What's your MZ story?

[JawasandMZs]

Why, how and when did you get into MZs??
Me, this is my brief history ....

It's 1986. Madonna's in the charts, we're all still fuming over "hand of God" and I, 21, am in desperate need of cheap transport. In Cowbridge Road, Cardiff there's a Kawasaki dealer called Edwards who also does MZs and CZs. I very, very VERY nearly buy a brand new TS125 for £400. (The new ETZ 125 Luxus was way out of reach at over £500)

Im warned against buying anything non-Japanese (because they're crap) so end up on an H100S. You used to see hordes of MZ TS 125s on the roads then. And a few CZ125s. There were blue ones or slightly posher orange ones with the chrome bits on the tank. I always regretted not buying one as I felt more than slightly self-concious on my tiny Honda. The MZ seemed a more man-sized bike. Then I passed my test and got a 250 Superdream but still wished I had an MZ.

Well, after thirty-five ill-spent years Ive finally got an ETZ 250 and it still has the original dealer number plate..... Edwards of Cowbridge Rd.

It's a kebab shop now. Duh.

[DAVID THOMPSON]

i had not heard of mz till the mid 1990's
went to Erie pa to look at Enfield bullet 500
saw an MZ RT125 and fell in LOVE

i still have it along with a bunch of stuff
but having trouble sorting computer ham radio and bike parts
Dave

[dickl]

I was interested in the idea of a lightweight single of 600+ cc and gradually narrowed the choice down to a Skorpion. The first MZ I owned was duly purchased from North Wales - about 150 miles away from home; I went up on the train and rode it back, it took about 10 miles to fall in love with it. I had it for a couple of years, I went to the classic road races in Chimay Belgium on it complete with camping gear - my legs ached for a week after I got back! I then sold it and moved onto a genuine Replika (Oh, yes!). A totally brilliant little bike on which I had great fun including a couple of runs up Prescott and Shelsley Walsh hill climbs. Then, inspired by Norman Wade's "you can tour on a single" adventures I brought a (bright yellow) Traveller from the Lake District; the ride home down a busy M6 in heavy rain and gale force winds was "interesting"; but the way the bike coped inspired confidence. I upgraded the Traveller with Yamaha TRX headlight, LED rear lights and took it for a couple of trips to Dijon for the classic bike festival - I even managed a brief cameo in the official video of the Rallye Touristique. At this stage I was lucky enough to have 4 bikes in total;As I wasn't really using them enough, I decided to reduce the stable. I sold three of the bikes - including both MZs and for a while managed with just my trusty BMW K75S. The Replika went to a 660 cc fanatic who had far greater engineering skills than me and I know he would have got more out of the bike than I ever would. In January 2019, the Traveller went to a chap with a large collection of bikes. On Wednesday, I'm off to collect it, having persuaded the very nice man to sell it back to me.....watch this space! "You can take the MZs out of the boys garage but not his heart" (or something!)

[Blurredman]

I wanted to get into offroading/greenlaning and I was also entuiged by MZ's..

So on e-bay in 2012 was my '87 ETZ 250 that had been modified with a (badly) welded high level exhaust, and a chopped seat.
Other odd modifications done to the bike were thinks like a flick switch for the ignition (instead of the key.. ) and other stuff.. I went on the mud a few times with it, but after a while I realised it wasn't suitable- it is too low..

So I started putting it back to road set. Bough new clocks, got the wiring all standard, painted the frame and body and left it as a road machine. Later I would buy a 1979 Suzuki TS185ER for my offroading..


2016 and I find myself living in a flat, most of my bikes and my possessions are in a lockup, and the bike I used had to stay outside- I bought a 251 for basically nothing, primarily for parts, and find that with a bit of attention it could instead be my 'hack'... And so it becomes.

Other than running and general maintenance i've never invested in the way the 251 looks. I don't care about that with the 251.. it came to me in poor condition and that in itself fitted my need for outside living and I don't feel guilty


Pictures are on my website of the state of the ETZ250 (and progress through the years), the 251 and my other vehicles.

