I picked this old ’65 Planeta 2 out of a barn a few years ago. I’m not much interested in bikes under about 650cc: I’m even less interested in 2-stroke machines beyond their historical value. But the price was right, it was mostly all there, and “…it was almost running when parked.”
It had compression at least, and it had been sheltered for the last 30 years or so. An accumulation of dirt, chickenshit, solidified grease and anthrax spores had kept the rust down, thought it might be a project someday.
Well, I was recently sent another barn find Izh Planeta 3 from the U.K. for a full rebuild. This one was actually in much worse shape, so decided to use the P2 as a donor.
Biggest problem on this build was parts, because while there is no shortage of Izh Planetas here in Bulgaria the vast majority of them are in basically the same condition. New parts are mostly for the late model Izh-5’s and thanks to the recent economic bickerings between Russia and the rest of the Western World even those have pretty much dried up.
Photoshop mockup based on barely realistic expectations.
Still, it was a challenge. I started with a digital mockup to settle on a paint scheme, then I started separating the scrap from the stuff that was still solid. There was a lot of scrap. Little did I know at that point how much of the scrap was going to have to be refurbished because it simply couldn’t be replaced.
For more information on the Izh motorcycles see my previous article IZHMASH (ИЖ): A Tradition of Guns and Motorcycles.
Strippin’ shit down, ready for paint/chrome/polish
Engine was a mess, several gears were worn out & had to change case covers to mount the snow shields. They’d been using a MZ shift lever on one engine which had gouged the primary cover out. We decided to scrap the original 6v generator & install a VAPE hybrid 12v alternator/dynamo setup.
For some reason I never took any photos of the electrical setup, probably because I was too focused on not fucking it up. You can get details on the VAPE ignition here though, it’s some serious electronic voodoo.
Parts back from polishing; the guy who did these also does parts for Rolls-Royce. Phenomenal job.
So, after another few months waiting on parts- many of which were Chinese copies and defective right out of the box or simply didn’t fit – we have a “new” Izh. It’s still a little two stroke monster that lays out a cloud of hydrocarbons thick enough to destroy the polar ice cap on its own. But it looks damn good if I do say so myself.
