NEW MZ OWNER

[tad102]

Hi, I have just bought an mz saxon 125 sports star from a friend of a friend, and to be hounest i had never heard of this make until i was told this one was for sale. I couldnt find much in the way of info out about them on the internet, I asked around and got mixed opinions on the bike, some people saying they were czeck rubbish and others saying they were pretty reliable
so bought it a bit blindly as far as reliability and perfromance knowledge goes. When i picked it up yesterday the gear pedal rod snapped and on rigning the guy i bought it from he offered to fix it or give me back my money.
What i want to ask is am i likely to have alot of problems with this bike or is this a common fault? You guys know alot more about them than me and like i said i know nothing about them really, but with something going wrong less than an hour after buying you can see my concern. Should i just get my money back?

[radiograf]

Reliability on a second hand bike is always going to be a case of pot luck. If the bike was well looked after by previous owners, it should be ok, if not, trouble ahead. On the plus side MZs do have a reputation for reliability, and good, if simple, engineering. They are designed for home repair, unlike most bikes made today (took me 3 hours to change 2 spark plugs on a kawasaki ER5 the first time I did it!).
When you say the gear change rod snapped, do you mean the lever you operate with your foot or the part that sticks out of the engine? If its the lever its a quick change for a second hand one of ebay.

[therealche]

How much did you pay for it? They are pretty tough little machines and survive a lot better than a lot of 125s of the same age ( totally enclosed chain and fork gaiters have a lot going for them!)

[tad102]

I mean the rod that goes into the gear casing, (the road that the pedal attaches to).
I paid £400 for it.