[AlanJ]

Hi Guys,
Living as long as I have managed to do, thank goodness, as I have posted before prior to 1988 there were quite a few interesting bikes but 1988 was when I acquired my first MZ which was/is a 1977 TS 250/1 and 33 yrs ago I can't remember how I acquired it other than a guy in Fords Dagenham had it and told me it was
too much for him to handle, so, he sold it to me for £65 and other than a new exhaust, tyres, seat cover, seals and a fair bit of TLC it still is a great bike.
Now, at a time that I can't remember when ( the age thing) I still have the TS but also various others until 2017 when I bought the non running Saxon 301
from Leeds for £682 including 7 boxes of bits, and to be honest, it wasn't till I got home that I realised I had actually bought two Saxon 301's and some. A very
lucky feller. So, at the moment, three MZ's a 250/1 TS and two Saxon 301's, lots of ring dinging.
Stay safe Alan.

[dickl]

Further to my earlier post....this is what has returned to my garage!

[Captchuckles]

I am a new rider in general. I was looking for a used motorcycle to learn on before spending $$$ for a new bike. I found this 2001 MZ Baghira listing on Facebook marketplace and decided that I wanted it. I picked it up and began to ride. I love it so far.

[Puffs]

Following a biased and flawed moderator choice (someone posting aggressive personal attacks is rewarded, while my technical posts are removed - behind my back & without any justification!), I have withdrawn from this forum.

[ScotBob]

My interest in MZs particularly the ES Trophys started when I was a young lad and my father owned a 250 in the mid 70s, see pic below of a 12 year old (ish) me sat on the bike, note also the half cork helmet, flared trousers and high heeled boots of the period!

I grew up in Belfast the the bike is NI registered, I would love to know it's whereabouts now if anyone on here could help, the reg no is; FOI 620 it comes up as not known on a DVLA search.

Current bike is an ES150 Trophy Enduro Rep.

[Blurredman]

I grew up in Belfast the the bike is NI registered, I would love to know it's whereabouts now if anyone on here could help, the reg no is; FOI 620 it comes up as not known on a DVLA search.

Not sure if N. Ireland had it's own system back then like it now does (probably not), you might try searching (if there is such a way to do this) on the DVA's website.

What people forget is that, Britain has TWO vehicle registration agencies, the mainland and then N. Ireland, and there's no reason why you can't register your car on the mainland but with DVA, or the opposit. Indeed, a lot of vehicles such as older buses and lorries use Northern Irish registrations, I think in an attempt to hide the face that their age cannot be easily read that way.

These days however, I think there is closer integration between the N.I. and Mainland (forgive me if I keep using this term) vehicle and driver licencing agencies though so I suppose if DVA doesn't have a number plate search function, and it's not valid on the DVLA/GOV.UK website then I just imagine that it no longer exists. Think about how many vehicles ONCE existed, and got scrapped at just 5, 10, 15 years for potentially no reason, but also potentially because of all the reasons. It's only a handful of people who cling on to older vehicles, the reality that 30 or 40 or more years later your old vehicle is still around is not likely. Of the 14 vehicles (cars and bikes) that my brother and I have collectively sold on over the past 10 ish years, 3 are definitely scrapped, 1 I believe went to Poland so that's untraceable, and a few have simply had 'SORN' status for several years- they could be long gone, who knows, most of them had low mileage too, really.. 10 of of these vehicles were under 20 years old at the time of sale. I only know concretely what the status of one of those that was sold is now, and that's because it was sold to a friend who lives closeby and I see it and he keeps me updated when it fails it's MOT.

[DeeVeeDub]

I'll be the first to agree that I benefited from others' hard work and misfortune in getting my MZ. A friend who was a Steve McQueen and '64 ISDT fan, was doing the legwork to find bikes associated with McQueen. This was years before the internet. Along the way, he found a guy with a couple MZ's - one an actual '64 ISDT bike ridden by Hans Webber. The other was the bike I have now, I believe a '74 model. The first time I saw the '74 was 40 years ago. I thought it was so cool. Sadly, he passed away and the bikes were literally stashed in his son's barn. After maybe fifteen years, a close friend got access to the barn to look for old Husqvarna parts and rediscovered the MZs. He ended up buying the '74 and got the son to place the '64 ISDT bike in a local museum. Unfortunately, that friend passed away a year ago and I ended up with his MZ. The museum that the ISDT bike is in went belly-up and is auctioning its contents this fall. As far as I know the ISDT bike was only a loaner and is back in its barn.

I'm just now realizing the pattern here and I'm really hoping the bikes aren't under some weird teutonic curse. That would change my opinion of MZs drastically.