My story

My name is Pavel Fyodorov. I'm 23. I live in Chita, Russia. My first bike was Honda CB-250 and second was Suzuki RG-250. But recently I began to think that though HD rules forever, every country has its own history and bikes that real biker has to know and remember. And now I have '54 IZh-49. As You can see above, this bike is really cool. Riding it You feel like a man living right after WW2.

I bought my "new" IZh for 400 rubles (approx. 70$) at a village where people were exploiting it for a half of century. I've ridden it to city (70 km). The guy that owned my bike before changed all electric stuff from native 6 Volt equipment with a battery to Minsk motorcycle's non battery ignition and generator. The thing is that in Russia You can't buy native electric equipment for '54 bike, except hardly used.

Well, now I'm trying to make the bike look as good as a new one. I have not any experience with bikes except riding 'em. But I think that I'll do it!

Gallery

Repairing HOWTOs

Well, first I got off the engine and because I never touched the gearbox, I took it to good mechanic. But next time I'll fix it myself.

The spare parts for gearbox and clutch are almost the same as for later model of IZh - "IZh Planeta". Though You won't have just the same "off road" first gear as original, but You won't find easily original spare parts. But if You know the place - You're very lucky guy:)

Then at the helicopter plant I bought some liquid stuff to take off the old paint. I started with gas tank and WINGS?. There were 3 or 4 coats of old paint on them - green, blue, black and brown.

Now I have almost ready-to-ride bike, but I still have problems with ignition. At winter we don't ride, 'cause the temperature often falls under 40 degrees by Celsius.

Well, next spring our town will see this black wonder!

Specifications