The 73's

[eno]

The 1973 models, first of the production "coffin" tanks in steel, 380's were blue & 250's red, the radial finned head first seen on works bikes now standard. No great advances in suspension & still using the same frame as first seen on the sidepiper. Just a good tough, powerful & reliable bike, the 4 speed transmission near indestructible. Handling characteristics, slight tendency to  washout the front end in corners - they seem to have a lot of rake and are very stable, no head shake, they do have this habit of hopping around at the rear end - it's a CZ thing. I have heard it said that if you aren't familiar with a CZ you can feel a sense of horror as it tries to swap ends, any CZ rider knows to resist the temptation to bail out & gas it straight again.

The following images from http://www.czmadness.net/




Scanned article on the 1973 works bike...


And this... is me at play on my 73

[500Fool]

What a great old bomb.  Only ridden one once and was impressed. I was riding at a short circuit meeting at Pyne Park, Harry's old track out of Tamworth. My bike broke down, I forget what it was at the time maybe an Elsinore. Harry had a few old bombs out the back and heard mine was out of action so offered me one of those things with a yellow tank. I think it might have been a 380? Wasn't the fastest in a straight line but felt on rails round a short circuit. Good simple straight forward bike.

[DJRacing]

Hey Eno heres a photo pulled from the files, do you remember that day?

[yzhilly]

I have a new found respect for these weapons now after witnessing one being bump started after a repair with the throttle cable out of place it started at Full noise and took off like a rocket with the owner desparately trying to control the beast it all ended in huge cloud of dust,with the bike and owner screaming as he tried to remove the plug lead. Anyway he dusted her off ,fixed the throttle and back on the track only slightly slower than when the throttle was jammed. It was one of the CZ's at CD4 in the mud i forget the guys name anyway he was getting around broadford pretty quick.

[eno]

Hey cool DJ, yeah it had me scratching my head there for a while - "The Grass-o-o-o-cross". Biggest clue is the plastic thing just further back down the hill, whoa! that hill was littered with them thar plastic thangs. I can remember waiting patiently at the bottom for the carnage to clear, like flies to a sticky flie trap those turkeys would give it their all to try & take on that slope, didn't matter what they needed for traction - fallen bikes, riders etc... but no they ended up stuck in the gloop. When there was finally at least one clear line thru I just hooked 2nd & sort of rapid trialsed my way on up - too easy.
The Grass-o-cross was a modern event - a sea of Orange, we as VMXers were invited, wow! what an eye opener that was. Who could forget "VMX-TV" & TMBills interview monologues, Oh yeah! then there was "realracer" to set us straight.

Hey thanks guys for the CZ stories.

[Bamford#69]

Hi ENO,
When you wrote the 73 frame was the same as the sidepipes(969&980)model # not the year,did you mean that they are SIMILAR, they are not the same,the sidepipes have their own swing arm and their frames "bifurcate"under the motor , the rear engine mount wont fit the later 400 or 250. the steering head stem is also 1inch shorter ,check the distance between the fork clamps.
This misconception is carried forward by an article in VMX ,sorry Ray,of an article about a so called "Factory Works  Replica "CZ ,Vmx #4, not a 67 CZ , just a Yellow Tanker with a Sidepipe Tank .
If your are buying a Sidepipe be carefull, there is at at least one"cheater' out there
Real Sidepipes are becoming  important in the VMX market place ,so check check check  before you buy
Ps no I'm not an expert but I  have built a couple and one under construction,

[eno]

Hey Jikov thanks for filling in the gaps, guess if I had every years frame laying around I would have seen the differences. I just figured the CZ pages needed some material chucked in 

[firko]

I figured it was time to update the CZ picture file. Heres one from last years Washougal meeting in Washington
Mike Giskaas on a '73 250 CZ winning his class.

[firko]

And another:

[eno]

Cool Firko, thats Cousin Weedies very own "Soup" riding "Junk yard dawg" (the white 400).