OLD S'CooL MX: 1974 CZ250 Centerport GP

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.