Europe Trip

[Blurredman]

Hi guys.

Lately I thought it was about time to do another trip around Europe. The last time I did it was on my '81 Honda CX500 in late 2015, at least-on the bike anyway..

Sunday I will be leaving on my '90 MZ ETZ251 for the final destination of Turkey.

I will be going straight to Serbia to see a friend in Belgrade as fast as I can. Then down to Turkey for a night or two, Specifically Istanbul.
I will then head up through Bulgaria to Romania (Alba County) also to see a friend and hopefully I will have a few nights there.
Then via Hungary (to see a friend, naturally), I will be heading home stopping in Berlin way to see a friend.

Wish me luck. The MZ seems prepared enough and the 3k miles I have put on it in recent months doesn't seem to have an excess of odd noises. It's always had a few odd noises but it seems most MZ's have them and I'm hoping it will hold up- otherwise it is

Yesterday I picked it up from a welder's where they fixed and mounted the rear rack nicely (very nicely) as well as welding a patch in the seat base and repairing the petrol tank mount flange which had somehow split. I am confident, but apprehensive of this little bike, but so long as my problems are fixable for me I don't have any problems I can think of. I will need to mount the top box with tools, 2t oil, spare tubes and repair kit etc and I also need to replace the front tyre in preparation for the length of the journey which will be around 4,400 miles (just over 7k kilometres).


Please wish me luck

[dickl]

Brave man ! All the best, and keep us posted.

[DAVID THOMPSON]

put a hammer and saw in the tool kit in case you need to build a shipping crate

just do not flog it too hard and the crate will not be needed

dave

be careful most of the trip is on the wrong side of the road for you

[somcac2]

I wanted to make such trip but i do not have enough money ;/

[Blurredman]

Okay,

well i'm back..! I'll do a proper write up when I get home, but I've done just shy of 5,000 miles in actual 13 days of travel. The last two days of the trip I did 1,100 mile from Hungary to Calais.


Bike was perfect other than it broke down in the rain.. Luckily that only happened thrice. I also crashed the bike at 45 mph due to a dog, but other than a broken indicator lense, and bent footbar, which have both been rectified, no other damage occured.

[Invictaview]

[quote="Blurredman"]Okay,

well i'm back..! I'll do a proper write up when I get home, but I've done just shy of 5,000 miles in actual 13 days of travel.

Blimey. I'm impressed with that for a 250!
As a 'convert' to a 301 Saxon recently, what kind of cruising speed are you doing, and what's your average fuel/2T consumption?
I'm inspired to get in some distance bike travel, by reading the likes of Gordon May's books, Overland to India/Egypt/Vietnam.
I wont be going that far, but I'll be happy if I can get around the UK a bit more, and into the EU for some more serious touring.
My 301 Saxon may well be the right tool for the job.

Alan

[Blurredman]

Thank you. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard either to be honest.


I would say around 4,000 miles was at speeds of 55/60mph. The last leg of 1,000 miles I did predominantly 65/70mph.

Some days however, depending on the weather and conditions and hills (esspecially the Turkish region) I could do no more than 40-45mph.

I also could not get over 55/60 because I was using a B8HS plug. The last 1,000 miles was on a B7HS. The B8HS just didn't allow the bike to rev out at that speed. I suppose the spark was too cold to cope with the fuel at that quantity plus the wind resistence and requirement for the engine to run hotter to counteract these things.

At 55/60 I was sometimes just kissing the 80mpg mark (yes the original maintenance book was right- it is possible.. just not in town!). I was using roughly 30:1 ratio, and in total used over 2 Gallons (10 litres) of two stroke oil.

I recommend doing stuff like this. i do it often, mostly in older vehicles (I don't own a vehicle post 1991). My Peugoet's 205's Alternator broke in Germany in February this year.., And i've driven the car to Ukraine and places like Serbia etc before too, on different occasions.

I did tour europe in November 2015 on my '81 Honda CX500, which is a much more capable vehicle in terms of power and comfortability (big fairing). Though that faired worse than the MZ in terms of how the trip treated it-
"- Both left indicator and right indicator has stopped working
- Horn has stopped working
- Rear brake switch burned out, literally
- Left exhaust silencer has a crack 6 inches in length around the diametre of the mount
- Several nuts/bolts have disapeared entirely
- Mountings for the top box have snapped
- Cooling Impeller's internal teeth for mating with the cam have sheered off
- Tachometre/Rev Counter has stopped working (most likely cable)

It never broke down entirely though. However the MZ faults were listed as such:

- The rearmost baffle in the exhaust has come loose and sheered off it's weld since coming back, so it's very loud and annoying. I think it affects performance too.
- The exhaust keeps coming loose, where it mounts to the underside of the engine.
- The rack had to be welded up again as it had split in two places..
- The M's came off the Tank on both side, but I have them.

No other problems at all that I can detect.

[Invictaview]

Nice Euro report. I'm impressed with your trip detail and dont doubt the durability and robustness of these old MZ's, and even more so as I write, having 250mls on two runs this weekend.
This was my first real run on the Saxon, and I seemed to get 60mpg. Holds the road really well at 60/65mph. Biggest issue for me, at that cruising speed, seems to be the amount of air directed straight to my open face helmet, which gets very noisy, with the note of the engine reduced to a background buzz! I'm assuming it's the screen fitted to my Saxon, as I've never had this on all my other, naked bikes.
Other than that, it hasn't missed a beat yet. Great little machine.

[Blurredman]

I would be quite interested in one of those full fairings that the MZ's rarely, but occasionally have.. I do like a full fairing in the winter.

[Invictaview]

I would be quite interested in one of those full fairings that the MZ's rarely, but occasionally have.. I do like a full fairing in the winter.

Legshields too, very popular back in the day, quite useful for lugging as well.