MZ History (or Story)

 

This is a general sharing of a compilation of stories as I have gathered and researched them regarding the history of MZ in the United States. I do not claim to be accurate in every detail. Factual information in the USA is very, very hard to find and I do not claim to be a historian, only an enthusiast. Opinions are more common. I am using my experiences around the business starting in the late 1970’s, information gathered from older fellows who have owned them (even bought them new), sources on the internet, and conversation with people at vintage swap meets, Ebay, etc…to draw a general consensus. I am just offering a small part of the MZ story as I know it, for people who have no idea what they are, or what their contribution to motorcycling was. Anyone who can offer clarifications should feel free to advise. I don’t claim to be an authority. I just like the bikes and have been impressed with the contribution that MZ and their engineering technology have contributed to the 2 strokes that I have raced so much. Since many people have questions about the bikes when they see them, I thought that I would share it online with all.

 

Research on MZ motorcycles will reveal that they were made in East Germany after the end of WW II. Prior to WW II, DKW was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the entire world. When the war ended and reparations were completed, Germany would be divided as Russia received the Eastern half. The US took a DKW design that Harley would use to launch the Hummer. England took the same design a BSA used it to make the Bantam. The primary difference between the two is that the Harley was left side shift, the BSA was right. The new communist government began manufacture of motorcycles at the old DKW plant and branded them IFA (according to Wilkipedia, this stood for Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau and was the generic name for all bicycles, automobiles, motorcycles, and vans made in East Germany) starting sometime in the early 50’s. An opposed twin, the BK350cc was a 2 stroke (like a traditional BMW, but 2 stroke). This model was built for sidecar use and is claimed to have a large amount of torque and was simple to work on and maintain, a must in a cash strapped communist economy. A 125 two stroke would also come under the IFA name badge. Other models would roll out the doors under the names AWO, Simson, IWL, and EMW. I am not sure what the relationship or reasoning was of these other labels. Maybe one brand was a lower quality. Perhaps one was a higher quality. Perhaps these were distributed in different countries under different names, or smaller engined bikes were one brand, larger another? I have learned that in general, the MZ’s were the bigger 2 stroke bikes and the Simsons were the scooters and 50-125 two stroke racing machines. Prior to this, the little racing machines were also MZ. Some of these brands may only be associated with a production time period of certain years, I cannot say. I find information in books about many of these, but cannot read German, so can only look at the photo’s. Getting back to IFA. 

 

Along the late 1950’s, the IFA name was changed to MZ, which stands for Motorradwerk Zschopau, with Zschopau (East Germany) being the name of the town where they were manufactured. I believe this to be only a name change and further believe that the factory location stayed the same.

 

Significant to me is their racing history. During the 1950’s, 2 strokes were not popular with the racing crowd as they were noisy, slow, and most attempts to make them more powerful only resulted in piston seizures. They were viewed as cheap starter bikes and women’s bikes. Walter Kaaden was the head engineer at MZ and it was he who would discover that a 2 stroke exhaust pipe could be shaped to manipulate both power range, output and avoid the excessive piston heat that resulted in seizures. Most call this type of exhaust an “expansions chamber” and give credit to the Japanese for it’s discovery. In the 1950’s, the 250 road racing class was the most prestigious World Class and 4 strokes dominated it. MZ was able to run against, and beat the likes of rivals such as Honda in individual World Championship Road Racing events with their 2 stroke technology and even won some of these races. In a Communist country there is no free enterprise, so the government ran all the industry. There wasn’t a lot of money, so it is really significant that the racing department at MZ was able to pull off this success. It is a true Davy vs Goliath situation that most motorcyclist enjoy. However, due to the lack of funding, MZ was unable to travel the world and compete in all the races, so outside of the “local” European events, they received little recognition for their success. Not to mention that in America (and probably other non-communist countries), no one wanted to give the communist governments any credit for anything positive.

