c.1964 CZ 250 "Joel Robert Replica"
Engine no. 200746
This unabashedly over-the-top restoration of a CZ 250 Twin Port was done in tribute to Joel Robert, and is a perfect complement to the larger-than-life Belgian who put the Czech company on the world motocross map. Robert, perhaps the most naturally talented rider ever, was notorious for his lack of training, preferring a good party to practice motos, smoking cigarettes to doing calisthenics. Yet in 1964 at age 20 he bested the world on his privateer CZ 250, making him at that time the youngest rider to win a world motocross title, and giving CZ its first-ever GP championship. Picked up by the factory in 1965, Robert would win two additional 250 titles for CZ before jumping to Suzuki where he won three more. When he retired from racing, Robert's six Grand Prix titles, 50 race victories and 101 moto wins were record totals that stood for years.
CZ vintage motocross racer Robert Loveless wanted to pay homage to that legacy, deciding that a no-expense-spared restoration of a CZ 250 from Robert's first championship year would be a fitting tribute. Besides the usual magnesium brake hubs, the bike has rare factory magnesium engine cases. The gas tank and fenders are original fiberglass items, resprayed in high-luster paint, while the aluminum airbox is also original, now buffed to a nice sheen. Eyes are drawn to the twin expansion chambers, each section highly polished, with the expert welds holding everything together left bare and on prime display. While in the Mork collection the Robert Replica CZ has remained unstarted and on display.
