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very one knewthe big bikeswould

always be there;everyone knewthe

MX scen e, thebigger classes,were the

domain ofbigsingles,asonlytheyhad

the powertodeal withthecourses.

ThentheSixties happened,smaller

bikesgotreliable, thengot reliablepower

andyes,the big bikeswere still there, but

the European scenewasshowingthat the

smaller bikes,thesering-a-ding twostrokes,

were takingover.

BelgianJoel Robertwas dominating the

scen einthe 250class, onaCZofall things–

cue gaspsfromthe establishment–and his

efforts to do the sameinthe 500class were

hamperedby theFédération Internationale

de Motocyclisme (FIM) who introduced a

300cc minimum for the bigger class...

“...to prevent incidents of thesmaller,slower

bikes causing crashes as the faster bikes

caughtthemup...”Yeah, right, morelike to

prevent the biggerbikes being blownoff.

So,asthe press showed, CZwere riding

high, theprobl em being in 1964–the

year RogerPowell’s 360 twinport was

built–racer scouldn’tget theminthe UK.

In thecase of the 250whichwas winning

everything, its £400 price tagwas deemed a

bit spicyfor the UKmarket...except racers

demanded it andeventuallythe importers

capitulated.

The 360wasthe factory’s answerto

thecapacityrestriction andafine looking

motorcycleitwas too.Roger’smachine is

the result ofacoupleofyears’restoration

and wasbought in bits butisagenuine,

matching numbers bike on whichhe

intended to dotheOver60s series until an

incidentinvolving afootrestand his knee

sidelined him forawhile.

“WhenIgot it, thebottom end had

alreadybeen done,” he says. “I didthe rest

over aperiod oftime andAlan Brownbuilt

thewheelsfor me. He wasagreat bloke,

sadl ymissed andnot just because of his

bike building.”

East GermanpolicemanPaul Friedrichs

tookthe factoryprototype 360 andmade

it kn ownhewas goingtobeaforcetobe

reckoned withon the internationalscene.

Based on the250, the enginewasvirtually

bullet-proof and itstwin-portdesign

helpedovercomeover-heatingprobl ems

of th esingle port barrel. Itwasmachines

suchasthis whichprompted other

manufacturers with four-strokes to purs ue

expensive exotic materialsinorder to add

lightnesstoaninherentlyheavydesign.

Sadlyfor the CZ factory, the success of

the360 wasshort-livedasthe hierarchy

decreedchange necessaryand beganto

develop asingle portmachine whichwould

be volume producedbut not asexotic as

thetwinportmodel.

However, as anexample of thechanging

MX scene and the advancesof the two-

stroke models, the 360isafabulouslooking

machine,which wassuccessfultoo,and for

this reasonwe sayyou needaCZ360 twin

portin your shed. Unfortunatelyyou can’t

have this one as it’sjust been sold.

AUTUMN 2019 | 19

RearsuspensionisDutch

‘DeReuver’andapopular

aftermarkettweak.