VOSKHOD,THE RUSSIAN BANTAM ALTERNATIVE

by Colin Atkinson (1998)

Being that this is the BTSC "Year of the Bantam", and also

because Chris Pierce has also given it a mention in the first

episode of his excellent work on the history of the Bantam, I

thought that I would regale you with my experiences with a

Russian Bantam "cousin", the 175cc Voskhod.

The Voskhod was the first absolutely new motorcycle to come my

way (there have still been only two). It was January 1976 and

with Pam my wife expecting a baby in May, I was, with only one

wage due to be coming into the house, expecting extreme poverty

to overtake us. So, knowing that my trusty Francis Barnett and

BSA Star Twin would both be needing work on them soon, I

convinced myself that a brand new motorcycle would give me a few

years breathing space when I wouldn't have to do a lot of

maintenance work on my daily "work" transport. The Voskhod was

one of four bikes considered, the others being 175cc CZ, 150cc MZ

ES150 and the 118cc Suzuki B120 Student. Price would not allow me

to go to more expensive machines.

Being absolutely practical, I looked at what each bike offered,

my dislike of exposed suspension springs (MZ and CZ) and pressed

steel frames (Suzuki) and the fact that for the same price as the

others the Voskhod came complete with weather protection

(legshields and windscreen) as standard and, against all advice

from those who doubted the quality, I bought the Voskhod. I was

to regret that decision very soon after as, while my expected

reliable new bike was in pieces in the garage, my faithful

Francis Barnett, which it was meant to relieve, continued to

share the parking place at work with the CZ 175s and Suzuki B120s

of colleagues, which never gave a moments trouble. Any of the

other three would have been a better purchase.

When I collected it I was most impressed with the comfort it

gave, I never, ever, felt uncomfortable after riding it. It

looked smart and rugged, if not actually handsome, in its shining

black paint and gleaming chrome. The engine, very obviously

derived from DKW RT125, was a 175cc twin exhaust port motor,

driving through a four speed gearbox, with most of the internals

laid out as already described for the Bantam, except that the HT

ignition coil was mounted externally of the flywheel magneto.

There was no battery at all and the brake light also worked from

the direct lighting generator. There was no parking light of any

description and although the early models had been fitted with

indicators, they could not be made steady enough with direct

generator power, so they solved the problem on my model, by

leaving them off altogether. Even so, as crude as it sounds, the

lights were not at all bad and operation of the brake light never

resulted in the loss of headlight beam, as happens on some other

systems. The engine seemed to give much the same power and

performance as the 197cc 10E Villiers engine of my Francis

Barnett and with the four speed gearbox the available power was

better able to be used. The wheels were 16 Inch fitted with 3.25

x 16 block tread tyres. The carburettor was a "flat slide" unit

which with todays use of flat slides in most sports bikes, sounds

very "racey", but was, in fact, just a piece of folded over tin

plate, cheaply made. Until just before I bought mine, the bike

was marketed just as the Voskhod and the plastic tank badges had

no lettering, just a stylised motif of a leaping Levret (young

hare), which might be overstating the performance a bit. However,

all the Russian makes imported at that time had just been

collectively marketed by the importers as "Cossack" and a silver

self adhesive scripted name had been affixed under the plastic

tank badge. Anyhow, I quite liked its rugged, purposeful looks

and despite the "straight pull" twistgrip having quite a lot of

"lost motion" which I couldn't adjust out, things seemed quite

good....Then I found that the brakes wouldn't work.

The brakes were both 5 inch drums with the same size linings as

my Francis Barnett. Yet no matter how I adjusted them and fitted

different linings, they remained the worst brakes I have

experienced on any bike, bar none. I still cannot explain why and

have only supposed that the drum cast iron material was a

particularly slippery type. The handling was somewhat peculiar,

feeling more like a bike with sidecar front fork trail being used

as a solo, giving the impression that the bike was ten foot long.

Even so, once I got used to it the bike seemed to corner quite

well, until the front forks started to wear out. The back end

suspension never gave any cause for concern, but I never got to

find out the limit of cornering ability as I never managed to

wear out the "dodgy" Russian block tread tyres during the 8,000

miles that I travelled on it during my ownership.

There have been many complaints about the poor finish of Russian

bikes, but I have to say that the upholstery of the dual seat was

excellent and so was the thick black paintwork, which stayed

intact. Pity that they had to paint the inside of the fuel tank

as well though, as bits kept coming off and blocking the fuel

filters, giving me a regular weekly maintenance job. The chrome

plate looked good initially, but with no Nickel to bind it to

the underneath metal, it rapidly peeled off in strips, like

silver paper from a chocolate bar. The outside finish of the

engine castings on all Russian bikes always looks terrible and I

quickly found that the inside of the engine is no better. In the

time I had it I had to strip it down twice in order to replace

broken or badly fitted/finished parts. However, by the time I

sold it, it was at least running reliably at last and was quite a

pleasant softly tuned engine, but with the usual awkwardly

position gearchange lever of every DKW RT125 derivative that I

have ridden (or is it just me with big feet?).

To sum up the situation, I would have been better off with just

about any other bike, whether new or good second hand. I wanted

something for reliabilty and it had more time apart in 8000 miles

than any bike I have ever owned and was a total disaster for the

purpose for which I bought it. When I finally got rid of it, I

did so without regret, even though it was running well by then,

but the front forks were already badly worn after only 8,000

miles (Its not only Russian bikes though, my Scott also had that

problem) and I had had enough of it. It had been the biggest

disapointment of my motorcycling life up to that point.

However, time tends to soften bad memories and I have often

thought since then that an interesting project (if the money and

space was available and also time to spend on an interest) would

be to have purchased one new and completely strip it (much better

taking apart a new clean bike than an old filthy one) and using

the experiences gained previously, replace all the weak parts in

the engine, replace the front forks, wheel and brake, with

something more suitable. Then strip off all the remaining chromed

parts and have them rechromed. Once it was all rebuilt (with

decent new tyres of course) I have the feeling that I would have

had a really pleasant little bike, which would last me a long

time. However, people just do not expect to do all that, or

indeed anything, to make a brand new bike reliable.

A few months ago I saw an advert for a Cossack Voskhod in a

magazine, advertised as for sale "brand new and unregistered" and

I must admit I was half tempted to buy it and carry out my

musings. It was seeing it advertised as a Russian "CLASSIC" that

brought me to my senses, plus the fact that I just do not have

the room and the possible difficulty of getting necessary spares

also raised doubt, so I let it go. Even so, every now and then I

wonder if I should have had it, as it would certainly have made

an interesting conversion and you very rarely see any Voskhods

about, so from interest alone it would be nice to see some

survive.

Should you be lucky (or unlucky) enough to have aquired a

Voskhod, perhaps even my old one (KMP 322P) and do not have any

information to go with it, here are a few bits of basic

information to keep, or get, you on the road...Happy cruising!

Petroil ratio 25:1 using SAE 30 or 40 two-stroke oil

Gearbox oil 500cc Silkolene Medium Gear Oil will do fine

Front Forks 140cc each leg, of SAE 20 fork oil

Rear Suspension 33cc each suspension unit of SAE 20 fork oil

Spark Plug NGK B7HS works well - plug gap 24-27 Thou'

Ignition Timing 3.5 - 4 mm BTDC

Contact Breaker Gap 14-16 Thou'

If you have difficult starting, or an eratic spark then check

that the generator is providing current to the coil at the right

time to correspond with the "dwell" of points cam. If not then

adjust the generator mountings setting accordingly and retime the

ignition. The factory setting is often wrong - I found this out

by bitter experience.