25 thoughts on “Welcome all

  1. JD

    and… thankfully, we’ re still here in 2022, amidst a turbulent world. Thanks to John (our dear Catweazle) for supporting my enthusiasm and paying the fees for this website from his own pockets. It’s not cheap either. I have sent him a few dollars (Euros) in donations here and then as I can, and I thank others who have also sent in a donation to help cover site costs. THANK ALL YOU VERY VERY MUCH!

    Reply
  2. JD

    Cat & I discussed the costs involved in running such a website like this, and of course the bigger the website the more it costs. And it’s not really cheap either. Cat has been paying for the site from his own pocket
    So I proposed he put up a “Donate” button that takes PayPal, Visa and Mastercard. It works… to date I have put 80 Euros towards site costs.
    Ypa! (that;s Hurrah in Russian)
    Anyways, we hope you all enjoy this content and would like to see it continue, I sure do.
    However, Cat tells me that small donations, such as say, 2 Euros, incur a fee, whereas 20 Euros incurs a lesser fee. Anyway, every cent, euro, dollar, kopek, rouble is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks to everyone who has sent a few bucks. Thank you.

    Reply
  3. JD

    Andrus in Estonia asks, how much money is needed to support the site for 12 months, and how much to expand the storage to bigger capacity?
    Cat mentioned he wants to install WordPress WordFencePro to protect against hackers. How much will this cost?

    Reply
  4. JD

    Willkommen Heiner Jakob! Mein Deutsch ist schlecht.
    It is so very interesting the research you are doing! I would like to know more! Much much more!
    I hope you can share some of these rare histories with us . Thank you.

    Reply
  5. Heiner Jakob

    congratulations for this fantastic site!!! I found a lot of Information searched for al Long while. Im am Living in Germany and my english is very poor. Nevertheless I hope I can express what I like to tell. Im am in the process of researching the Story of a racing motorcycle developed an built in eastern Germany by former employees of the DKW race Department under top engineer August Prüßing between 1946 an 1948. After finished the work successfully four “GS350” and one “GS250” powered by supercharged opposite Piston engine were brought to Serpuchov includig extra engines, technical drawings an special tools. In Serpuchov several copies were built under the Name “GK1”. An engineer named Iwanitzki developed an modified supercharged opposite Piston engine with the cylinders as a converse “V” and built several racing motorcycles an small racecars with 350ccm. I could find many information, photos, technical drawings etc. an got in contact to People having been involved but it was not possible to find photos and other documents of the russion versions of the DKW racing technologie developed in Serpuchov an Photos showing recing impressions. The supercharged twostrokes also were used in world-record-cars as Zvezda 5 (1955) 0.245l two-cylinder engine, 50 hp at 7200 r/min. Transmission – 3, length – 3.2 m, the curb weight – 360 kg, speed – 200 km/h. Can you tell me a source or a person, site etc. where I can find documents and especially photos of the russian twostrokers. Many thanks in Advance.

    Reply
  6. JD

    “HI JD, posting a photo isn’t an issue at all my friend, just post it !”

    You have to send your photos to Cat (Admin), only he can add photos here.

    If you want to see your photo up here email it to catwesel@gmail.com with a description.

    I’m still plodding thru the archives, 1 photo at a time, millions of them!

    Reply
    1. JD

      Cat has put a link on the homepage: “Here you can write new articles for the blog page” [link John?]

      You can now put up a post to the blog, give it a title, assign your post to one of the existing categories, i.e. Ural, Dnepr, etc. AND you can now upload a photo or image (maximum image size is 900 pixels, so if your photo or image is larger you”ll need to reduce it to 900 pixels). Great!

      AND another old favorite is back! “Here you can drop in to chat”[link John?]. The old “Cossackbar” (as on our early MSN site) or “Da Short Notepad” on Multiply is back! Quick questions, quick replies, or just say hello. Just remove the automatic Guest 1234 thinh and put in your name (or nickname).

      Good one Mr Cat!

