MZ lives

[Zorge]

MZ I think is or was in the same boat...They look really crap,worse then the greaves,,and I think that stigma stayed with them until the end.

That's what you said now, and never again... If I hear one more time from you a similar statement, I will come to England, buy a half-dozen big and hungry Landrace boars and and squeeze them in your garage, to eat away your Honda to the last bolt.

[moilami]

That's what you said now, and never again... If I hear one more time from you a similar statement, I will come to England, buy a half-dozen big and hungry Landrace boars and and squeeze them in your garage, to eat away your Honda to the last bolt.

You sir truly are a good MZ bro

[moilami]

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.

[euphonius]

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.

Where is that bike today, Mikko?

[lipsee]

That's what you said now, and never again... If I hear one more time from you a similar statement, I will come to England, buy a half-dozen big and hungry Landrace boars and and squeeze them in your garage, to eat away your Honda to the last bolt.

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,,young kids where simply not interested in buying them....Notice I did not talk of reliability,I am talking of sale ability..Of course they sold a few to men to travel to work ,,but not in any numbers....Actually I do agree most of the British manufactured motorcycle products where thought of in the same way,and perhaps worse....I passed my test on a bsa bantem,,,,then got a bsa starfire,,,honestly you could not travel any distance on those bikes without getting your tools out.,no,they where a pain in the ass.So no happy memories small and even larger Brit bikes where alot worse then many Chinese bikes in this age..Now reference to to Landrace boars !!! hell I had not thought of them for 20/30 years....My Dad had a pig farm...we never kept the boars until they got old,,because they became too dangerous...I can remember only seeing an old one once,,it had an arched back and was hairy as hell ..and the teeth,,my god stay away from them fockers!!!!!!! Since I seem to have stared up abit of a hornets nest...I have a question..Do you think MZ would have survived so long if it was,nt based in a country with a Communist regime where there local market had no choice????

[lipsee]

That's what you said now, and never again... If I hear one more time from you a similar statement, I will come to England, buy a half-dozen big and hungry Landrace boars and and squeeze them in your garage, to eat away your Honda to the last bolt.

You would not need six,,,just one is all needed,,, I once went to an auction(sale) with my Dad,,and a big boar came up for sale..They paraded them in a ring of a wooden fence..so they herded the boar in to the ring,it ran around a couple of times.Then decided it wanted out.. It ran straight at the fence and smashed its way out and created Havoc....See what you did ,,I,m getting all sentimental !!!!

[moilami]

You would not need six,,,just one is all needed,,, I once went to an auction(sale) with my Dad,,and a big boar came up for sale..They paraded them in a ring of a wooden fence..so they herded the boar in to the ring,it ran around a couple of times.Then decided it wanted out.. It ran straight at the fence and smashed its way out and created Havoc....See what you did ,,I,m getting all sentimental !!!!

Lol, wish I were there and saw all that xD

[moilami]

Where is that bike today, Mikko?

I dunno. I though remember the register plate and could do research to see is it still on the streets at least. I had dreams to actually do that and buy the bike back, but have given up with that dream.

I was very very much to enduro in times when I had the MZ, had knobbies on the bike and naturally did a lot enduro with it. MZ was very good and fun for that, if you did not care of the fact you could not go as fast with it as you could with some modern Enduro.

How I lost my MZ? Well, I was an idiot. I was not content with the bike but wanted improvements like more power, bigger wheels, and longer suspension. There was gravel maintenance road for railroad tracks. It was a good road because you could go full throttle on it with MZ, and I could drive from Korso to Tikkurila without doing much tarmac while racing with the trains.

One day the father of my mechanic died and he was very sad. We both were on racing, and I thought that alright, now I shall do a memorial drive from Tikkurila to Korso faster than a train. I went to the road and MZ sung like there would be no tomorrow. I totally forgot that there is a "canyon" and a water stream on one point across the road. When I saw it coming it was a little bit too late. Anyway I did brake as good as I could by locking both rear and front wheels while keeping the bike balanced! Maybe it helped, maybe did not.

I flew to the bottom of the canyon, landed on the wheels and fell down of my bike. Got a good refreshing bath :D I was physically unhurt; the poor MZ took all the damage. The front fork was bent, handlebar was bent, wheels were bent, mudguards were broken, speedometer broke etc etc. It was not that bad however. The brave and sturdy MZ started up much to my surprise and I drove up from the canyon and eventually parked the bike on her resting place.

Repairing the bike was too big hassle, idiot as I was, so I rather sold it and thought about buying a new "real" enduro.

[moilami]

Here is the Bane of MZ on the middle of the map. Rekolanoja it is called, just on the western side of the railroad. Needless to say on my first trip to Helsinki with Pony I drove a memorial through it again. I do it when I can.

https://maps.google.fi/maps/mm?ie=UT...016565&vpsrc=0

[euphonius]

I dunno. I though remember the register plate and could do research to see is it still on the streets at least. I had dreams to actually do that and buy the bike back, but have given up with that dream.

I was very very much to enduro in times when I had the MZ, had knobbies on the bike and naturally did a lot enduro with it. MZ was very good and fun for that, if you did not care of the fact you could not go as fast with it as you could with some modern Enduro.

How I lost my MZ? Well, I was an idiot. I was not content with the bike but wanted improvements like more power, bigger wheels, and longer suspension. There was gravel maintenance road for railroad tracks. It was a good road because you could go full throttle on it with MZ, and I could drive from Korso to Tikkurila without doing much tarmac while racing with the trains.

One day the father of my mechanic died and he was very sad. We both were on racing, and I thought that alright, now I shall do a memorial drive from Tikkurila to Korso faster than a train. I went to the road and MZ sung like there would be no tomorrow. I totally forgot that there is a "canyon" and a water stream on one point across the road. When I saw it coming it was a little bit too late. Anyway I did brake as good as I could by locking both rear and front wheels while keeping the bike balanced! Maybe it helped, maybe did not.

I flew to the bottom of the canyon, landed on the wheels and fell down of my bike. Got a good refreshing bath :D I was physically unhurt; the poor MZ took all the damage. The front fork was bent, handlebar was bent, wheels were bent, mudguards were broken, speedometer broke etc etc. It was not that bad however. The brave and sturdy MZ started up much to my surprise and I drove up from the canyon and eventually parked the bike on her resting place.

Repairing the bike was too big hassle, idiot as I was, so I rather sold it and thought about buying a new "real" enduro.

Great story, Mikko! Makes me think there should be a special class of psychoanalysts who deal specifically with motorcyclists! I can imagine that, to this very day, you are probably still punishing yourself for this series of events!