 

One of the lead riders was Ernst Degner. He was also an assistant engineer. The story goes that he defected to Japan in the late 1950’s  and stole some of the engineering drawings with him and took them to Suzuki. Suzuki promptly used these designs to enhance their motors and won two 50cc World Road Racing Championships in a row, them a 125 the following year. The story goes that Ernst was eventually found dead in his house with a gunshot wound. The shooter was never found. Of course, the other Japanese were able to observe what Suzuki was doing and over time, learned about this technology as well. The Japanese rode it to the top. In hindsight, it is unfortunate for Walter Kaaden that the Soviets were unable to market the technology for production, or spend what was required to dominate the world racing circuits, as MZ would have had quite a jump on the 2 stroke boom that later occurred.

 

Due to this financial constraint, MZ began contesting the 6 Days. This was cheaper, as the technology wasn’t as expensive as in rode racing, and the 6 Days would generally be held on the European continent, so travel cost were much reduced. During the decade of the 60’s, MZ was able to win the 6 Days a total of 6 times! This is incredible! For perspective, the US which has some of the greatest motorcycle racers in the world, has NEVER won this competition in the top class. Consider how unreliable the bikes of the 60’s were (I owned a BSA a few years back and it had to be worked on nearly every time that I rode it 30 miles or more). Consider keeping one of them running for 6 days of stream crossings, mud, open road racing and field racing, acceleration test, etc.. for 180-250 miles per day. Consider the opportunities to for one of the riders to make a wrong turn and get lost. Each team had to keep 4 or 5 (sorry, don’t know the specific rules back then) bikes and riders going for the entire duration of the 6 days. Other reading revealed that some Americans changed some arrows one year as the MZ riders came through, causing the riders to get lost and lose enough time so as not to win that year. On another year the story goes that even though the MZ team was leading, one of the riders was down on time a bit and rode too fast on a mountain road trying to make it up and ended up running off the side of a cliff/turn trying to make up time. He was OK, as he grabbed a tree and held on until help arrived, but the bike crashed to the bottom and was destroyed. That was nearly 8 years out of ten. No doubt, the word here is shear dominance! Consider that the USA hasn’t been able to win this event overall in the top class, ever, and it is clear that MZ was superior in this sport.

 

OK, so far this has been all about the race department, which I gather, might almost be viewed as a separate entity from the production department. In the late 60’s/early 70’s production MZ made a TS125 and TS150 and a TS250 with normal telescoping forks, and they made an ugly (my opinion only) ES250 with an Earle’s type front suspension and a squared off headlight in a huge housing. These came with or without sidecars, but the ES would be the preferred model for sidecar use. Remember, cheap, simple, rugged and utilitarian were the targets. East Germans didn’t have much money to spend. I am guessing that the West Germans didn’t approve of the politics and didn’t support MZ. There were a couple of German bike collectors visiting the states a few years ago. They were buying big Kawasaki parts in effort to fill a container and head back to Germany. When they saw my MZ’s, they chuckled and asked if I would like more of them. My impression is that MZ’s were looked down on in West Germany. There was another guy who came into our shop a while back, saw my TS250 and told me that he had lived in Hungary up until 6 years before, and that MZ’s were common in Hungary when he was a young man. As an example of communist politics, he explained the he had been offered as a young man, to race a speedway bike (not MZ), he rode it and then declined. One of the guys at the “tryout” had crashed and broken his back. Had he accepted/been accepted, he would have been allowed to bypass school and be a professional racer, probably along with lots of pressure from his government.

 

It seems that England might have been the most supportive of the MZ’s outside of East Germany, as Wilf Green pretty much imported them into England all the while. From what I gather, they were never well thought of in England and were sold as cheap transportation, though I have found articles proclaiming how they would just run and run and never, ever die.

