Alan Jones has picked up another rarity to add to his extensive collection of early motocross and dirt track machines. The bike is a rare Swedish made EG powered by a unit construction ESO engine, similar to that used in Alans beautiful Black Betty Metisse. This bike has no hope of beating Betty in the beauty stakes but it has the clear edge in rarity. EG frames were made by a Swedish engineer named Egon Gustafson who had a good reputation in Scandinavia for building light and extremely innovative bikes. Gustafson's main claim to fame is the ingenious ways he saved weight on his bikes. Everything was built to a minimal tolerance and the lightest materials used. Also included in Alans deal is another EG frame that included one of Gustafson's more unusual weight saving ideas... running the exhaust through the bottom frame rails. I'm not so sure it would have saved that much weight but you'd have to admit that he thought outside of the box. One of Gustafson's other innovations was to lay the rear shocks over at a greater angle to achieve more rear wheel travel...quite an innovation for the mid sixties. The blue bike shown is a later Combi 650 that displays both of Gustafsons exhaust/frame and suspension ideas. The bikes might not be all that pretty, the workmanship not as neat as Eric Cheny or the Rickmans and his ideas may have been a tad eccentric but it's hard to deny that Egon Gustafson was a innovator and it's cool that a couple of his creations will soon call Australia home.
(With the dollar currently approaching parity, you can expect to see a number of rare and unusual bikes enter Oz over the next year or so. Watch this space!)
