Ossa 250 - Street bike??

[Rich Rohrich]

I stumbled across this really cool Ossa 250 Sport street bike while working at one of our field offices today. I thought I had seen all the Ossas brought to the US but this was a new one on me.

I talked at length with the owner and it's a late 1969, early 1970 model (Ossa was a little loose with model years apparently). He got it with 300 original miles on it about a 18 months ago. It was sitting in some guy's barn in Iowa with a bunch of other vintage bikes in his collection. This was just sitting for years. The original owner wouldn't take money for it so they traded a Harley XR750 dirt track frame for the Ossa, and a cool bike got a new lease on life.

The new owner rebuilt the carb (a rare Spanish IRZ carb with twin needles that actually works), changed the bars, and swapped the gas tank. He has the original fiberglass tank that came with the bike but he made the mistake of pouring ethanol laced fuel in it, and it started attacking the resin. He is going to fix and coat the glass tank and have it back on soon.

The coolest part is, he is using it as his daily driver. It sounded really cool when he fired it up and rode off.

It's nice to see guys keep these cool old bikes on the road. :cool:

 

[IndyMX]

That's cool!!

My uncle used to race flattrack on a 175 Ossa. That bike was fast and bulletproof!

 

[dirt bike dave]

Very cool! Love the tank and the red fork covers.

The spooge on the centerstand adds some character.

I think the bike would be even cooler with a more 'vintage' looking air cleaner, but I don't suppose you can just pop down to the local Ossa dealer for one of those.

Slot head screws on the sidecover - now that is old school.

Not much grip for you feet on those rubber pegs when they get wet, that's for sure.

All in all, coolest daily driver I've seen in awhile.

 

[Rooster]

Iowa? Dang, that state is chock full of old bikes sitting around rotting away. Cool bike! One of my superintendent buddies had a couple of Ossa dirt bikes, I don't recall the model, but they were wicked old and he couldn't keep them running. They were 250cc kinda trials looking bikes. I wanted to buy them but didn't have the funds at the time. :bang: