Tell Me About... (East German Strokers)

[KLR600]

No, not the lady strokers strolling the streets at night - I'm talking MZ!

It looks like it's going to take me a bit longer than I originally planned to get my ZRX on the road in Germany. I need to overhaul the carburettors, rear brake and forks before even contemplating Herr TÜV and his big book of NEIN!

I have 10 years NCD from various insurance policies in the UK which is admissible with German insurers. My last policy ran out in the UK early this year and I don't want to push my luck with my proof of NCD letter being too old for Zee Germans and their love of bureaucracy. I have decided that it would be a good idea for me to get a cheap run around/hack to insure and use while I fix up and officially import the ZRX so I don't lose my 10 years of no claims.

Having had a look around it would seem that I can get various models of low capacity MZ 2 strokes with a TÜV (German MOT equivalent) for around €500. Here's an example of an MZ TS 150 with almost 2 years of TÜV remaining and under 5k kilometres on the clock for less than €600! It looks like I have a choice of the following models:

MZ TS 150
MZ TS 250
MZ ES 150 (I don't like the headlight on these)
MZ ES 250 (I don't like the headlight on these either)
MZ ETZ 150
MZ ETZ 250

I don't really know anything about these bikes other than they are very basic, points based ignition, lowly tuned 2 strokes. I've done some Googling and read the MZ Wikipedia page but I'm not getting too much back on reliability and whether I will die a few days after picking up an MZ having been used to Japanese bikes for the last 10 years.

Can anyone fill me in?

The bike will be used for pottering around Berlin and basically for keeping my no claims usable. I'm not expecting any performance whatsoever but I would like it to stop in some kind of sensible distance and go round corners without ending up in too many hedges. I don't want it to turn me into a classic bike mechanic either so I'm after something robust and reliable too. I have a friend who has an MZ TS 250 and he likes it but he's into classic bikes anyway. He had a go on my ZRX before I took it off the road and he spent the rest of the day shaking his head wondering why you would need so much power on the road His English isn't brilliant either so I can't really grill him on the finer points of his bike.

I'm thinking these bikes are like the German version of an RXS100? If so then that would be great. I'd probably sell it when my ZRX is on the road so it wouldn't be a long term keeper assuming the ZRX goes to plan.

A couple of things to note. Before someone says that I may enjoy riding a smaller capacity bike after riding big bikes for a while I can already say that I'm not one of those people. I've ridden various small capacity bikes in Morocco and Asia and while they were fun for 10 minutes I got pretty bored pretty quickly. I'm not trying to re-discover biking because I already love it! The other thing is that I would be all over Simson S51's but they start at about €800 for a pile of parts so that's out as a cheap hack. There are a few older Japanese bikes around like the Yamaha XJ (pre diversion), Kawasaki GPZ5/600 and Suzuki GSXF650's but they have moon mileage and they don't strike me as being a simple proposition as an old East German bike. I kind of like the idea of teaching my East German wife to ride on an East German bike too
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[Iain.]

[Val]

[temeluchus]

I've owned a TS250 supa5 and a ETZ301.

The problem nowadays is that most MZs are high mileage and rather old so will almost invariably need quite a bit of attention.

Premix models run 44-1 premix, ones with pumps 50-1. Electronic ignition and junking the BVF carb for a new Bing will remove most of the problems you are likely to face. You can find a bing on tut web and Bing will still happily sell you one.

There are plenty of places for bits, including:
https://www.ost2rad.com/
https://www.themzshop.co.uk/category/100/
https://www.mz-b.info/mz/emz.htm

[Polarbear]

Don't get a Voskhod 175 2 stroke really, unless you want it as a table ornament. They were built with oval drum brakes.

CZ's are fun! Especially with the combined gear change/kickstart

MZ's are probably your best bet

Not 2 smoke - Ural/Neval 650 outfit with reverse (and optional machine gun)

https://military-vehicle-photos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/6427.jpg[/img]
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[WD Forte]

My lad had an ETZ125 for a while and I thought it was great fun for whizzing about the town on.
I thought it handled much better than a similar year CG

Mind you, I took it for MOT and it siezed up on the way back !
We found the oil pump was faulty.
I put an earlier pre mix engine in ( ETS i think) but the boy was always getting the ratios confused, over oiled it, got pissed off and flogged it.

had a CZ125 as well for a time but never liked it much
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bikers smell of wee

[KLR600]

[temeluchus]

[1198]

I like the MZ / Simson range myself, mainly though rose tinted glasses. I'd say if you got one and didn't abuse it too much you could run it and not lose money at resale time, they seem almost collectable now in the same way early Skodas and Ladas seem to be.

[KLR600]

[RhynoCZ]

MZ 150 ETZ, nice little thing, the clutch is the only flaw.

https://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/RhynoCZ/MZ150ETZ/DSC01438_zpsf4a4103b.jpg
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor