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Comet Restorations
MZ ‘s
the MZ

In 2006, following a trip to Sri-Lanka, an offer was made to us of a Barn find East German MZ with only 2000 miles on the speedometer. It had been found under a tarpaulin in a barn near Banbury and little more than that is known about its origin. The TS 125 in its original orange was investigated and found to be in very good condition. We decided that this was worth taking and a few days later it was removed from its home of 20 years and transported back to the workshop. Shortly after a phone call from the barn owner asked when we were fetching the rest of the bits. We were surprised but a car was despatched to retrieve a second engine and a further box of valuable spares.


The TS 125s were imported by a number of importers from East Germany cheaply and while it was not the most stylish of bikes or the fastest, it soon gained a reputation as a reliable and well-made machine and typical of the Communist philosophy of being universal and simple to work on. The first batches to reach the UK were second hand ex state machines use by the Fire Brigade, Army , and a number of other civil organisations.


While searching for the manuals for the TS 125 we stumbled across a breaker in Gloucester who had for sale a pair of MZ’s that were in a bad state but our interest was in the older TS 250 and we entered negotiations to purchase it. But the deal was very much based on us taking both machines and we were not in a position to do that either financially or practically. The bikes were both due to be scrapped within the month and we felt that was a real shame as it again showed only 2050 miles on the speedometer. Despite our efforts we could not reach agreement with the breaker to buy just one. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that this was not to be when a surprise phone call brought us the news that the breaker had been contacted by another buyer who only wanted one of the machines. His number was passed to us. During our conversation with him it became obvious the other buyer had no interest in the TS 250 but wanted the EZ only. We ventured forward the idea that we jointly purchase the pair between us and within a week we were mounting a rescue mission to bring the second MZ back to the collection. I think it was true to say that we had rather under estimated the weight of a TS250 and the task of pushing it up the ramp of the trailer on a hot Saturday morning was not the easiest of tasks, it did not help the back brake was seized on despite releasing the foot brake mechanism . Neither was trying to get it on its centre stand on top of a trailer the best of ideas. But by early afternoon and with some inventive use of tie downs it was safely back in the workshop to the usual cries of “What the hell is that “ or “ Should have left it with the breaker” from the wife. For the next couple of hours we looked at what we had got and what was missing, drawing up lists of jobs and wants. Money is always a problem and key bits are needed at certain times during the rebuild but despite the work this was not beyond hope and was iconic. Already visions of father and son riding MZs at a rally were beginning to form.

 

Once we contacted the MZ user group we discovered that what we thought was a standard TS 250 turned out to be a Supra 5 model.
So when you want spares you are forced to either buy another bike and hope to get one good bike out of 2 or start purchasing parts from other sources. It was during this process we came across a 3rd MZ TS for sale in Kent. With 2 in the shed, it was a long way from our base and the thoughts of trailering this back did not appeal to us greatly. But we soon discovered this machine had a local connection and was sold by a local dealer called Warlands in Oxford. We had only know Warlands as a bicycle dealer but like many others they branched out to sell MZ and Puch from the shop, we spoke to the owner who was the second generation who confirmed they once had sold them and was delighted it was still around. We entered negotiations because this was a TS 150 with a local number plate and registration. It was in the usual state and had been purchased as a custom bike project from a barn storage and interest was lost before any conversion took place. We bought it with 4000 miles on the clock and thanks to the use of a van from Jaguar sports an early start was made to Kent and to bring it back. Once again the usual cries of “Did you really need that “ or “ what did that cost “ came from the wife. We soon discovered from the DVLA that this machine was registered as being Light Blue and listed as still current on their register . At some point it had acquired a coat of purple paint but clearly visible were samples of the original colour which we found inside the headlight and side panels confirming this was the machine registered by the DVLA.


The one beauty of having MZ’s is they are all metric and that made a great change from working on British bikes. We are still able to get spares and information is available. Many of these bikes have been turned into custom bikes but like the British bikes, they are starting to disappear from our roads. Shortly after we purchased these 3 there was a sudden interest in the MZ and the prices of bikes for restoration climbed steeply but we felt that though they were heavy and were not the greatest design they deserved their place in the collection.

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