CZ 250 CUSTOM
When rebuilding bikes feel more like a chore than a happy hobby, it’s time to stop taking things so seriously and return to your roots. Andrew Smith got his bike-building mojo back with an Eastern European two-stroke…
This story starts 42 years ago in 1977 when I visited the Earl’s Court Show, looking for a motorcycle more exotic than the usual, run of the mill Japanese machines. I wanted a machine that appealed to me, and not to the stereotypical people we were supposed to be. Would it be an Italian thoroughbred? A Bavarian muscle machine? Something British? Would anything fit the bill?
As soon as my eyes fell on a CZ 250 twin, that was it! What had I seen? A CZ made for the young motorcyclists of the UK; a CZ with a handlebar fairing, ace/clubman handlebars, and a Dunstall-type café racer style seat and mudguard unit in paint described as ‘gold’ but which was much more like nappycoloured yellow. The CZ 250 Custom. That colour looked so wrong to me, but the kind gentleman on the Jawa CZ stand said they did one in a nice blue colour. Sold!
A couple of weeks later I picked up my brand-new blue CZ Custom from John Chisnal Motorcycles in Chelmsford. Is UAR 501S is still around anywhere? This was going to be the first of three CZ250 variations on the custom theme, the Mk1. And it was oh-so different to anything else that my group of friends had. Ridicule came fast and furious. Did I listen? No! You develop a very tough hide when you own a communist-era motorcycle.
The CZ could quite easily keep up around the country lanes, only losing out on A-roads at speed. The CZ was reliable, would always start first or second kick – and it went around bends at more or less the same rate of knots as it travelled down the straights. Brakes? Only when I had to and to avoid getting into even more trouble…
My girlfriend (later wife) liked being pillion on the cut-down seat / mudguard unit. We were a lot thinner in those days and, as I nearly always tucked in behind the very generous handlebar fairing, I left quite a bit of room behind me. The ace bars had the effect of pulling you forward as well. The CZ’s gear lever doubles up as the kickstart lever and you learn to live with this quite quickly. This lever also disengages the clutch; useful, as many a Jawa/CZ rider who has had a clutch cable break will tell you. My large feet have always been suited to these large levers and, when changing up, I tend to have my heel on the peg and use the top of my booted foot to change gear. This means I still have part of my foot on the peg for leverage. Changing down is near enough the same but using the underside of the foot. I mainly ride with the balls of my feet on the pegs when not using the foot controls.
That particular CZ Custom stayed with me
for around three years until we needed the money. Time passed and I didn’t miss the Custom, as I had other bikes that took its place, but it was the only CZ that I had not altered in any way from standard. The others, mainly 175 and 250 singles and a 350 Jawa, always had the some modifications. My last CZ 250 single, back in 2002, was transformed into an off-roader.
2016 rolled around and I had just finished rebuilding a 1968 Triumph T90. This project made me think that I had lost the urge to rebuild motorcycles. It was a chore rather than a pleasure and I only really got excited about the build when it started first kick – which meant I could sell it as a runner. With the Triumph up for sale, my wife saw a CZ 350 on eBay and I went to have a look. It was a complete nut and bolt rebuild and looked immaculate. The owner rebuilds bikes with no interest in riding them, and was selling the CZ to fund his next project. I put in a bid that was well over the top, and when the auction ended we were both away from the computer. My wife got back and asked when we would be collecting it – but someone had used a sniping tool to outbid me at the last second! At this point my wife revealed that she’d been very sorry to see the blue Custom go all those years ago, and didn’t say anything as she knew I would have been upset.
She’d hoped that another CZ would give me back the fun part of messing around with old motorbikes. We talked and figured that we might be able to get hold of a CZ 175 or 250, but trying to get hold of a Mk1 Custom would be like trying to get rocking horse manure for her roses. Building a machinem which resembled a Custom would beb easier, in fact.
I came across a CZ 250, the Model 471 twin, for sale online. It had a video of the seller riding it and was rebuilt, roadworthy and still running-in, so I was happy to pay the asking price. He gave me the reference number from the V5C so I could tax it online after insuring it. Of course, you should never do deals in this way and I was lucky, but as I was going with cash in hand I could at least walk away if it was a bad deal.
On viewing, it looked in very good nick, had a year’s MoT and the test ride made me feel confident about riding it 70 miles back
home. The trip was uneventful, travelling at 50mph as it was running in. I stopped around halfway to fill up the tank but it only took five litres; quite frugal in its drinking habits. Riding on the A12 at 50 meant I was being overtaken by everything, but I had time to think about turning my new CZ into a Custom model, how to get or make the necessary parts.