      Reply
  7. JD

    Hi John, nice photo 🙂 but how on earth did you include it in your post? I only see a comment box that only takes text, there’s no “upload a photo” option. Oh please please our dear wizard Catweazle, I need help, as you well know 🙂

    Reply
  8. JD

    Hi guys,
    just a short note to say that while there ihasn’t been much new stuff recently on the site work is continuing behind the scenes, old articles from the archives, plus some new ones are in the pipeline. Special thanks to Eugene R. in Russia for his ongoing translations specially for us here. For the moment even posting a photo is a technical issue. Hopefully (much) more soon. Cheers.

    Reply
  9. JD

    Looking back in the archives, yes I have them all, and they’re searchable by key words! 🙂 But they are a massive archive as former members here will know. I typed in “disc brake” and got 1518 links to various articles on the former site. It will take me quite a while (read many years!) to trawl through them, but I found mention of Suzuki GS550 and Yamaha 650 forks with disc brakes having been fitted. This was back in 2004… think it was Andyman who used the Yammie forks, I’ll ask him. Gosh, so much info and so many topics under the sun were on the old site!

    We’ll have to try and restore the more important ones, like: “Engine breathers – which is which?”; “Serious Black’s Chang-Jiang Project”, Roma’s “Project Vostok” and many many more. Unfortunately it’s mega time-consuming as every line and photo have to be ++ done. Bear with us! I for one, won’t give up.

    Cheers!

    Reply
    1. jevi

      Thanks for looking. I thought I’d saved the article but I’ve changed my computer 4x since I first read it.

      Reply
      1. JD

        I’m still looking around. There’s also a car hydraulic front brake conversion in there somewhere. Give it time, the list is long.

        Reply
  10. Catweazle Post author

    Welcome aboard Jevi, don’t have the article posted, but I will ask JD to organize a search party 🙂
    Were still in the progress to restore the site, so plz bear with us !

    JD !!!!!

    Reply
  11. Jevi

    I linked over from the Cossack Owners Club site. If I remember this site last time around you had loads of technical info and ‘how to’ info. I think you had a tip on how to fit a disc brake to a Ural which involved transplanting Honda forks onto the front of the Ural? I know I’ve been looking for the article for ages but hadn’t realised the site had gone belly up!

    Reply
  12. Jan van der WAAL

    Hi All,

    Good addition the Pandora’s box especially the safety page!!
    Safe riding every one.
    Jan

    Reply
  13. Jan van der WAAL

    Hi Alan

    YES that’s the one!! If you ever come to the Glen Innes area have a cuppa, write to me to my email address
    please! AND try to become a member of the RMOA as well. Have a nice week end
    Jan

    Reply
  14. Jan van der WAAL

    Hi Alan,

    Welcome to the site! John aka Catweazle did a good job. A man by the name of JD started the website on the 02-02-2002 and it went from there. Can you tell us where you are from. Only the general area of course!
    My name is Jan and I live in Australia, in NSW in the New England region.
    I used to have a M66 in the Netherlands 1973 and put in a BMW R51/3 engine and later I started to put in a VW 1300cc engine and took it to Australia. Somebody else finished it and got it through rego and now that bike is called the “MIG”!
    Then I had two M63 and restored one and then had to sell the lot because of my back:(
    You will notice that my friends CAT and JD are (in) famous all over the world including Antartica!!
    No kidding! BUT do NOT hold that against them:))
    I also build two frames for Lotus Super 7, but now I have t o “take it easy”!
    Anyway, I hope you have a lot of safe and pleasure riding your Ural.
    Jan van der Waal

    Reply
    1. Alan Low

      Jan I also live in the Hunter valley, in Kurri Kurri. By any chance did a guy by the name of Phil buy the VW powered Cossack ? I know that he has one or did have as haven’t seen him for a while , he lives in the Wollombi area . Small world eh .

      Reply
  15. Jan van der WAAL

    Hi Guys,

    Just in time before JD rings for the “counselling ” session::))
    Good work Cat!!

    Reply
  16. Alan Low

    What a great site this is , very interesting stuff on here , I have a late model Ural 2013 and I love it , great to be able read about the history of the bikes and how they have changed over the years , great stuff thank you .

    Reply
  17. JD

    Goodonya John. It’s been a bumpy ride and a lot of work, and one hell of a learning curve (for me, ++). If you can get it this far the skies the limit mate. Good work! Excellent!!!!!

    Reply

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