Attention John Grinsel

John, I read in another post of yours (darkside)you had a MZ sidecar. Any pics of that? What model was that? I guess the 2CV wheel would have been selected to reduce the gearing to the back wheel,and maybe to add strength. MZ were the worlds largest motorcyle manufacturer before the Japanese hit the market, and they produced some radical ideas. The 2 strokes in the 50's were stinky smokey rattly cheap bikes and they built millions.MZ developed the idea of the racing expansion chambers which made 2 strokes stinky smokey rattly cheap bikes that went really fast with some serious noise. Stolen MZ technology was very evident on the Suzuki's Yammies and Kwakas in the late 60's
I've got a 2000 MZ Traveller with the Yamaha 660 Dakar motor.

Kurt are you OK, I mean travelling out side of Kurts Korner is a tad risky isn't it?

You might get ambushed by sensible things, unfunny items and other trivia!!!!!!

Not too worried about that mate.I have ventured out there quite a few times, but I was lucky. I didn't mention the war and I think I got away with it.

In the 80's in West Germany importer was Hein Gerike---about $600 US for solo in crate, $1000 for sidecar outfit. ETZ was the model.
As I was getting paid to ride a lot (job) I would buy 2 solos each year, keep one in the crate to rob for spares---end of year trade ridden bike in and sell to a dealer friend of mine the bike in crate and he would part it out and my money was about even.

Now to sidecar---guy named Wildschrei (he also built a 500cc MZ twin) was the go to for 300 kit, with properly modified head and Koni shock for the side car. The 2CV wheel conversion was 2 fold, lower gearing (an assordment of countershft sprockets were also availalbe, too.) and tire wear----questionalbe on cost as special rim had to be laced....remember this was CAR rim to be compatable with CAR tire, and different tube for off set. And wheel had to be laced with some offset to clear everything. As I recall the stock Pneu mat (sp) wore like iron, were cheap, and worked much better sidecar than solo as they were very slippery in the wet. 2CV wheel and tire were for the rich.-----250lb passenger, my friend Lyle, like to sit and drink wine on the way--windshields on both chair and bike=25 (US) miles per gallon wide open---wide open didn't seem to hurt---5200,5500 RPM
I did see at annual spring MZ rally in W Ger.----the ultimate MZ 2 stroke outfit, 15" wheels all around, earles type fork, nice paint---probably cost much less than my solo RT BMW did.

Combo worked great in snow---we went to several Elephant Rallies with it.

There were electronic ignitions available----I like 2 strokes, having had NSU(ZBT), Maico, Tohatsu, Vespa, Yamaha, MZ, HD 125 which was copy of '38 DKW RT125---almost forget, 2 Messerschmitt 3 wheelers, Sachs 200cc Power better than bike in winter as they had heater and didn't fall down.

MZ's 2 strokes were nice/fun and didn't break. East German chains sucked, they even had specs on how many rollers could be broken before you have to replace-----on putting new bike on road, new Japanese chain went in as beike was being set up. Chain case wonderfull.

Too bad things didn't work out for the new company after the wall came down MZ also had some nice Police Bikes, would have been great touring rigs----but they would not sell to private people in the west.

I'm quite familiar with a lot of the MZ stuff you mention, they didn't import the MZ ETZ 250 Super Elastik sidecar outfits to the UK because we drive on the left, and the sidecars were fitted to the right side.

I've visited the workshops of Dirk Wildschrei at Brieden in the Moselle a couple of times to buy bits, and I was the lone Brit at a MZ rally he organised at Cochem in the Moselle in 1990. Most of the riders that attended came from what had been the previous year East Germany. Some came on 1950's vintage sidecar oufits that looked like BMW's but instead of the famous blue and white quarters badge had red and white quarters. They were EMW Eisenacher Motorenwerk, from Eisenach in Thuringia where pre-World War 2 BMW had a factory. It was taken over by the Soviets after the war and after a law suit by BMW had to change it's name to EMW in 1952.

Quite a few British riders including myself used to attend an annual MZ rally at Lauffen near Heilbronn in the mid 80's to early 90's organised by a MZ dealer called Probst, we were all interested in the MZ oufits the German riders could have. As John says 2CV tyres on wider rims and leading forks were a feature on quite a few of them. He's also right about East German Pneumant tyres, and the low quality chains breaking rollers.

I looked at a clip of the now derelict MZ factory at Zschopau on YouTube a few months ago and it was quite sad to see, I've got some photos somewhere of me with my MZ ETZ 300 outside the factory in 1988, wearing a pair of specs like that bloke in the Buggles.

I tried to go to Lauffen each year, I remember one year waking up to snow on my tent----Lauffen not much of a ride for me, I lived in Sindelfingen.

Last time I rode by MZ factory, it was dead, maybe a caretaker of the building present.

Good MZ display---Augustusburg---last time I was there they were also having a cold weather rally each year.

Great thing about MZ rally----no trailer bikers or wimps. Not what I will see when I ride to Daytona (maybe) next week. Daytona along with Sturgis "Trailer Biker Capital of the world". No Daytona, I will ride to D.C to visit people.

The MZ years were fun for me, I earned quite a bit of money then and MZ didn't put big dent in pocket book....and they were good. Cannot say the same for my new BMW RT80 at the time---something seemed to break everyweek. Germans told me I rode too much...they don't make mistakes.

I also enjoyed my MZ years, the MZ rally organised by Herr Probst moved from Lauffen to Neckarsulm in 1990 for one year and then they stopped having them. I had a wander round Augustburg Castle and the motorcycle museum, I had no idea they held a winter rally there until I watched a recent clip on YouTube.