The rear wheel is actually QD, the handling and roadholding are excellent, particularly on decent rubber. A huge fuel tank permits a 240 mile range at a cruising y ap of 65-70mph. What more do you want for £240? However, let’s not get carried away. After about 5000 miles the gear change return spring broke. A known fault with the original component but fixed with a spring of Italian extraction available through the MZ Riders Club, but it takes an engine strip to get inside the gearbox. Whilst on the subject of known faults, the days of the dodgy main bearings appear to be past.
From wheeling the bike into the workshop to lifting the engine onto the bench was an amazing twenty minutes, including a coffee. Once the head, barrel and piston were removed, my attention focused on the primary drive. The clutch is a delight to behold, it is solid and built to last. It's mounted on the crankshaft on a taper with no drive key so absolute cleanliness on assembly and correct torque on the retaining nut are essential if the crankshaft is not to be damaged by a loose clutch centre. The clutch drives the gearbox via a gear, the whole assembly running in the same oil as the gearbox.
An hour later I had the crankcases split, the errant spring replaced and the engine was being reassembled. A quick look at the five speed gear cluster showed it to be robust, or agricultural, depending on your viewpoint, but definitely no worse than a BMW boxer cluster which I've also seen. Perhaps, this explains why both bikes have relate slow and clonky changes - something I'm willing to accept in my cheapo MZ, but if I was paying BMW prices...
I have also a had a brief honeymoon with a four speed ETS250 of 1973 vintage. This model is now quite collectable among MZ aficionados with its huge five gallon tank, but I was unimpressed. It never started as easily as the TS, vibes were much worse, the gearbox even clonkier and you had to rev the tail off it in third gear before changing up.
As I approached my 40th birthday a couple of years ago I decided I had to do something to prove I wasn't over the hill. I'd had a hankering to ride in the Motor Cycle Club classic long distance trials for some time since spectating. All I needed was a machine. I looked at the MZ and decided what the hell, at least it wouldn’t bring me to the edge of bankruptcy if I wasted it.
Modifications to the bike consisted of removal of the rev counter drive, the indicators, the narrow road bars and the rear number plate then the fitting of wider bars, an alloy sump bash plate and small trials number plate. As I was entered in Class A - road bikes on road tyres - I just replaced the worn out tyres with the cheapest, chunkiest road tyres I could find. Handling and roadholding would have to be sacrificed in the search for grip. A security bolt for the rear tyre completed the picture.
MCC trials consist of between 300 and 500 road and track miles, overnight, interspersed with off road sections ranging from easy if conditions are good to nigh on impossible if they are bad. Each competitor is competing against the hill, the clerk of the course and himself. There is no winner as in one day trialling, only the satisfaction or frustration of climbing a hill clean or otherwise. I completed my first trail on time with only a few failures and was extremely impressed with the performance of the MZ. In fact it never missed a beat, started first kick every time and got me a finishers certificate, of which I am very proud. Subsequent trials have shown an improvement with 1st and 3rd class awards...
In between trials my trusty workhorse has transported me the 32 miles to and from work with the minimum of maintenance and no complaint. Admittedly, it is starting to show its age now, but then so am I. The only difference is that with the minimum of effort and cash the MZ can be back to its youthful self; I wish I could say the same.
Tony Bishop