MZ adventures
The MZ story in OBA 58 is very good. To me ‘form follows function’ and these are a great example. Like others when I first rode one at Paul Spooner’s at Balgowlah I wasn’t impressed in the short ride but later Tony Hatton convinced me to buy a tradein that carried me for years on a 60km round trip to work and back. This was where it came in to its own. The 4.5 gallon fuel tank, the simple maintenance and the enclosed chain were good. When Ron Shoemark was to sell his MZs, two 250 ETS Trophy Sports and two 250 ISDT replicas, I bought them. Ron also had a lot of new spares that I think he got when Will Green sold up in UK and I got them. Now that I had three 250 Trophy Sports I stripped them all and rebuilt them at the same time with all new bearings, seals, chains, tyre and spares etc. When they left the factory they had Russian bearings, chains, tyres etc and these were very poor quality but once they had been rebuilt with good quality parts they would last forever. Some engines had the original main bearings seize when the plastic cages broke up and all the balls congregated together, but once rebuilt they were excellent touring machines. The attached photo shows Jim Day welcoming me to the Velocette Rally in Kenilworth, QLD after riding from home in NSW. When the Velocette Rally was held in SA I rode it there camping on the way. Pushing into strong headwinds across the Hay plains I was often in third gear and worried about my fuel consumption. In 1976 they fitted the five speed gearbox that I needed. When the Velocette Rally was held at Warrnambool in Victoria I rode it there and home via the Great Ocean Road. You would not get a better long distance vintage touring machine.
I sold one of the others that I had rebuilt to a chap in Melbourne some time ago and hadn’t heard from him until one day he phoned to see if I would sell him one of my ISDTs that he had seen and he told me that he loved it and used it a lot. The people who call them ugly have not ridden one. The tank shape and seating etc is just right. The Factory workshop manual tells you how to fix everything and I have it on disc. By the way Ron Shoemark isn’t the only side car exponent as you can see in the attached photo. Andrew Duncan Wilton, NSW Thanks for the letter Andrew – you’re our Raritee T-shirt winner for this issue. – Ed.