Wrench'n Ride'n

We truly are a long way away from the rest of the world downunder here. Europe, UK and the USA have these bikes. The Australian MZ distributor is trying to get these passed through ADR for compliance. How long will this take? Who knows?? Anyway at least we down here can look at photos of them. All the photos and specs came from http://www.mz1000s.de/cgi-bin/click.system?act=home&navid=10001&sid=c 1000 SF "The original German motorcycle manufacturer MZ is presenting 2 aggressive design studies in Munich. Based on the award winning MZ 1000 S, MZ presents at Intermot a Naked Bike with an aggressive Street Fighter look and feel, which will be launched into the market soon. As announced by MZ's Managing Director, "The time has come for a Street Fighter made by MZ. We have asked our designer Peter Naumann to design an impressive Naked Bike which will be able to attract a new group of enthusiasts in the 1000cc segment. The result is fantastic and exceeds our expectation...

The Sydney SR500 club guys had a ride on today. So I tagged along. Due to Telstra’s slack service I didn’t get the meeting place and time info till 8:30am via the SR forums. Thanks for PM’ing me Wizz954. So I had about 45 mins to get to Loftus from Granville. I made it with 5 mins to spare. At one stage I was down on the tank in behind the fairing. I have never laughed so hard on a bike before. It must have looked a sight with little fat me trying to get in behind the fairing. I arrived at Loftus Oval, the meeting place, to see a BMW 650 sitting there. It was Milkman. Then curly001 rolls in on his much modified XT500. I look at the road tyres and how stripped down this bike is know that he is a quick rider. After about 10mins in rolls Wizz954 on his Fireblade. Hmmm. I keep looking around for any SR’s. None have arrived. The 3 other guys all have SRs. But not on the road. Wizz954 races one. Curly001 has 3 in the garage, none road worthy. Milkman has one at home that needs working on. It...

There is an advantage to having a friend who not only owns a Skorpion but is also a member of the BMW Touring Club NSW. He invites you along on their rides. Thank you Bruce. Today’s ride was to The Dome which is between The Oaks and Oakdale for lunch. View Larger Map You may have read the report I did on the last BM ride I went on. The one the MuZs out numbers the BMs . Not today. They turned the tables on us. Of the 10 bikes on the run. There were 2 MuZs, a Kwaka Ninja and the 7 BMs. It was great to see 30 year or more old R75s out with a K100Rs, a very modified R100, some later model GS’s and one very nice and new R1200ST. We all meet up at the Caltex on the M4 at Blacktown. After a quick meet and greet, Bruce led us off. Heading west along the M4 we soon turned left onto Mulgoa Rd. Old man out for a Sunday drive held us up for wee bit. It was an 80km zone and he was just doing 60. He had the good sense to pull over and let us all past. The views along this route are good when you l...

Douglas Roy, from the USA, has sent in some photos and details of his modified Sport. At first glance it looks like he has done very little if anything at all to the bike. This just goes to show how well he has changed the bike. Here is a list of what he has done to date. Bike was bought new in September 1995 Current modifications: Lighten subframe Beastly rear bodywork Sargent Seat cover Lots of SS bolts to replace the stock rusted pieces Jet kit ( foam filter) with stock air box - Cover removed Foot pegs and foot controls intended for Yamaha R6 ( minor modification required) Lightweight 5 amp hr battery Race Tech fork valve with 1995 VFR fork caps to allow for preload adjustment Barker exhaust headers with cheap end cans Double bubble wind screen Woodcraft clip-on's Hella fuse block Lightened read rotor WP Shock (intended for the Replica) Working on super light TZ 250 wheels for Spring of 2008 You sure have one very nice Sport there Douglas. Please send photos when the new wheels...

Most of you MZ/MuZ owners would have used or known about BSA Regal in the UK and the fantasic service they supplied as a spares dealer for MZ/MuZ parts. They no longer supply spares for MZs. There is now a new dealer in the UK for both MZ bikes and spares. GRAHAMS MOTORCYCLES They has a small stock of Skorpion spares up on their site so far. Click here to see this. This is a sample of what they have... MZ6205DDU Head race bearing kit for all Skorpion models Price : £17.16 Stock Item : Yes MZ9021101 Front brake lever Price : £16.09 Stock Item : Yes MZ6203DDU Rear wheel bearing ( requires 2 ) Price : £6.30 Stock Item : Yes They also have an eBay Store . This has no items listed yet. Lets hope they will end up stocking a full range of spares so we can keep our Skorpions on the road for many years to come. I am in now way contected with this shop. 17/11/2007 {EDIT} I emailed Grahams Motorcycles to let them know that I had put this artcile up about them. Besides being thankful for this th...

Two more photos from Michael's trip to Finland. Thanks again mate for sharing these great photos. Village of Framlingham , (Suffolk) like the lid on a Quality Street box of chocolates. French town ; the correct name is Montreuil-sur-mer, it was the headquarters for the whole British Army under General Haig. It copped it heavily in WW1 .

More postcards from Michael Barnes. I have not yet asked him how many photos he took on this trip. Maybe I should ask how many memory cards he used. ;-) This time two shots from Aland Island group in the Baltic Sea. An inter-island ferry; the outside. And; the inside.