MZ factory visit

In the beginning of 2004 I saw in the FIM calendar that Zschopau was hosting a round for the World Enduro Championship in october. I never went to such an event before and decided to go there. When the year progressed I thought of the idea to visit the MZ factory while I was in Zschopau. 1 e-mail and 1 phone call later all was set for october 14th.

So, on october 12th I threw some luggage on the Skorpion and headed east (together with a friend on a Buell). Via a campsite in Walkenried (-3° Celcius at night!) we arrived on the campsite in Amtsberg in the Erz mountains, less then 10 kilometer from Zschopau.

While waiting for the tour to start we had a look at some of the previous and current M(u)Z models.

Imagine being chased by a police man on a MZ Charly!!

Skorpions and Saxons are still being used by the Polizei. The Skorpion weighs 240 kg, has a Scottoiler, Hepco & Becker hard cases and heated grips (and a lot of 'police stuff').

At the entrance of the hall where the frames are built there is an example of all the frame models. These are 1000s frames.

A bunch of 125 engine bottom ends.

A bunch of 1000s cilinder heads.

MZ 125 SX under construction. At the time we were there they were only building 125 SX models. The french army ordered 200 of them if I heard that right (I read in a dutch magazine that they ordered 500!). Obviously good news for both the factory and the french army :-)

All spoke wheels are 'spoked' by hand!

My Skorpion Sport was 'back home'.