopes of real motocross racing success came in 1964 when BSA factory rider Arthur Lampkin switched over to the Cotton brand for a few races. Unfortunately he wasn't impressed and returned to BSA to finish his career. Cotton sales never took off in America and the company closed down in 1980.

                                                                                              

[VMX60]

Guys

Over here in the West the Rotton/Cotton are a hot ride in VMX        

[vandy010]

not too sure where this fits in year wise.
 i scanned this in from an old book i've got at home and reckon it's got the sweetest lines...
i'd love one

[TM BILL]

Guys

Over here in the West the Rotton/Cotton are a hot ride in VMX        

Who threw all that pale blue paint over the bike 

[Brian Watson]

It was getting a little too hot for the rider on the start line...it is actually fire extinguisher foam...