Praga ZS 800 - limited-edition relaunch
While there's no shortage of defunct motorcycle brands "resting" at the moment, Praga is a name that relatively few will be aware of, even though the company behind it has been running for well over a century.
As the name suggests, Praga is from the Czech Republic, based in Prague, where it's made machinery since 1907. Its first motorcycle came in 1929 when Praga merged with rival company CKD, in the process adopting the BD 500 model, a single-cylinder machine with a bevel-drive overhead camshaft that had been launched two years earlier. However, by 1933 the motorcycle project was ended, and Praga returned to its core business building trucks and buses. The Praga brand reappeared on two wheels in the 1990s with a range of enduro models, but production of those machines ended twenty years ago.
Praga still makes trucks today, but has also expanded to make track-oriented supercars and even aeroplanes, and with the ZS 800, the company is getting back on two wheels again.
Designed as a tribute to the BD 500, combining traditional looks with cutting-edge technology, the ZS 800 borrows its 773 cc parallel twin engine from Kawasaki's W800, because it's the only modern, emissions-friendly design that shares the original BD's air-cooled design and bevel-drive camshaft arrangement. The ZS 800 keeps the engine stock to stick within emissions limits, making 37 kW (50 hp) and 60 Nm (44 lb-ft) - numbers that seem perfectly fine until you discover the ZS 800's price, direct from the factory it is € 86,000. That's before shipping or any import duties or sales taxes are added.
Unsurprisingly, Praga doesn't expect to sell many, with only 28 due to be made. The first was already sold to a customer in Dubai before the bike was even announced.
While the engine can't justify the expense, the rest of the ZS 800 is impressive. The frame might be simple steel tube, but all the nuts and bolts are titanium and the wheels, despite looking like wires, are actually crafted from forged carbon fibre. Öhlins supplies a TTX22 shock for the girder forks at the front, but there's no rear suspension at all. Any semblance of comfort comes only from another Öhlins shock that supports the rear of the rider's seat.
Another unusual touch, seemingly at odds with the bike's price, is the use of drum brakes front and rear, albeit beautifully crafted ones.
While the ZS 800's huge price makes it an irrelevance to the vast majority of motorcyclists, if all 28 examples find buyers fast, it could encourage Praga to expand the two-wheeled project towards a more mass-made, affordable machine in the future.