 

MZ made a few production runs of GS250 Six Day bikes. While there are a few parts floating around for the TS/ES/ETZ models, there is NOTHING for the GS series. A fellow on a vintage enduro bike site claimed once that he used to work for the factory in Germany. He claims that the 6 Day bikes were built in the race department (not the production line in the normal building). That they were “trophy queens” compared to the “real” factory 6 Day bikes. Not having the better suspensions, and weighing much more than the factory bikes did. That they were built in low production runs specifically to order by an importer. Since they were built in low numbers and infrequently, the spec might change slightly with each order. He further stated that the GS series were assembled inside the race shop by the engineers/racing guys, not on the main assembly line. I have read elsewhere that the entry level engineers were the ones to assemble the GS bikes as a training process. Regardless, it appears that the GS bikes were handled differently than the standard production bikes were. He added that a good local East German rider might be given a production GS250 in the beginning, but that as soon as his skills progressed he would be upgraded quickly to the factory racing version of the bike.

 

I have read that Edison Dye (the Western importer for Husqvarna and the “father of motocross”) brought over a container or so of GS250’s in the late 60’s. These had black fuel tanks and required a battery to power the ignition system. Apparently Husky’s sold better, or money was an issue, or politics, or.. as he stuck with Husky and didn’t appear to have ever brought another MZ in.

According to a book that I own regarding the Rickman brothers, they had struck a deal with MZ to buy 250 motors to install in their chassis in 1969, but the East Germans had occupied Prague, resulting in the British government raising tariffs against East German goods. Rickman’s had not yet paid for motors, so they cancelled the order. For perspective, keep in mind that in 1969 MZ would have had the fastest 250 2 stroke motor. Scrambles (or motocross as it was starting to be called) were starting to transition to 2 strokes, but the quality in general was still poor. Rickmans had tried to use Bultaco’s and Montessa motors, but the quality of both were low, with transmission failures on both power plants common due to poor metallurgy. For once, Rickman’s would really have had a jump with newer/better technology, had all the stars crossed properly.

 

In 1974 MZ imported the TS250 and the TS150 (a bumped up 125) to the US under the name “East Europe Import/Export”. The TS250 seems to be the more common bike, maybe because the Americans were expected to prefer the larger model. They also brought in some GS250’s with red fuel tanks that did not require a battery to power the ignition. They set up offices in Long Island, NY and either set up or sold distribution rights to at least one Guy in Columbus, OH, Baltimore, MD and one in Opelousas, LA (outside Baton Rouge). The entire operation failed in the same year. Several stories float as to why, but the one that seems to hold the most credence is that a California D.O.T. Inspector caught onto the fact that the bikes did not have D.O.T. legal lighting. It was too expensive to retrofit the bikes, so they sat in warehouses for a long time. Further, while the early 70’s saw a lot of  motorcycle manufactures try their fortunes in this country (Bridgestone, Taka, Chaparell, Rickman, Benelli, Ducati, Laverda, Gemini and so on, the MZ’s were technically behind when they hit the shore, even if the quality was better than several others.

 

I bought my first TS250 at the Mid Ohio Vintage Days auction not running. Got it running and found that it had a bad regulator. At that time, could not find a regulator for it (MZ went out of business in 1993). I bought and installed an electronic ignition and converted it to 12 volts (better batteries, plus the option of running a battery eliminator). The company in Germany that I purchased this through was able to supply all the bulbs except for the taillight and headlight bulbs. You see, the European bulb spec is different than the British spec, and also the US spec and so on. Even though all countries had the Lucas lighting, there were differences, or so I learned. I was able to source a taillight bulb local with no problem. The headlight became a bigger problem. Even though it is a Lucas 700 series light, as used on many of the British motorcycles of the era, the US bulbs will not fit the bulb holder in the lens (glass) assembly, nor will the European replacement that was sent with the ignition system. Searching the internet, I find a guy in Australia that collects British sports cars, didn’t like the poor lighting they have, and has a company that manufactures halogen bulbs to use in the old glass lenses (modern halogens have the lenses made different than the old glass bulbs did. It is a light pattern thing, so even of a modern bulb would fit, it would not have a useable light pattern). He listed all the bulb socket combinations and I was able to determine that I have a British spec lens assembly. I asked him why that would be and he replied that he had no idea, as that would never have been a legal bulb style in the US. He had a sports car light distributor in New York, and I was able to get a bulb and finish this project. But the D.O.T. guy story must be the correct one.

