MZ.
Readers of a certain age will immediately have images
of small, smoky two-strokes, blessed with rather more function
than form, that almost everyone has owned at some point. There’s
a good reason why so many of us had them, too. They may not
have been very pretty, they may not have been very fast. But
they handled well enough, and once you managed to get them
wound up they went OK. And, and this is the important bit,
they never, ever, broke down. They were also stupidly cheap.
All of which added up to the perfect workhorse cum winter
hack, especially if you normally relied on Italian or British
engineering (and electrics) for your two wheeled kicks.
But time and technology wait for no man.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany
saw availability of far more advanced, more developed and,
frankly, sexier products in the East. Add to that an increasingly
vocal and powerful environmental lobby that saw smoky, smelly
two strokes as an abomination needing to be stamped out and
the writing was very much on the wall. MZ had to adapt or,
like their four-wheeled equivalent, Trabant, die. Now MZ started
off as an innovative and clever company, and while many saw
the influx of cheap Western goods as a disaster, they saw
instead the opportunity presented by the availability of technically
advanced engines and suspension. And they made the most of
it, too, with a series of bikes powered by other people’s
engines that were still very competitively priced, still bore
some distinct styling cues from the older bikes and were still
reliable and well made. But a company like MZ were never going
to be happy using other people’s engines to get bikes
out of the door, and their shareholders (a novel idea for
an Eastern European company) would always be nervous about
being at the mercy of another, potentially rival, firm. So
they decided to build their own bike.
MZ, you may recall, built their reputation
on cheap, cheerful workhorses. Their first post-reunification
bikes were based on the ultra-reliable but rather agricultural
Rotax 500, and the resulting Skorpion was really very much
of the same mould. So when their new Malaysian financiers
gave them the green light to go ahead with their own engine
design, it was inevitable that they would come up with something
similar.
Except, of course,
that they didn’t. MZ’s first new engine
for at least thirty years was going to go into a 1000cc sports
bike. Well, why not?
Engineering a four cylinder engine is a major
challenge, and inevitably would result in something a little
bland. So the decision was made that the bike would be a twin.
A parallel twin, at that – a configuration that is supposed
to be an ideal combination in terms of power delivery and
torque. Balance shafts and accurate engineering took care
of the vibration inherent in the design, with fuel injection
and a clever engine management system looking after the power
characteristics. Lots and lots of research determined that
there was nothing to be gained from an alloy frame, so an
elegant steel bridge secures the engine to the alloy swingarm
and yokes. Suspension is courtesy of Marzocchi while brakes
come from Nissin and look the same as those fitted to the
Honda SP-2. The fairing, screen, tank and seat unit are the
result of many hours in the wind tunnel to give optimum cooling
and protection. At least that is what we were told when we
were given a presentation on the bike at the Millbrook Proving
Ground.
We
were fortunate enough to collect a demonstrator the Wednesday
before, so by the time we go to Millbrook we had already had
the chance to rack up a few hundred miles and get a good impression
of what the bike is really like. And now, after having it
for a week and nearly 1200 miles, I think I’m pretty
sure I know where I stand. But before delivering a verdict,
let’s have a look at the bike in the flesh.
The MZ 1000S is a big bike.
Similar in size to a VFR, I’d say, so rather larger
than a Ducati 1000DS, it’s most obvious comparison.
More on that later. Styling is distinctive and clearly driven
by function rather than form. But that’s not a criticism
– the MZ 1000S is a good looking bike, even in silver,
never one of my favourite colours. There are myriad neat detailing
touches, like the small lip around the fairing cutouts that
massively increase the throughput of cooling air passing the
radiator, yet it manages to avoid being bitty or fussy. The
headlight array is a clever design, managing to be both efficient
and good looking, the rear light being similarly unique and
perfectly adequate. And yet traces of the Eastern Bloc remain,
with a massive, apparently handmade hanger for the number
plate. Great for hooking your cargo net to, mind you, and
not really a detraction from the bike itself. Talking of cargo
nets, the 1000S has pop out hooks below the pillion seat to
make securing luggage far easier. Very handy.
An
interesting quirk is the positioning of the silencers,
which at first glance look as though they have been incorrectly
fitted. The left silencer attaches outside the pillion footrest
while the right goes inside. The result is a slightly lop-sided
rear end but it’s just a result of the asymmetric frame
that allowed the rear shock to sit next to the battery for
mass centralisation. Plus, of course, the fact that the chain
is on the right instead of the left as we have come to expect.
In fact, the only criticism I can find of the bike before
I ride it is the instrumentation, which looks as though the
speedo could be a little hard to read in the heat of the moment.
