I'm not sure how I got drawn into 'Puch Fever.' if I recall correctly, I saw one online somewhere and thought "Well THAT'S different!" and so began a rather lengthy search to find one for a reasonable price, finally finding one in Myrtle Beach, of all places...and Gosh, only SIX HOURS away! ONE WAY! 

The heart knows what it wants though, so after talking with my wife and convincing her to come with me ("Oh, c'mon, it'll be fun...!"), we left before dawn one early morning and drove down to get it.  

The trip was pretty uneventful on the way down, except for the GIS telling us to drive out of our way for some miles to the end of a road that was no longer there...good thing we had an atlas! (Frickin' GIS...!) 

But as you can see, it also came with a parts bike AND an actual, original Puch 250 repair manual- always nice to get! - and was in pretty nice shape. I think I paid $300 (?) for it...? Something like that...

Thinking back on it, I don't really remember doing much to it - I upgraded the old twin coils to a newer single-coil system - it's only a six-volt system, too, which I had never encountered before, but no biggie - electricity is electricity. I replaced the tires and fork gaiters, set the timing (which is set with a punch through a small hole in the right side cover - pretty neat!) changed the oil (which is a separate compartment in the tank, btw - it's a two-stroke!), put in some fresh gas and started it!  

I wish I had a video of the engine running - it sounds like a weed wacker on steroids! And being a two-stroke, it leaves this lovely contrail of blue smoke behind it when it's running, which it's supposed to; but in all honesty, once it warms up that smoke trail goes away for the most part, but it's still a pretty cool bike! 

The seat leaves much to be desired though; as you can see in the above pic, it's only a bench seat made of springs with a not-so-thick foam over them, and you can feel it as you ride - but Still a Cool Bike! 

Check this out - one of the neat features of this bike is the key - the switch is located in the headlight! 

This pic is from another Puch 250 I picked up outside of Manassas, Virginia for $50 - there really wasn't much left to it, and the homeowner was just trying to make a little money, so what the hell...parts is parts! If you come across a bike you want and the PO says he has some 'extra stuff that goes with it', take it! 

This is pretty cool too - this is the choke, that round thing attached to the carb. You choke it by closing a disc that lets air into the carb; ya gotta love Sixties technology. (And a very expensive part to find these days!)

This pic was taken during triage of the bike, where I see what's what and what needs to be fixed, so please excuse the rusty carb fuel metering screws. (Actually, I think the above pic is from the parts bike I had...) but here's a pic of the runner...I left the paint and everything untouched because I rather liked the patina.  

But in the end, I got it running well - another bike saved - and rode it around the neighborhood for a while, but never really took it out on the road. I did wind up selling this one too; the new owner seemed pretty earnest in getting it, I hope it fared well with its new owner.