36 years later, factory CZ pilot Rob
Norrgard’s CZ250 center-port is done!
I was
approached by the current owner of this rolling CZ chassis that had been stored
in his garage some 16 years or so. He said he saw my website with a center-port
CZ on it and wanted to explore building this special CZ of his. The story is he
bought it from a CZ factory co-pilot in San Diego that also left it sitting in
storage from back in the day. This riders name is ROB NORGAARD. So being curious,
I called up Marty Tripes, ex factory CZ racer and asked if he knew Rob. He said "sure do EJ, I’ll get his number for you." Marty emailed me the contact info, I
called Rob up and we had a nice conversation recounting his original intentions for the bike.
- click pics to enlarge -
Rolling chassis upon arrival.
Back in the mid 70's, Rob wanted to build a personal race bike with
some factory features including a chromoly frame and swing arm but family and
life consumed his time and it never got built. He purchased the chromoly
chassis kit from a fabrication shop called “The Frameworks” in Orange County, Calif. It included the swing arm, coffin tank, chromoly brake
pedal, CZ handlebars, alloy airbox and seat pan.
For the power plant which you see here, Rob chose
a 4 speed 980.2 sidepiper motor for durability and had a cylinder converted to
a center-port arrangement. He hung some Akront rims on it with a pair of
sidepiper front forks and an S&M double pinch lower triple clamp. The
roller sat in Rob’s garage nearly 19 years until the current owner bought it in
1993 and stored it another 16 years! The new owner and I got on
the phone and began the planning and decision making process to revive Rob’s
old CZ to new life and I think we have done a very nice job. We wanted to
maintain the GP flavor of the bike to some degree over the more stock looking
CZ’s. The fuel tank angle on the frame has a lot to do with this as well as the
new GP style seat.
NOS 1974 special CP Falta chromoly frame back from powdercoat
The frame (s/n FW RJD GP 001) needed some attention even
though brand new in that it was missing the side number plate mounts, rear hub
was off center by ¼” to the countershaft sprocket requiring a spacer. We wanted
to have the Falta Replica chamber mount look and feel so I removed the black
frame styled pipe hanger and fabricated a new one. We had to relocate the rear
brake reaction arm mount point up front for a longer chain tensioner. Then
after powder coating the frame, it was noted the top steer bearing race had
enlarged quite a bit. A new built up race had to be fabricated and pressed in
the new hole. If you look close you will see that the upper half of the
steering yoke is taller than a stock Falta yoke by 1” with no structural
support to prevent the hole from growing under 400 deg F oven heat.
The frame
cradle is a full 2” taller than a stock Falta chassis measured from the
backbone to the swing arm pivot. Not sure if this was per Rob’s personal
specification or The Frameworks in-house design. Stock CZ fiberglass seat pans
will not fit on this frame, so the alloy pan had to be used and a custom seat
foam carved out to suit. The seat cover with tuck and roll flat-top was designed
by myself.
The powerplant is equipped with a B.U.S. electronic ignition system housed under the classic and rare "sharkfin ignition case," setting the motor off with style. 4 speed bullet proof transmission, JOK head, Mikuni 34mm carb, and basically a stock and fresh top end.
The Chromoly CZ and owner at the 2nd Annual Hopetown GP Reunion, 2013.
She runs like a champ ready to throw some dirt…
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