On to riding, then. The first thing I noticed
was the way that everything fitted me perfectly. And I do
mean perfectly. Somebody has clearly spent a great deal of
time and effort on the ergonomics. The MZ 1000S is a supremely
comfortable motorbike. Pulling away reveals that the engine
is reasonably smooth for a parallel twin but that it doesn’t
really work properly until 3000rpm. Below that threshold there
is rather a lot of transmission snatch and juddering as the
firing pulses try to tie everything in knots. The clutch,
though, is light and easy to use while the gearbox, which
started off very notchy, got progressively lighter and more
accurate as the miles increased. The brakes are absolutely
fantastic, offering bags of feel and the sort of retardation
that an earlier MZ rider would only have achieved by running
into an unlit skip. In town, the MZ is nimble, narrow and
comfortable to move through traffic. The mirrors, which blur
at low revs, clear and stay clear above 3000rpm and afford
an excellent view. They are also still narrow enough to allow
proper filtering and can be pulled back flat for those narrow
gaps. The horn is excellent, too, so the MZ 1000S makes a
pretty decent town bike.
But
you don’t buy a sports bike, or even a sports
tourer, for town work. Out of town on the open roads, the
MZ is a revelation. The fully adjustable suspension is very
well controlled, straight out of the box without any fiddling,
resulting in a bike that handles bumps very well, even cranked
over and under power, while remaining comfortable. Again I
am reminded forcefully of the Ducati 1000DS. Like the Ducati,
the MZ responds equally well to the tucked in and tidy or
the hanging off like a gibbon approach to cornering, though
turn-in feels rather sharper on the MZ, allowing a more aggressive
approach. In fact, as we got better acquainted, it became
apparent that this new MZ gets better the harder it gets ridden.
Clutchless gearchanges, which seemed out of the question while
touring around, become perfectly reasonable when pressing
on, and the free revving engine makes overtakes a doddle.
The MZ 1000S seems to be most at home on fast A-roads, ideally
with lots of roundabouts. Which explains why I was grinning
so widely after getting home from Millbrook. And from today’s
photo shoot in Sussex. The handling circuit at Millbrook,
while subject to a rather low speed limit, allowed us to get
the most from the handling (hence the name, I suppose) in
a controlled environment. Weird riding on something that looks
exactly like a road but isn’t one – same signs,
road markings and so on but nothing coming the other way and
marshals on hand for when it all goes wrong. Brilliant place
for taking photos, too. The speed bowl showed that 100mph
is totally effortless on the MZ, but that came as no surprise.
In fact I suspect that slightly lower gearing might make the
already responsive MZ even better, as well as losing the low
rpm judder (or at least making it easier to ride through).
The engine is revving so slowly at 100mph that you are never
going to get to full power in top unless you’re on the
Autobahn. And even then you’re going to need a big run-up.
However, ignoring of of that, there are very few ways I can
think of to cover ground quicker or in a more relaxed way
than the MZ 1000S. Although the term 'deceptively quick' is
something of a cliche, it's an appropriate one.
While
we’re on the engine and transmission, it’s worth
pointing out that the MZ 1000S makes a decent amount of power.
A very decent amount indeed – the 115bhp quoted feels
about right and comes in smoothly and progressively though
there is a delightful kick towards the naughty end of the
rev counter. Despite being happy to rev, the MZ sips fuel
like a very frugal thing, doing a comfortable 200 miles a
tank though the reserve light comes on with over 6 litres
left to go. Probably not a bad thing, though, because the
MZ is not a light motorcycle and I wouldn’t fancy pushing
it a long way, even with an empty tank. The gearbox came in
for a bit of criticism at first as it is rather, um, positive
in action and can be a little hard on the toes. But as we
put on more miles the gearbox got better and easier to use,
while the occasional touch transmission snatch seemed to become
less frequent, too.
In this job, as you can imagine, I get to
ride quite a few different things. The MZ gets the award for
the most attention any bike has got when I’ve parked
it up. Because wherever we went, people wanted to look at
it and ask about it. It’s a unique looking bike, a unique
sounding bike (thanks to some nifty exhaust plumbing and careful
work on the firing order) and I suspect will remain reasonably
exclusive. MZ offer as wide a range of colours as you can
think of as standard, and will do any colour you wish for
a small extra charge, which will add to the unique appeal
of the bike. There is also a vast range of accessories either
already available or on the way, including touring gearing,
a taller screen, fitted hard or soft luggage, heated grips,
a GPS installation and so on. 
In fact, talking of awards, last year the
Ducati 1000DS won our inaugural Bike of the Year award. The
MZ 1000S is certainly a contender for this year’s award,
doing everything the Ducati does at least as well and some
things notably better. It really is a very, very good motorbike.
But that’s partly the problem. Because
those of us who remember MZ remember them as cheap bikes,
while those who don’t remember them from before don’t
associate this seemingly new brand with anything at all. And
the MZ 1000S is not a cheap motorbike. At just
under £7000, it’s priced near the top of
it’s market segment. It is, in all probability, the
best bike in that segment. And it is, almost certainly, worth
every penny of that price. But it’s up against some
serious and well established competition. Are you brave or
different enoughto run against the herd?
I hope it is
the sales success it deserves to be, because there is no doubt
in my mind that this is by far the best, most enjoyable sports
bike (as opposed to race replica) that I have ridden this
year.
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