John
Coombs visited these pages and thought the Mistral
story might be of interest - indeed it is.
John Writes:
Don't know if this will be of any interest to you, but I have sent a photo to you of the last remaining 500 Mistral Grass Tracker remaining. The bike was designed and built at Mick Surman Motorcycles in Aylesbury with the help of Dulian Wigg in the early 1970's.
A total of four were made and they were featured in the Motorcycle News at the time. Of the three 500's produced, one was ridden by Dulian himself one by Doug Platts who was the Australian Dirt track champion at the time and the other by John Coombs. A 250 version was also made but I believe that this is the only survivor.
The bike in the photo* is now back at Mick Surman's undergoing a full restoration project. It was originally powered by a 500 JAP or JAWA two valve engine and had some success at the time. The idea behind the design was to achieve maximum drive when gating and to achieve this the angle of the rear suspension units was set at a very low angle. The machine also featured tapered roller bearing in the steering head which was a new concept at the time.
Hope this is of
some interest to you.
Regards John
Coombs.
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