above: Early days; before I met him, I had seen 86Y George Eadie racing his CZ with the BSA Tank.
Some years after I took this black and white photo, George had become a good friend and my racing mentor.

Between 1997 and 2001, I had been havng terrible luck with the gearboxes in my MX250 Yamaha and the 250 Elsinore I had acquired to replace the Yamaha. He suggested that I buy the Animal. His carefully kept log books, reciepts, and notes taken when he originally built the bike came with the deal. Among these was an original letter , signed in blue ballpoint pen by Pete Maly who had ordered a custom race bike for the Inter-Am in 1972.

Visibly aghast, purists, experts and other characters (found at the track or internet) often express their dismay that anyone would put a BSA tank on a CZ, not realizing that the machine is assmbled from many parts. But look at the list of parts on Maly's original letter, and Eadie followed the recipe to a T. There are substitutions; a CMS frame instead of a C&J - Wrks Shock instead of Konis, Mikuni instead of a BIng. But for that it's all there- Maico front end, Yamaha Brakes, DID Rim,