Modified Ossa Pioneer………photos coming soon……they’re here!

A very cool little bike that I helped a friend build. He has owned the Ossa since the 70’s…….Arguably one of the best looking and riding dirt bikes of the era with classic shouldered rims, that unmistakeable tank-to-tail bodywork, and power that left many of the other european marques slack jawed and envious. Unfortunately this ones’ engine internals had decided to weld themselves together years ago, so the Pioneer had been collecting dust for nearly three decades. The owner, Tim, a long time friend and old dirt bike / motocross pal told me about a couple of websites, pipeburn.com and bikeexif.com, that chronicled people resurrecting and modifying some of these old dinosaurs. Based on hours and hours of looking through pipeburn and bikeexif and being inspired by the likes of AC Sanctuary, Richard Pollock/Mule Motorcycles, and Lossa Engineering, Tim decided it was time to bring the Ossa back to life, but with a custom twist………….his plan (this was Tim’s design, I provided suggestions, moral support, a work space, and a lot of welding) was to find an old Yamaha IT 250 derelict with a good motor and transplant the dependable Yamaha two-stroke mill into the Ossa frame, upgrade the suspension, hang some lights, freshen up the old bodywork (ala Stiletto), and voila…………a beautiful Ossa with a Yamaha power plant, Progressive suspension, trials tires (yikes), and plate that makes it all legal to become a complete asshole weaving in and out of traffic and spending more time on one wheel than two. Execution wise it was quite a project…………just a few of the problems that were overcome were a switch from right side to left side drive (flip the swing arm), altering the main frame hoop significantly for proper engine alignment, build an expansion chamber that worked out of a few 2-stroke KTM chambers purchased on ebay, and figure out how to battle the effects of ethanol laced gasoline on old fiberglas tanks. I hope to have some photos up soon!

A few cell photos…..