Cossack Owners Club
 

For Riders & Enthusiasts of

Ural – Dnepr – JMZ – Ish – Jupiter – Planeta – Tula - Minsk – Voskhod – Riga – MMVZ - Motorcycles

Please use the links below to navigate around the site

Special Horizontal News Report *The C.O.C. Welcomes C.J. Owners*

We have decided to welcome owners of the Chinese (PRC) ChangJiang CJ motorcycles to the club. I know that we already have at least two such owners in the club, so we hope to get a few more and see them at our rallies.

The CJ 750 M1 (right) was developed from the Russian M72 in the 1950’s with the first being produced in PRC, it is believed, in 1957. Thus there are so many similarities with our bikes that we should share our common heritage and enthusiasm, welcome!

Peter ~ President

Peter’s February Puzzle

So! What is all this then? Another puzzling lump of Soviet technology? Certainly is, so, what is this engine and what was it modified to do? The weather in the Russian Federation at this time of year could be a clue.

Answers please to Peter or Martin’s email for preference, for those without the internet, see front page for phone no’s.

Christmas ‘End to End’

Our ride to Land’s End at Christmas was long in the planning. To my surprise on Christmas morning I was presented with bookings for accommodation north. We were going to John O’Groats as well. Only an hour into the ride on Boxing Day, admiring the view on the Yorkshire-Derbyshire border, we saw a bike chugging up the hill. It turned out to be a woman on her Christmas present – a restored Triumph Tiger Cub and one of the few other bikes we saw. Our first cultural stop was the Sandbach Crosses, repaired ‘after being smashed by iconoclasts.’ An ex-landlord, who came to look at our bikes, told us that the Messerschmitt Club had once asked him if they could have a rally at his pub. He told them the car park wouldn’t be big enough to land in.

The church at Moreton Corbet Castle was full of dead Corbets and the grounds were full of dog excrement. First night spent in Shrewsbury Battlefield Travelodge reading Ted Simon’s Jupiter’s Travels. Most of the next day we spent on the A49, taking in Stokesay Castle ‘the finest Medieval manor house in England.’ I managed to fall down the steps. Thankfully Cordura saved me from injury. We met Simon as arranged at Hope under Dinmore and he rode with us as far as the Severn Bridge, where we spent our second night, taking in the beautiful Kilpeck Church, with its Hereford Romanesque masonry and elusive Shelagh na gig. In the evening we took a Romantic walk over the bridge in a howling gale before our Pot Noodles. Porlock Hill is impressive - first gear all the way up on the outfits. By then it has started raining and we were battered by the weather all along the northern coast of Devon. We ate our lunch in the only shelter for miles on the Devon-Somerset border. It fined up for the brilliant road from Lynmouth through the Exmoor Forest. We stayed with relations in Braunton and went for a curry. Early on Saturday heavy showers fell from a purple sky and one of Oadesy’s heated grips packed in. It was a battle into the wind along the Atlantic Highway.

After an official photograph at Land’s End we dashed off to the Lizard Point, making Hayle Travelodge before nightfall. Early start Sunday for the long ride over Dartmoor to Glastonbury – the kind of roads we’d prefer to be on, but a treat on such a long trip. After a visit to Wells we headed via Cheddar Gorge to the bridge. The Severn was flat calm, in contrast to our last crossing. After checking in at Ludlow we walked through Orieton village, then it got dark and the last three miles on the A49 with no footpath were probably dangerous. The A49 continues on up through Warrington and Wigan and the traffic was light it being New Year’s Day. With plenty of time before check in at Lancaster we took a visit to Blackpool, which was disappointing, though I don’t know what we expected. We spent the Evening in the Cottam’s Field – one of those nondescript pub/eateries with all the atmosphere of an airport.

The A6 and then the A7 go all the way to Edinburgh and some of it is pretty bleak, but it stayed fine and at one point the sun nearly came out. Shap Abbey was worth a visit and Galashiels has an interesting water feature and war memorial in the middle of town. It was snowing when we woke on Thursday. There was a covering on the back road via Powmill and Dunning and we passed two cars in the ditch. Things got worse after Perth and we rode most of the way to Inverness in heavy falling snow, wiping our visors every few seconds and with snow building up on us. On the road over the Cairngorms and there are no roadside facilities bar the Ralia Café at Newtonmore. Inverness Travelodge was our base for two nights.

The road to John O’Groats follows the coast with many climbs and twists – though work is ongoing to ruin it. Spray from the sea made it to the road in places. It was rough at the top. Going also to Dunnet Head meant a loop through Thurso and more struggling into the wind. The ride after Brora was easier, but we had to do an hour in the dark with filthy visors and a useless headlight.

The penultimate day started promising but in the mountains the rain turned torrential. My waterproofs gave up completely around the seat and I was soaked. We were thankful for Morrison’s in Perth. The ride through Dunning, Muckart, Powmill and Rumbling Bridge was one of the best bits of the trip.

For the whole of the last day’s ride home from Edinburgh down the marvellous A68 we were blessed with glorious low winter sunshine – right in our faces, but you don’t like to complain. The knack on my outfit was to go down the hills of the old Roman road as fast as I could in order to get over the next peak without changing down. All the surrounding scenery was bathed in brilliant sunshine. And then, after 1,937 miles in twelve days it was all over.

Dave Ramsden.

MZ's at How Stean Gorge

The site used for the MZ Club’s Winter Rally on 18th-20^th January has changed hands and the new owner was extremely accommodating. He brought his own tent so he could be there to cater for our every need and said if things went really pear-shaped we could kip in the cafe. His efforts made this excellent rally even better. The previous owners closed the on site café at 5pm and didn’t open it for breakfast until ten – a strange way to run a business. Draught beer has recently been installed making the mile walk to the pub unnecessary for the less energetic.

Probably due to extreme inclemency only three of us arrived on Friday – John from Bury on his 2004 Ural and Jonathon from Bradford in his camper van. Our host still cooked for us and kept the bar open until we had had enough. After eating we took it in turns to attempt to ride his unicycle and watched clips of accidents, V8 chainsaws and Ural and Dnepr sites on the big screen. I was even able to check on the progress of my eBay items.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny and various machinery rolled in – with hardly a Japanese bike in sight. This rally is always attended also by the Panther Club, and half a dozen or so of Cleckheaton’s finest were in attendance, including one very traditionally dressed motorcyclist with his young daughter in the sidecar – 33% of the none masculine attendees. Persons of the female persuasion were easily outnumbered by those with a penchant for Soviet machinery. I made it five Cossack Owners Club members and John, who said he was going to join (I must remember to carry membership forms with me). In the market square at Masham on a ride out we met members of a local club, one of whom has an old Ural and needs to be on the look out for the queen’s shilling in his glass bottomed tankard. The choice of places to drink didn’t spoil the event – some stayed on site, some went to the Crown in Lofthouse, some went to the Crown in Middlesmoor, some went to all three. Some even stayed in the Crown in Middlesmoor and never went near the rally site or anywhere else, paying scant regard to the dangers of vitamin D deficiency. Names are withheld to protect the guilty, but one of them arrived on a Voskhod.

Several of those present were, unsurprisingly, planning to go to the Dragon Rally and we went our separate ways into the rain on Sunday vowing to do it all again in three weeks. A highly recommended rally – real ale pubs, brilliant scenery, spectacular gorge and caves on site, with admission included and camping fee. Thanks to the MZ Club and the site owner.

Dave Ramsden.

Back to Top