Spondon TZs (Page 3)
A continuation of the Spondon pages. This one being a photographic record of my latest acquisition. According to the Spondon records it was made in February 1977. On this page are photos of how it was acquired, whilst the next page shows it in the rebuild stage.

Thanks to Chris Pearson for providing some info. He says, “ Your Spondon looks like an extension of their previous designs with the way the tank drops down sharply at the rear. Check out the 500 Sparton Phoenix and you will see the similarity with yours. I have some pictures of a bike like yours in action at a UK club meeting and it has a Suzuki seat fitted not unlike a TR750, not many of these chassis were made @ 4-5. The rider I think was Wayne Dinham.”
If anyone has any more info, it would be appreciated.

Spondon
This is how it came. Overall it was in a very sad state, having been left outside for many years. The frame was rusting, and someone had tried to convert it to road use, adding on loads of lugs, and a side stand. Basically it was complete, and all Spondon.

As soon as I bought it, I went to Spondon, who confirmed the date, and that all the parts on it were genuine. This list included hubs, discs, callipers, forks, yokes, tank, swinging arm, and of course, frame. They also pointed out that it was sold with a Spax unit, which was useless, and it had been replaced, in this case, with a short DeCarbon unit.

The two Spondon discs show clearly here.

The front forks are 38mm Spondon, but the yokes are aluminium, instead of the sometimes used magnesium items.

The engine has been built to full ‘G’ spec, exactly the same as my TZE. Wheels have been built up using the Spondon hubs, with flange less alloy rims, as per Yamaha originals. I have two options at the moment for the front calliper, either use the Spondon unit, or a Lockheed replica unit. Both are very heavy floating callipers.

As can be seen here, the swinging arm has two concenrtic adjusters. One on the wheel, and the other on the s/a pivot. Also note that the rear calliper is a small Lockheed unit and master cylinder.

The s/a may be a later addition, although all threads are imperial, rather than metric.