Check out Jiri CV Fastest ZEDS in Europe
All of the big Euro Vintage MX fields are full of his creations
For me the best school of motocross was the two years taht I spent in Dukla Prague, the Army motorcycle club in the former Czechoslovakia. It was there that I raced with our finest riders - Falta, Velky, Baborovsky, Churavy and Stodulka. I learnt from them and also was able to represent my country at that time. After leaving Dukla Prague, I went to a professional club, SVS Strakonice, with a motocross track in Jinin. I ended my racing career in the late 1970s and went to work in the CZ factory at Strakonice in their special motocross machines were built for the world championships and I worked there for 10 years. It was a workplace where I could learn every technology of production through building very special motocross machinery. In 1989 I left the CZ factory and started working for myself from my home. Firstly, I started to make parts, frames, exhausts and handlebars for old CZ motorcycles. That grew to the point where I was soon making complete motorcycles and that it is what I still do now. I do virtually everything from making the sand moulds for pouring aluminum, through to building my own frames. Of course thhere are some parts which I must buy, like pistons, chains and wheelrims but I make all the other major engine, drive and gear components in my own workshop. Every one of my motorcycles is built to order for a particular customer and they are ordered for either racing, or for private collections of museums. For racing, I make some adjustments for better engine performance and some changes to the frames for better handling. My motorcycles are ridden mostly in Belgium, Holland, England and Italy and I use the original production technology in many cases. For example, the frame tubes are formed by hand, using sand to fill them and then bent on a flame. Not even a comuterised machine can reproduce the correct shapes of the bends and it is very time consuming to build these complete motorcycles. IT´S A JOB I LOVE VERY MUCH.
But even with my involvement as a builder, I missed my racing and started to go to veteran races in Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1997, I went to a meeting at Namur in Belgium where 20 former world champions were competing. There were three racing categories and I won one of them. It was great for me to sit at the same table as Harry Everts, Jim Pomeroy and the other legends and to talk with them. I have been riding CZ all of my life and I am still faithful to the name and I try to keep it alive today, so others can appreciate what it stands for. I make many spare parts and complete CZ motorcycles of models 968, 969 and ESO. Here in Czech, I have begun competing in motocross races called "Sumavsky Super Pohar" and organised by our club, Veteran Club Habes. I have won it many times. I wanted to establish our club, so that the name CZ would bot be forgotten and at the end of last season we had riders from several European countries come here to compete. That included a few riders from the U.S.A. - Brad Lackey, Michael Tillman and Pete Silva. It was great!
Cheers
