our friend arpad sent these to me today. seems a man calling himself “cranberry” from kiev built this sleek old 1963 jawa 250cc two-stroke thumper.
that’s two posts in a row about bikes from kiev in the ukraine. i don’t know how that happens. i blame arpad.
cranberry built the frame, laced the wheels, and did everything himself from the rattle can matte black paint job to fabricating the leaf-spring front end. it is also his first build. great job for a noob.
the wheels are both 16″ and wear 130/90/16 tires. i’ve always liked the symmetry of the tires and wheels being the same on a motorbike.
the inverted handlebars are from an old bicycle modified with internal wiring.
the army water jug as the hiding place for the wiring is a nice and inexpensive idea. in all, this bike is the epitome of the garage built, do-it-as-cheap-as-possible, clean and kickass design we dig so much.
some of these photos are tagged moto.kiev.ua so i wanted to link to the site. it might make sense if you don’t speak russian to google translate it, although when i did, i was unable to find the bike or any more info than i’ve got here. i do know it’s been in a few euro mags from sweden to france and cranberry is getting some press for his debut bobber build.
congratulations, man. it’s a wonderful machine.
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