ČZ 175 Sport
DO YOU HAVE a desire to own a classic motorcycle? How about a model that stayed in production for four decades, was made by a manufacturer with an enviable record in competition, was built in the hundreds of thousands, has good spares availability, and has a style all of its own? Something that’s easy to work on, can be used in all weathers, is tough as old army boots and will cost you a lot less than £1000? I give you the ČZ 175.
For generations, a cloud of blue smoke and the stressed buzzing of an engine wrung to its limits were part of the backbone of the nation’s transport system. Villiers and BSA-engined two-strokes gallantly transported the country’s workers to factory, workshop and office. While ‘real’ motorcyclists headed for the heights of big bike ownership, a good proportion of those using motorcycles for more prosaic reasons kept those two-strokes chuntering on, with riders keeping spare spark plugs in greatcoat pockets in case of emergencies, and sandwiches and bottles of Castrol 2T bungeed to the back mudguard.
It wasn’t just the British who plumped for the simple two-stroke single as utilitarian transport. After the Second World War the brilliant German design for the DKW RT125 was taken as war reparations by Britain for the BSA Bantam, the US for the Harley-Davidson Hummer and the Soviet Union for the Minsk, as well as being put back into production by DKW in West Germany, made by MZ in East Germany, Sokol in Poland and Balkan in Bulgaria. Yamaha pinched it for the YA1 and there are Chinese budget manufacturers turning them out today.
The Czechs went the two-stroke route too, though they didn’t follow the DKW herd. Czechoslovakia, as it was