At home, I checked over the 37 year-old CZ to see if anything was amiss. There was a small noise from the front wheel bearings, perhaps the wiring could do with a tidy up, and that was about it. The wicker basket on the homemade rack on the back had to go! The wheels had chrome rims which had been painted silver. They didn’t look too bad but the Custom had alloy rims. The rear light and number plate had been lowered and the original holes filled in and painted over in quite a professional manner, I think to make the bike look older.
Over the next three months the CZ was ridden for as many miles as the autumn weather allowed. Every CZ I have owned, even the same model and same year, each has its own idiosyncratic way of starting. They all have the gear / kickstart lever and a Jichov carb with a tickler to flood the carb. But this CZ had to be flooded from cold and then the fuel turned off. Leave the fuel taps open and it wouldn’t start; as soon as the fuel taps were turned off, the engine would start! Warm engine, first kick every time, petrol on or off.
I got hold of a front mudguard that could be cut down to make the blade type like the Mk1 Custom, and a Dunstall-type seat/ mudguard unit that I could graft onto a CZ seat base. It would look like a Mk1 version if not as square. A replica handlebar fairing was sourced, not as generous in its size as an original Mk1 but near enough. Fork gaiters would replace the metal shrouds that had been fitted to this CZ. I wanted to fit the T90 ‘M’ handlebars that I had bought for the Triumph but never used. Chrome-plated switchgear would replace the old, nearly worn-out CZ alloy switchgear, and nice chrome-plated levers and throttle would replace the CZ levers that were more than showing their age.
I had an idea that the Mk1 style seat might take me a long time to make and, as I would rather be riding, I planned to make a seattail similar to a Mk2 version out of two Z250 tailpieces. This idea worked, as you may see in the pics. The CZ Mk2 version used an ordinary seat and fixed the fibreglass tail unit to it with the upholstery on. The Mk1 seat has the fibreglass tail unit / mudguard bolted to the seat base and then upholstered.
January 2017 saw me in the garage stripping down the CZ. Very early I realised that the Triumph bars didn’t fit the CZ top yoke clamps. They were too far apart and would have clamped the bars on the bends; not to be done under any circumstance. So a nice pair of ace bars was sourced and these had the grips angled down when fitted. The
cables were cut to suit and new ½” barrel nipples were soldered on to make these fit the chrome-plated Doherty levers. The chrome-plated switches were fitted and wired into the existing wiring loom. With the front mudguard, I masked up what I wanted to keep and cut off what I didn’t. I used a very good face mask as I didn’t want to breathe in any fibreglass dust. The jigsaw with the correct blade soon cut away the surplus material and the guard was sanded down to smooth the edges.
The handlebar fairing was very easy to fit with a bracket either side of the headlight. The two Z250 seat tails were made into one unit and fitted to the seat by using two screws. Two nice thick countersunk alloy washers were used to make it look as if this was a professional job (I use the term loosely), as was more trim material to cover the edge where it joined the seat material. 6V LED bulbs and a new flasher unit were fitted, but the headlight and charging lamps were kept as ordinary filament bulbs.
After all this work the CZ was completed by the end of March. When I went to the garage and saw the CZ headlight in the handlebar fairing staring at me all my memories came flooding back. Riding it was now definitely the order of the day! It just needed routine maintenance at first, until I noticed that the clutch and brake levers were too close to the front indicators. They didn’t interfere, but didn’t look right to me so I moved the handlebars. After ten miles it was obvious this was one big mistake. My wrists ached so much that I tried to put the bars back to the original setting but couldn’t find the previous sweet spot. Then I saw a flat pair of bars on eBay which fitted with slight re-routing of the cables, and they did the trick.
I lowered the plastic rear mudguard and removed the cut-down original mudguard that was hidden under the seat and the frame to make the back end look better to me. Inside the homemade seat tail I fixed a black plastic insert to hide the gap between the tail end and the rear mudguard – it looks almost professional if I do say so myself!
Those front wheel bearings had the same noise but no play at MoT time, and it passed with an advisory note. I contacted Allens Engineering to see if the Mikuni carb conversion they do for the Jawa 350s would fit the CZ 250. I also sent them an original CZ 250 Jichov carb so they could get the jetting right. I fitted the new Mikuni carb and was asked to make an assessment as Allens had not done one of these for the 250 twin before. So now I had a carburettor that had a choke to help starting, and I can leave the fuel taps on!