 

This leads me to one more bit of speculation. 1974 (I think) was the year that the TS250/1 became available. It is a five speed, the prior one is a 4 speed, and the 4 speeds were the model imported into the US. I am thinking that the factory wanted Wilf Green to purchase 5 speed models, but he may have had a load of 4 speed models, and possibly a deal was worked out to ship them to the US. There is also a story floating around regarding the US trading grain for Russian tractors and motorcycles, so who knows? I am unclear if East Europe Import/Export was an East German government owned firm, or private. I suspect that the 4 speed models were shipped straight from the UK so that Wilf could make room for the 5 speed bikes. The other possibility is that East Europe Import/Export was so naive that they built the bikes to UK spec and shipped them to the US with no D.O.T. certification (several Chinese companies doing that right now). I do not believe that the TS150 models were ever shipped to the UK, only the TS125 model. Probably something to do with licensing requirements and taxes as England has a tiered license system to encourage frugal people to ride small bikes to save space and fuel.

 

Back to the Americans wanting bigger bikes.

 

When I purchased the TS250 in Ohio, I was trying to buy a group of bikes from a local guy who had bought them new from the Opelousas warehouse in approx 1979. He used to be a BSA dealer in Joplin in the late 50’s, had closed shop and got a job with the post office, worked there and retired. While working for the post office, he always dabbled in bikes and heard that there were new MZ’s for sale cheap in Louisiana. He had a friend with a garage in Joplin and they drove down with a box van to buy a load and sell them on payments through the garage. Carl stated that the warehouse had been closed due to the D.O.T. trouble, had been sold with contents inside, and had been sold once more to a company by the name of Standard Pipe Fitting Company. Standard Pipe Fitting Company had purchased the building for warehouse space and were selling the motorcycles for $500 each in the crates. Carl bought a truck full and hired another guy who was there to fill his truck and haul a second load back. They sold the bikes out of the garage as planned and as they broke, they tore other one’s down for parts. Carl had also agreed to buy six GS250 6 Day bikes while in Louisiana, but those were shipped in truck line from Long Island, NY.

 

By the time that I met Carl, he was down to three TS150’s (one new and never started), one parts TS250, and one GS250 that had been his personal bike with 265 miles on it. I had tried to buy the bikes, but Carl was a little proud of them, or so I thought. Regardless, Carl was a great guy and I feel honored to have met him. Approx 1 year later Carl died of a heart attack suddenly and the estate was being sold. I was able to buy the MZ’s and the parts for a price that I considered acceptable, though I would rather Carl still be alive and I would still be trying to buy the bikes, for sure. I had mentioned this to his nephew Larry while gathering the stuff up to load. Larry had told me that Carl really hadn’t wanted to sell the bikes. He said that Carl liked meeting people and that Carl had known that as long as the bikes were there, they would bring people in for him to meet and visit with! Funny, but that seems to fit!

 

Carl felt that the GS250 had loads of power and compared it to a 400 Yamaha in that regard. He did not think well of the TS250 as it was underpowered and tended to seize. Carl claimed to have had the most trouble with the TS250’s that they sold. In the paperwork that came with the bikes there is a bulletin describing a quality control problem with the main jets resulting in some of the bikes running lean and seizing, even though the number on the jet was correct. I would guess this to be the cause. Carl felt that the TS150 was the very best bike, with lots of torque. He said that it didn’t have to be downshifted on hills like the TS250 did. Having recently installed new coils to get the GS250 running, I can confirm that it is very powerful for the year that it is. I have yet to get one of the TS150’s running, but I agree that the TS250 is gutless, though I have learned that dropping the main jet down a size helps it to run a strong 60mph. Someone has likely overcompensated for the factory jetting issue. I DO very much appreciate the simplicity and durability of these motorcycles. In this day and age of over tech, it is a gem. Styling is another issue. They are bone ugly. But I must state that the more time that I spend around the bikes, the better they look. I guess that it is an acquired taste.

 

A good source of info is the following site http://www.mztech.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm for the MZ riders in England. Technical info, some parts sources, etc. We try to keep some parts for the TS150/250 and the GS250 models.