You guys will LOVE this.. Tatran 125 baby!

[wasions]

Maybe Nik Petrov can help you unwind some of those internet sites.

[Bobb]

Hey Rob, I can see you on the Tatran 125, with your "old lady" on the back, trailing along behind the Hell's Angels as their mascot. Take care, BOBB

[sfsvx]

Originally posted by Chicane
Well, the good news is I found a manual for it. The bad news is that it's all spanish.

http://epll.no-ip.com/tatran/tatran.htm

Anyone translate?

- Rob

I think it says "Good luck, gringo!"

[svxistentialist]

Rob,

found a Dutch site, they[the Dutch] are great, often have an English version.

Check it out:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/marcosombroek/scoot.html

Also, there is a guy in Ohio on the site has one for sale, don't know how current. Check out the "for sale" link on the homepage.

Looks really interesting, I like it a lot. Jawa bikes used be on sale here years ago, and they were good.

Best of luck with doing it up.

Joe

[Chicane]

Thanks but I beat you! I joined the north american Jawa/CZ club, and part of being a member is that I get access to their library, so HOPEFULLY, I should be recieving a manual today!

- Rob

[svxistentialist]

Originally posted by Chicane
Thanks but I beat you! I joined the north american Jawa/CZ club, and part of being a member is that I get access to their library, so HOPEFULLY, I should be recieving a manual today!

- Rob

No prob Dude

Have fun doing it up!

Joe

[Stevebsy]

I have some fond memories of riding the neighbor's Jawa around the block a bunch of times in my younger days.

The Jawa was like a traditional moped though, it had pedals and didn't go much faster than about 30-35. It didn't look like the Tatran much at all.

If I remember, it was made in Yugoslavia

[Chicane]

Nope. Czechslavakia. You might have been riding a babetta with a Jawa label though. Jawa actually has a pretty famous racing history for their off road bikes.

- Rob

[wasions]

Originally posted by Chicane
Nope. Czechslavakia. You might have been riding a babetta with a Jawa label though. Jawa actually has a pretty famous racing history for their off road bikes.

- Rob

They also made some really fast speedway bikes.
In the 60's and 70's speedway riders rode either Jawa's or JAP's.

[Chicane]

UPDATE: Well, the bike is apart. I just got a key cut for the ignition lock today, and the gas tank is finally clean. The carb has been cleaned, I degreased and cleaned the whole engine, the air cleaner has been cleaned, sanded, and primed with self-etching primer (ready for top coat), I bought a Moped battery, and I'm itching to change the oil and see if she'll fire up.

Anyway, here's the WEIRD part. I found out about my Tatrans history. How? It's part of the story. I went to a local scooter repair/maintenence shop to see if they've ever heard of them, had any parts, etc. TURNS OUT THEY"VE MORE THAN JUST HEARD OF TATRANS. They used to wrench on MY PARTICULAR SCOOTER. They said they've worked on a 'red one' before, and had a pic of it on their website. Here it is:

http://www.scootertherapy.com/tantran.jpg

Apparently, some Asian student from China needed some transportation. She called her dad, and instead of sending her money, he SHIPPED the tatran 125 (my tatran 125) FROM china to Madison, WI in about 1995. She used it for 2 years or so, got the oil changed and stuff at this scooter place, and apparently she then went back to China, or moved, either way, she just abandoned the scooter. Now it's mine. Born in Czechoslavakia, raised in China, used and left for dead in Madison, and being reborn (better, stronger faster) in thanks to me.

If I can get it running, I'm going to tear the whole thing apart, get the frame sandblasted, repainted, etc, I'm redoing the whole thing. Only better. The whole engine is aluminum. Aluminum can be polished. And the head can be ported. I will have a badass Tatran 125. >

- Rob

[Chicane]

Woohoo! Sorry for the delayed update, I'm sure you were all holding your breath. Anyway, good news, I got the thing running! I transported the scooter to my dad's house (all 240 lbs of it, by myself, ugh), and we were planning on working on it last saturday. Well, long story short, I spent a lot of the day working on an equally cool and equally strange vehicle, some of you may know as a 'weinermobile'. Yep, Wienermobile #7, which is actually one of the first modern wienermobiles, was in the shop being restored before it was going to be trucked to Milwaukee to be put in a museum. Oscar Meyer didn't pay a lot for the restoration, so it didn't get much work done to it.... it got a shiney new coat of paint, and I helped my dad install the brown vinyl interior, but other than that, the sucker is beat. I guess in 1997 they rebuilt the engine (which is a pain in the ass to take in an out of the thing), and after a test run it came back with a really bad knock. So, Oscar Meyer shelved it, and it's never going to be driven again. Pity. Also, the taillights are cracked, the radiator 'grille' is held in place with wood screws, and over all, the thing is just...eh.. sub par. >shrug< Anyway, since it was never going to be driven again, I figured it didn't need it's jumper cables, so now I'm the proud owner of some massive jumpers with some interesting history which currently reside in the SVX trunk. Heh.

Back to the scooter: I GOT IT RUNNING! At my dad's house, after much furrowing of brows and multimeter testing, we decided that since we don't have the exact wiring schematic for my model year, and the ignition switch with a total of EIGHT positions, we decided to hell with it, and started rewiring it (to the funky ass ignition switch) as we saw fit. So basically, we made the EIGHT position switch have two positions... ON... and OFF.... and you flip it to the ON button.... and hit the START button.. and it starts. Brilliant eh?! I had to adjust the points on it to factory specs, and adjust the carb to close to factory specs, but it runs! It was cool as hell hearing something so close to death being started again! It actually smoked a LOT less than I thought it would as well. So, now that it runs, I'm going to tear it into pieces, sand blast it, repaint it, polish the engine (its aluminum! RAWR!), redo some of hte wiring, and get the body painted white and a light creme color. It'll be PURTY. Anyone know how much it'd cost to rechrome a headlight trim ring??

Anyway, this project is cool. Heh.

- Rob

[wasions]

Originally posted by Chicane
Anyway, since it was never going to be driven again, I figured it didn't need it's jumper cables, so now I'm the proud owner of some massive jumpers with some interesting history which currently reside in the SVX trunk. Heh.


Anyway, this project is cool. Heh.

- Rob

There is one thing (at least) worse than unmannered smokers.
That's folks who assume other people's property, because of some kind of misplaced theory of ownership being based on utility.

Yeah. Real cool, Rob.

[Chicane]

The engine is junk. Weinermobile #7 will never be on the road again, so it has no use for the battery, or jumper cables. They were also ordered to clean out the interior and hte cargo compartment, which was filled with a bunch of 80s bumper stickers. I took them, because otherwise they'd be in a dumpster, or still at the bodyshop.

- Rob

[wasions]

Mitigating circumstances? You might want to be sure to mention those kinds of things if you don't want to be known as a total moron. (Just a thought.)

See ya in Rockford.

[huck369]

Congrats on getting the scooter going