MZ ETS 250 Trophy Sport

Proof that it is back in one piece, here is a photo of my MZ 250 Trophy Sport. I've only been to the MOT station and back on it so far, but I intend to remedy this soon. I think it is a great looking bike, and the huge petrol tank holds 22 litres and even has a baffle plate in it to stop the fuel sloshing about too much. The riding position is a bit odd though, the tank is long, the handlebars low and the footrests well forward, so you are sort of bent in half while riding it. It's tolerably comfortable though and good fun. I have a couple of issues to sort out, namely since I put new oil seals in the forks the rebound damping is a bit poor, causing the forks to top out with a clonk on bumpy roads. Also it does seem to be running a bit rich. I will try a little more fork oil in each leg to start with and if that doesn't work I will have to replace the fork oil with something thicker, 20/50 engine oil has been suggested as a good idea.

More updates as and when progress is made, no doubt.

Disaster!

My Jawa wrecked its left hand big end today, made a right clatter it did. At least it had the decency to do it while still on my driveway and before I had spent lots of money on a new pair of tyres I was setting off to have fitted. I took the left hand head off and the carnage was revealed, lumps out of the piston and head and ground up metal everywhere, as bits of big end had come up through the transfer ports. I could set the piston at top dead centre and turn the crank quite a long way without the piston moving too.... The photo shows the pockmarked combustion chamber, wiping my finger round made it become covered with a grey metallic grinding paste. A total engine strip down is required, and being a twin the crank will be expensive to recondition.

I pondered getting shut of the bike and all the spares I have but that's a defeatist attitude. Instead I got everything ready to lift the engine out, my pet engine builder is coming on Tuesday to take it away. It will cost me far more than the bike is worth, but I like it and what's money got to do with it anyway? I have another pair of pistons and barrels and another cylinder head as that one is scrap, so if they are in good condition that will save a bit of cash.

A break, then some progress

I have been busy lately, hence the lack of posts. However I had a great holiday travelling about on the trains in North West England with a 7 day rail rover ticket which I thought was astonishing value at £70. I certainly got my money's worth.

Once the time on the ticket had expired, I did manage to get the MZ ETS 250 Trophy Sport back in one piece, it started first kick and it is now MOTed and taxed the latter being free which is nice.

I have a couple of things which need to be sorted but I can at least ride it. I will give it a good clean sometime soon and put some photos on here.

I went for a good spin on the Guzzi V7 Classic on Sunday afternoon and evening. The flat battery problem has gone away for the time being, more frequent use hopefully will stop it coming back. First stop was Helmsley in North Yorkshire, reached via a fantastic B road from York. Helmsley is a very pleasant little town and the market square is always popular with people on bikes. I had a RBR clue to get here too.
Across the way was this smart Riley sports car too.
I rode on and turned off to pass through the Dalby Forest. I had not been this way before and as it was late afternoon the Forestry Commission staff had gone home so I did not need to pay to use the toll road through the forest, which is huge. Not far in this was the view, trees as far as I could see!
Soon after I found this lovely clearing with a stream.
Lots of wild flowers to be seen there.
Perfect place to live, right in the middle of the forest, as long as you don't fall out with your neighbours, you don't want a drink in the pub and you don't run out of grub. It must be 7 miles at least to the nearest shop!
Further on I found this massive rock. Quite strange as there did not seem to be any other rocks about.
One last shot of the forest, the east end of it this time.
Not far from there is the village of Hackness, where a stream runs down the street!
England in spring time takes some beating I reckon. Near Hackness.
I then travelled through Scarborough and Bridlington, stopping off to get a RBR clue in Hunmanby on the way then briefly stopped at Fraisthorpe beach. It was just too cold to hang around, sadly. Bridlington can be seen in the distance and the blocks are the remains of WWII defences. The soft cliffs are getting eroded here, last time I visited about 11 years back they were not so far out on to the beach.
Nice shot of cows and calves grazing by a pond near Fraisthorpe beach.
I rode on over the Humber bridge to get a third clue in North Lincolnshire. I found a nice little lane nearby. Here is a Lincolnshire sunset.
Mist can be seen forming in the dyke in failing light. it was really cold for May.

I filled up in Brigg and chatted to the owner of this well cool Norton rotary cafe racer. From there it was a chilly but quick ride home on the M180 and M62. I got home just before 11 PM having ridden 265 miles and had a great day.

