Sunday 15 January 2012

Classic advert

At long last I've managed to find an advert I've been looking for for years.

Yes! The CZ 250 'Custom'. Or rather, a standard CZ 250 with a bolted on silver metalflake fairing, mudguard, sidepanels and cafe racer style saddle. I saw one of these in a shop and I couldn't get over how shoddily fitted the 'extras' were. The generic BMW style fairing's headlight hole was too big for the CZ's headlight so there was a gap around it, and the mudguard was attached to the forks using 'Jubilee' (ie worm drive) clips.  As the standard CZ mudguard had a loop for the speedo cable, the cable was taped to the fork leg with black insulating tape! Quality!
The CZ 250 had only one selling point - it was cheap. It was slow, crude and badly built, but it was cheap, so you knew what you were getting. If they had been more realistic they would have marketed as a budget 'ride to work' commuter, but trying to sell it as an exciting 'sports bike' like a Yamaha RD 250 or a Suzuki X7 was just pathetic. Also, showing a bike that could be ridden by learners doing a wheelie was hardly responsible advertising. It's telling that it's a drawing and not a photo - I doubt that a CZ 250 had the power to do a wheelie, or if it could do one without something breaking!
Needless to say, the one I saw in a shop unsold was the only example I've ever seen, I never saw one on the road!

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