When I was an impoverished undergraduate, I found myself living in a flat eight miles away from college. I couldn't drive, bus fares were extortionate and I just liked the idea of motorbiking. So through a process of adverts and general naive tomfoolery, I ended up buying a 1972 CZ175 for £100. The smiling toe-rag who sold it to me must have thought Xmas had come. Anyhow, I knew no better and actually thought the bike was a bargain.
The next twelve months could my be described as a financial nightmare. The old hunk of Czech pig-iron very nearly turned a hard-up student into a destitute academic with a pathological hatred of anything East European. Sure enough, I had my spate of problems - throttle cables that last anything up to 20 miles (I’m sure they’re made from pipe cleaners) and constant electrical problems (I understand that the Czechs employ fingerless blind men to wire up their bikes).
At one stage the major Midland Jawa-CZ dealer was unable to locate an electrical fault that was causing the bike to short circuit and blow a fuse each time I was silly enough to actually try to turn on the lights. In a fit of temper I solved the problem by using the John Cleese technique. I walloped the generator with a two pound hammer - and it actually worked - the lights operated perfectly - honestly, what a bike!
Other faults are almost too numerous to mention - but here’s a short selection - generators that regularly burn out, disintegrating clutch plates, self draining batteries etc. Having owned the bike for 12 months, I waited until the tax expired and moved closer to college. The old CZ found its way into a garden shed, and there I laid it to rest.
Eventually I graduated and got a job as a teacher. I found myself in the invidious position of having to do a 50 mile round nip to work and back. The old CZ was rotting away nicely, so I thought what’s the cheapest new bike that I can get HP on - you guessed it, I ended up buying another CZ175. Although it was brand new, it had exactly the same problems. I got seven years riding out of the old Czech before it bounced all the way to the scrapyard. During that time I learnt a lot about bikes. All in all, I think I got my money’s worth - but they were tough times.
Not a bike to be recommended but if you’re hard up, desperate and can get hold of an old model for spares it can be fun. Nowadays, I go to work on an old Superdream, needless to say, with none of the silly problems that happened on the CZ.
Geoff Righton