MZ lives

[moilami]

You are right, even though I have slowly begun to get over it. Doesn't make me feel all miserable anymore.

Should be glad I don't drive with a wheelie chair, and naturally I am...but. MZ.

[Zorge]

I think MZ could be the most underrated motorcycle.

As I see it, MZ was some sort of "China bike of the '80's", with same pros and cons.

If in the early seventies if you had placed an MZ trophy along side Jap 250cc bikes and reviewed them the MZ would have been laughed out of court

ES was always a strange two-wheeler. You needed a... refined taste to like his design. Back in the days, those slash-two ESs, in Yugoslavia are nicknamed "Televizor" ("Tellie").

I have a question..Do you think MZ would have survived so long if it wasn't based in a country with a Communist regime where there local market had no choice????

IMO, in conditions of planned economy, some things are easier, and some impossible. For example, you could buy at affordable price ETZ, and then, after a decade, again at affordable price, buy that same ETZ. It's good to have a fair price, but for heaven's sake - it's the same kind of basic, to put it mildly, not so contemporary bike you bought decade ago!

I'm sure it's not the lack of expertise and ideas of east German engineers, but the bureaucrats who are interested in numbers rather than motorcycles. If they were not so rigid, we might have seen MZ's street-legal bikes with engines such are those 250 and 500 cc enduro prototypes, to try to keep pace with other manufacturers.





It's the least we could expect from MZ.

Perhaps more drastic example is Jawa, and even Russian IZh - in their museums and old technical documentations are dozens of elaborated projects that did not get the green light. And then, when you miss even the last train, you will not get far on foot. I think that their last train is left in the first half of the '90s.

Well, I was an idiot.

My English is awful, you all know that, so I wish to know - is "was" past tense?

Great story, Mikko! Makes me think there should be a special class of psychoanalysts who deal specifically with motorcyclists!

You have not seen it all. He like bikes, that's OK, but he is crazy about cars. Just google - Mikko Hirvonen Citroen.

[euphonius]

....You have not seen it all. He like bikes, that's OK, but he is crazy about cars. Just google - Mikko Hirvonen Citroen.

Say it isn't/wasn't so! Methinks Moilami is/was unrelated. Try googling "Mikko Moilanen Skyteam"...

[Zorge]

Oh, you partybreaker....

[moilami]

My English is awful, you all know that, so I wish to know - is "was" past tense?

Your English is fine. Your are not a Shakespeare of English though, but quite few are.

And yes, should not had written that in past tense. Should rather had emphasize it with big I

Life would be so simple if one would chose to be an opportunist. So I chose to be an idiot. It is just that as the time passes and I age I find it increasingly difficult to remain idiot. It is so challenging.

[Krasi]

I think MZ could be the most underrated motorcycle. People adore about any British motorcycle including British heritage motorcycle Royal Enfield. The funny thing in that is that MZ beats most of the older British bikes hands down in reliability - yet MZ sucks and Brit bikes rule

I still remember when I made a decision to buy an MZ. I knew nothing of the brand. In those times before Internet I got two motorcycling magazines a month to my home, and I still knew nothing of MZ.

BUT, big but, then game annual catalogue of motorcycles to be for sale in Finland. There, I saw a picture of MZ. I saw she looked darn good, much better than most of the bikes in the catalogue. I read she is two stroke, and I knew I must meet her.

So I went to annual motorcycle show in Helsinki, saw the MZ, tried to sit on it, fell in love, and ordered one right away. After that several PAINFULL months passed by as I waited for my MZ to ship to Finland.

I had no idea - I was totally clueless - how good bike I got. I think more than 99,9% of the people are as clueless regarding MZ as I was.

Those who haven't owned one can't just know.

And that, "Simba", is called "the circle of motorcycling"

We all start with small and simple, craving for bigger, faster, "fancier", and then start going back to small and simple

[Zorge]

Speaking of old and exotic motorcycle brands from Eastern Europe: lives also Hungarian "Danuvia" - http://www.danuvia.hu/

I must to share this news with you all. It really put a smile on my face. "Danuvia"'s production plant is moving from Budapest to Novi Sad, Serbia - http://translate.google.com/translat...eli-u-novi-sad

[MJH]

They use a Sherco engine in those, made in Spain or France? The 510 Sherco retails for about $10,000.00 USD. These will not be inexpensive, they look good and likely will cost a lot.

[moilami]

Could buy Danuvia Nova. It is succesful modern design, I even think timeless modern design.

[Zorge]

They use a Sherco engine in those, made in Spain or France? The 510 Sherco retails for about $10,000.00 USD. These will not be inexpensive, they look good and likely will cost a lot.

Yes, it's Sherco's engine, but I didn't figured out where it comes from.

I still do not understand why they didn't choose a less exotic engine, for example, Rotax. These are good engines with a decent price, plus Rotax plant is only about 450 kilometers (good part is on the highway) away from Budapest. You sit in the van in the morning, go to the factory, load there two dozen engines (like they need more for month or two) and in the evening you are home.

Retail price of the Super Retro in Hungary is, as I understand, around 7k bucks.