May 24, 200818 yr Yes, rare indeed if it is one of the original Cheney bikes, which it appears to be, although I don't know much about the cantilever models really. Not '79 though, more likely '76-77ish. They first appeared in '75. The later bikes had the motocross barrel and reed valves. Can't see if it has a reed but it isn't the 4 fin Phantom barrel. Wonder what they'd make of it if someone turned up and entered the twinshock class on one - it should be eligible really as they are the bikes it competed against in its time. However, later twinshocks would thrash it out of sight performance wise. It certainly wouldn't be fair to make it compete in the aircooled mono class as it's no match for those bikes either. Rare bike but a steep price.
May 25, 200818 yr It is quite unique and as you say RARE ! Someone will buy it just to park and polish it ... Couldn't have worked that great or it would have seen production ...? Ossa was THE BIKE to have for a short spell . Glenn
May 25, 200818 yr There are good photos of one of those cantilever OSSAs in a recent VMX magazine. From the photos there you can see one reason why that concept didn't work out that well - there is no space to fit an airbox. I can't help but think that some manufacturers had a bit of a rush of blood to the head at the time when Yamaha started selling their cantilever MX bikes and then the Mick Andrews works bike appeared and seemed to go well. In all likelyhood, the Yamaha cantilever design on Micks works bike did not work as well as the moved-up/laid down twinshock designs later seen on Fantics, SWMs, Majestys and others, due to the higher centre of gravity, greater mass and greater unsprung mass of the cantilever design compared with a good twin shock design.
May 25, 200818 yr Ossa themselves weren't interested in doing the cantilever/monoshock, neither were they interested in the reed valve that Ossa UK and some privateers were using (shame as the reed conversion really improved the 250) All the cantilever bikes were UK built and John Reynolds had good results on them, although he was a top notch rider so it's arguable he would have done just as well on the standard suspension layout. The engine must have worked well even with the compromised exhaust/airbox design, given JR's results, but I guess the cantilever didn't significantly improve the rear end as Yamaha dropped it and Ossa UK didn't continue with it with the later models
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