GeoffGraeme Morris has often had that 59 Jawa on display at the CRC,s. A good bloke, by all accounts.
It's
Dave Morris Mick......A genuinely good bloke who's a walking encyclopedia of Jawa/CZ knowledge.
I've got an update on my 360 Maico 0val/Metisse project. As we speak the frame and new bodywork are arriving here in Oz from the UK...along with Jims Antig slider. The plan was to build a Maico Metisse for the pre 65 class which I reckon would have been a truly competitive 500 class pre 65er. While the frame was enroute I decided to do some research on it and have discovered something very interesting that has unfortunately put a block on my using it for the Maico project. It turns out that the frame is a genuine DT1 Yamaha Metisse item, one of only 22 made by Rickman back in 1968/69. Because of the bikes rarity and the fact that I've got a decent old stash of Yamaha DT1 engines and running gear, it'd be pretty silly of me to not build it as a DT1 Metisse. It'll be a good partner to my Cheney RT1 as examples of the 60's Brit perspective on improving Japanese engineering.
The Pre 65 Maico project isn't being abandoned however....it's just moving in a different direction. Because I won't be using the Metisse frame I've had to conjure up a frame that was 1: pre 65 legal, 2: reasonably light and good handling and 3: reasonably cheap. I've got a decent stash of aftermarket frames but they've all failed the cut for a variety of reasons. Then I remembered that I'd donated a Cotton Cobra frame to Yamaico Pete to build one of his El Cheapo specials a few months ago. After a chat with Pete it turned out that he didn't have any plans for the Cotton so it's being donated back to be the basis for the pre 65 project. One thing that really shines on the Cotton is its extreme light weight. The frame is made from Reynolds 531 tubing, the same as Cheney, Rickman and most of the period Brit frame builders used. I'll use Mexican Betor forks, Rickman Zundapp hubs/Borrani rims, BSA B44GP tank and alloy mudguards which will probably produce a bike even lighter that the Metisse would have been. After the initial disappointment that the Metisse was better suited to its original guise, I'm now pretty excited about the challenge of building the lightest open class pre 65'er I can. The dream of producing a 2 stroke pre 65 open class bike capable of winning the Nats is still alive
.
As I wrote earlier, I've accumulated quite a stash of aftermarket framed projects so it might be a while before I get to the DT1 Metisse. Now that the Hindall RT2MX, Cheney RT1 and Fastrac 360 flat tracker are all but a couple of weeks from being finished, the next projects will be the upcoming Shell OW72 750 Yamaha flat tracker and the Maico project. But first.....I
have to get my shed tidied up and back in order after the post illness frenzy of getting three bikes built. I won't be doing that again
.
Below: DT1 Yamaha Metisse: 
