CR72-based vintage racer

rbaselt · Post by **rbaselt** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:04 am

Here are several photos of a vintage roadracer with a Dieter Busch frame and a CR72 engine, once owned and raced by Horst Seidel of Germany. The engine is now in a correct CR72 frame in Holland and the frame with a CR77 engine is in a private collection in southern California. Interestingly, the frame has two tubes that cradle the engine like a CL77, but, to allow easy removal of the engine with its huge cylinder head, the lower left cradle tube can be removed by unbolting. --Randall

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:15 am

Beautiful piece of machinery!

Thanks for the pics.

G

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:53 pm

I think Jensen showed me a couple of photos of this bike a while ago. Jerry

305racer · Post by **305racer** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 6:25 pm

Looks like Dieter Busch got some frame building inspiration from McCandless'(sp?) Featherbed design.

rbaselt · Post by **rbaselt** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 6:43 pm

That's not surprising. Dave Simmonds in England was the first private owner to acquire a couple of the big CRs via Johnny Honda in Japan in 1964. The first thing he did was to discard the Honda frames and install the engines in Featherbed frames.

305racer · Post by **305racer** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:27 pm

rbaselt wrote:That's not surprising. Dave Simmonds in England was the first private owner to acquire a couple of the big CRs via Johnny Honda in Japan in 1964. The first thing he did was to discard the Honda frames and install the engines in Featherbed frames.

Who didnt use a Featherbed as a donor frame at that time. lol
Yeah my understanding is after a full season in '65 on a factory/customer CR77 and something like 6 crankshafts,Simmonds(RIP) bought 2ea CR engines and ran a FB with one. I have only ever seen one picture of that configuration.
Thanks for the clipping,I will ad that to my files.

rbaselt · Post by **rbaselt** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:09 am

There was a photo of that engine in a Norton frame in the March 1997 Classis Bike, can't seem to find it right now. Could you share that photo if you have it? Thanks!