If it has not been run for about three weeks it will take about six to ten kicks, but once it has been run up and used it will start on the slightest of prods. The new carb also improved the engine performance and it sounds better. I raised the needle up one notch when I noticed a very small hesitation when pulling away from traffic lights at around half throttle. At bigger throttle openings it was fine pulling away, but since raising the needle there’s no hesitation even at small throttle settings.
The CZ was used all year round: the weather was mild and the riding was fun. Chatting to some other CZ enthusiasts, they commented on the fibreglass panels on my petrol tank which were only fitted to the Custom models. This got me wondering whether this CZ could originally have been a Custom model, modified over the years to
look like a Sport or DL. Under those tank panels, the metalflake paint was red, and the V5C showed its colour as red/black. That was the colour of the Mk2 CZ Customs! What to do? I decided to make it red and black to match the logbook… like you do.
I didn’t want to repaint the handlebar fairing – it was too good to paint with rattle cans so another one was sourced with a best-offer on eBay. I got it with free postage at half the price of a new one, in blue. This was stripped back and painted with Plastikote metalflake red. The petrol tank panels, front mudguard and seat tail were given the same treatment along with the work in progress Mk1-style seat unit which was made but not upholstered.
With all the bits fitted the CZ looked much better than in plain black and silver, and it was correct for the logbook and the Mk2 colour scheme. I also took the opportunity to tidy up the wiring and fit an electronic 6V rev counter. Only the Jawas had these Polish-made rev counters which weren’t very good, I was informed. They have a switched live, a live from one of the coils/points connections and an earth connection. Except that my one had just an earth wire marked. A wiring diagram for the rev counter was sent by the Jawa / CZ Club GB. I followed it… but the rev counter wouldn’t work wired that way. So I switched the live wires and – hey presto! – a working 6V rev counter; something the CZ Customs never had.
The downpipes were removed and repainted black with DIY barbecue paint
– a recommendation from another owner and it does a good job. The silencers were also removed and the black paint that was peeling off was cleaned to reveal the chrome underneath. It’s not too bad; you can see in some places that a scraper has been used, but only I know where to look! All the seals for the exhausts were sourced through the Jawa CZ club of Great Britain, who also provided much helpful advice. I used a translucent silicon bath sealer to help seal the exhaust joints. I was a bit sceptical about this at first, but it helps seal the joints and takes the high temperatures produced.
I took this opportunity to remove the full chainguard, as it’s a bit of a pain to take it off every time to check the chain and adjust it. I have a Custom guard to fit in its place next winter.
For the 2018 MoT I finally changed the front wheel bearings and the CZ passed without any advisories. I had found some CZ wheels with the correct alloy rims and these were vapour blasted and fitted with stainless steel spokes while the hubs were skimmed and new bearings fitted by Essex Wheels (very good). These were put back on the bike with new tyres.
The CZ was booked to appear at the Copdock Motorcycle Show where it was parked inside all day – on carpet! Good job it didn’t leak any oil. I was awarded a small plaque. After Copdock I got around to upholstering my version of the Dunstall type seat/mudguard unit. It looks a bit rough (to me) but other people have been
too polite to say anything. Another club member had a surplus tail unit from a Mk1 Custom so a deal was struck for that, and I was the proud owner of a ‘gold’ coloured fibreglass tail unit. I could then use the original seat base (which I’d used for my Mk2 tail piece) to make a genuine Mk1 seat/tail unit.
Work on that took place last winter, with it painted red to match the rest of the bodywork. But upholstering it was a problem: almost all of the specialists turned down the job (too small; couldn’t do it for months, only do cars, etc). One guy was fififinally willing to take on the task of upholstering this seat to match as close as possible the original CZ Mk1. Eventually, in May, I picked up the finished item and I was gobsmacked. It’s beautiful! It’s as close as possible to the original but so much better, and the specialist (Q Trim Essex) only had a picture to work from! Now the seat has been fitted, I can confirm it’s quite comfortable.
This brings us just about up to date… apart from the other CZ which has appeared in my garage. Last spring I was offered a CZ 250 that has not been altered in any way since being sold in 1977. It had been stored for 30 years since the mid-1980s. The guy I bought it from made it roadworthy, so this blue Model 471 now also lives in my garage. Look out for my stories, then, about Smoony, the barn-find bike!