By: Big Sven

Big Sven — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:15:31 +0000

I had to laugh about Marty Moates. I can imagine some of the choice phrases that mechanic threw at him! “Den tjocka fan, den röva han kan använda som fjädring!” He was only 6 kgs heavier than me, and had that mechanic said that to ME – there would have been a spare job going at HVA. Marty was a bit after my time – ok, he was active, but not in Europe, or Sweden, so I never met him. I think we would have gotten on well, him and me, especially as we both openly criticised HVA’s weak points, me not only to the engineers but even the top men, Helmin and Jauren. Helmin avoided me, I think, but our paths seldom crossed, he didn’t attend local meetings, Jauren did, keeping an eye on upcoming talent. I wasn’t being nasty, just trying to put across the consumer’s view. HVA was rather too top-steered, Helmin was the boss, and free-thinking was frowned-on, private mods by the engineers, to check ideas and concepts, was something they had to try and do via friends outside the factory. Ok, HVA’s budget was miniscule in comparison to the Japs, even the state-sponsored Czechs, so Helmin had to run a tight ship, but he had surrounded himself with some VERY good development-engineers cum racers who had ideas worthy of airing (ALL the HVA team were required to be documented bikers who raced bikes, testing the bikes the works riders then rode, that became the production versions of were then sold to the public. I often showed photos of Jawa-CZ to the engineers I met at the meets, the enduros, the mx’ers, so they could see the brilliant concepts the free-thinking Czechs were into. “That looks good, why don’t you do it,” often was answered by a grunt I won’t recount here, but let’s say they liked working at HVA. I did once suggest they make OSSA, even Jawa-CZ, under licence. Developing the engines cost a hellava lot of money, why not let OSSA or CZ bare that cost? This rather than barely scrape a living designing and making their own. They were close to being shut-down several times. I was once told by a CZ man (possibly a Czech Helmin) that he admired HVA, would have loved to make his bikes to the superb standard HVA attained with the MAG-series. I have to give credit here, to Helmin and Jauren, they started the bike production, they kept it going. But it was messy…. The big problem CZ had was most of their bikes were sold behind the Iron Curtain and had to be tuned to the petrol sold there. They did not run properly on western petrol, the porting, timing, combustion-chamber, exhaust, all were slightly-wrong for our petrol. They were never that popular in Sweden, less-so in the 70’s, when most were found doing enduro’s, not competitive in mx with HVA and the Jap bikes now making inroads. I think that’s why there are a lot of CZ’s in vintage-mx, they were never run into the ground in mx, but mainly used as play-bikes. I’d love to go back in time and, instead of the 250 Hallman HVA I raced for 3 years, race a ‘72 5-speed 250 CZ instead. I’d have been just as competitive on it, and perhaps saved a lot of money in not having to regularly replace the gearbox and clutch. It’s fun being wise 30-40 years after the fact, isn’t it!

Comments on: Motocross Photography — the hook

By: Big Sven