I'm definately old enough to know better having started my riding on British stuff sourced from the local scrap yard for a few pounds. I owned a number of 'classics' which were thrown out when they stopped working - if only I new then etc, etc,
I had a few medium weight Jap bikes over the interviening years. The two odd ball bikes being a Brand New shiny MZ ETZ250 and a R800cc BMW that replaced it.
The MZ was bought as a commuter to do the 20 mile to work. It was about 1986 I think and it really was an unremarkable bike. My lasting memory of it was the tyres and brakes. I nearly came to grief 1/2 mile from the shop when the action of snapping the throttle shut locked the back wheel on a wet road. So having stopped an checked everything over I set off again. The wheels front and back both locked again at the approach to the traffic lights. I continued and rode home very gingerley. Anyway after checking it over everything was ok and I put it away ready to start its commuting duties. I put the locking wheels down to being unfamiliar with the bike. Anyway after a few more bottom puckering incedents the following week I spent the following Saturday going over the bike with a fine tooth comb. The tyres were a very strange 'Plastic' type of rubber clearly no good for British roads. The Front brake was a very nice single 'Brembo' caliper and disc. I had been warned that the retarding effect of MZ brakes was somewhat weak. However this set up was spot on and stopped the wheel without any problem at all. The problem lay in the front tyre having little or no friction capability on the tarmac. A new suit of Dunlops imediately transformed the bike. The next 18 months winter and summer the bike started, cornered and stopped without any drama's. It bordered on the boring. I swapped it for the BMW and few hundred pounds. Again the BMW was more powerfull but equally as reliable and to be honest a bit boring.
So now I'm about to collect a 1983 MZ TS 150 best described as a 'project' Why an MZ because it was half the price of a BSA Bantam and as a ts150 is getting rarer and may even one day be recognized as a 'classic'
So I will at some point be asking advice no doubt during its refurbishment I'm looking forward to stripping and rebuilding it. The plan is to make my Sunday afternoon bike for a 'bimble' around the Lancashire hills, lanes and trails. No speed required.