Ride to the Peak District

The weekend before this recent one I helped my good friend Kevin with his MZ ES 25o/2 Trophy bike. He had paid to have the engine rebuilt and I assisted him in getting the engine bolted back in and everything connected up. He got it MOTed this last Saturday so we went for a spin in the peak District at a gentle speed to get some running in miles done. I took my hack MZ TS 150, it looks a complete shed due to being used all year round and not getting cleaned much but is mechanically sound and a great bike. We did two RBR clues while we were out and then chanced upon a very narrow country lane which looked interesting so we followed it. Soon we got some fabulous views as can be seen from the above photo. The lane was so minor we had to stop occasionally and open gates to allow onwards access.
We had excellent fish and chips in a delightful village called Longnor and then visited an MZ rally for an hour or so to chat with everyone and see the bikes.
Here is a real rarity, in this country at least, an MZ ES 175/1 from 1965 belonging to the General Secretary of the MZ Riders Club.
A couple of nice TS 150 Pathfinder trial bikes, note the unusual tail pipe on the green one, possibly from an old Jawa.

An old MZ ETZ 250 painted up to look like a military bike.
Very shiny early TS 250. This bike is always highly polished and regularly wins prizes.

Kevin and I had a pleasant ride home in the dark of about 50 miles. His bike ran perfectly and is now over a quarter run in. It was a really cold ride though, about 5 degrees I would think. Enough to make my hands hurt with the cold and not really what we should be experiencing in May. I blame global warming!

Round Britain Rally (RBR)

Most years I do the Round Britain Rally (to be referred to from now on as the RBR), It's a great challenge which takes one to all sorts of places which would otherwise not be visited. There is at least one clue for each county on the UK mainland and you have to find it and take a photo of your bike by it to get points. Some of them are very awkward to locate. Full details available here:

http://www.roundbritainrally.co.uk/

I will not be posting photos of the rally clues on here as doing so while the competition is ongoing (it runs from April to October each year) is regarded as not the done thing which I feel is fair enough. However, if I mention getting RBR clues from now on, that is what I am referring to.

On the Bench 2

My good friend Nigel, the electrical wizard came round tonight. He had worked out what was wrong with the Trophy Sport. It was doing very odd things as hinted at in a previous post, the brake light switch was causing the lights in the speedometer to do very odd things and all in all the bike was not happy. The problem was the engine was not earthed. I do not recall the instructions for the electronic ignition kit saying we needed one, but the old dynamo had an earth wire, the new set up did not. Running a wire from the carburettor mounting bolt to a known earthing point on the frame sorted it all out straight away. Within minutes I had rigged up a throttle and got some petrol into the carburettor. The biked fired on the first kick and started on the third, after having been stood 19 months. Pretty good that I reckon. All the electrics are working well, I just need to get the front wheel and mudguard in, fit a few new control cables and give the bike a good clean and polish and it is ready for the MOT test.

2 slight problems...

I have experienced two problems recently, one self inflicted.

I got called out on standby for work over the weekend. I went on my little MZ TS 150 winter hack which had a nice new back tyre to try out and had not been used for some weeks. On the way home the gearchange got really notchy so I decided to check things out before riding the bike again. Tonight I lifted the rear wheel off the ground and could hear a definite metallic rubbing noise when I turned the wheel backwards but not forwards. Further inspection revealed very little oil in the gearbox. I'm a bad lad, have let the bike go a bit and have not checked the oil since I stopped the last known leak some time back. However a mate of mine ran his nearly dry and no harm was apparently done so fingers crossed it will be OK. I guess I have a slightly leaking seal and the engine is drinking a but , but performance seems fine the nasty noise has now gone, a road test will confirm. I must ensure I am more careful in future.

I had to go on a course today and wanted to go on my Moto Guzzi V7 Classic, as pictured at the top of this screen. It was having none of it as the battery was almost completely flat even though it was fine when I last used the bike 3 weeks ago. The bike is only 9 months old and really should not have done this. I am at present unsure whether the battery has developed a fault or if there is something wrong with the bike which is allowing the battery to drain down when the bike is stood. I have charged the battery up during the day today and it will have to be a case of seeing what happens then contacting the dealer should a warranty claim be necessary. it did at least start easily this evening with a charged battery/

I went to the course on my Jawa instead and went on to see a good friend in Pateley Bridge afterwards, enjoying a virtually traffic free run in good weather back as far as Otley this evening then still only light congestion from then on through Bradford and home. So all in all, not all bad at all.