B120P is better!

I enjoyed reading about the B120 in the January issue and Roy Bailey's letter in the February issue. The bike I learned to ride on was an MZ Supa 5 bought after much dithering over value for money, quality and so on. It was a great bike and really well built but it had one problem I couldn’t get to grips with – when I was doing my RAC/ACU riding test it was a devil to get through the slalom course because it had a limited lock. My wife was doing the same test on her B120P so I borrowed that for the slalom run and it just sailed through. The B120 was a smashing little bike but it had to go in a quest for more power – she swapped it for a Yamaha RD200 which certainly had the zip but numbed your hands within minutes due to the high level of vibration from the engine. The MZ went too in favour of a GS400 but over the years I returned to MZS a couple of times – I just loved the way you could ride a well set-up one on the edge of its handling abilities and flat out (around 80mph). Unfortunately my riding days are over, but my biking days continue as I attempt my first restoration project. When I was agonising over what to buy as a learner bike back in the mid-1970s I kept looking at the Honda CB200 but it was too pricey for me so I went for the MZ. Now I’ve got two pretty rough CB200S that I’m working on and hoping to turn into one good one. Maybe when I’m done I’ll be able to give it a whirl and see whether my decision to go with the MZ was right. David Thwaite Bertie says: “Good luck with the restos David and show us the results!”