A momentous occasion...

On August 1st 1970, My MZ 250 Trophy Sport was put on the road for the first time. Presumably some person who may no longer be with us rode round showing off the new bike with the then brand new J suffix letter on the registration to their friends. This means the bike was 40 today! This occasion could not go uncelebrated so today my mate Kevin (still putting running in miles on his MZ 250 Trophy) and I went on a 100 ish mile trip round rural "Lancashurr". Here are three photos taken at a viewpoint on a hill above Burnley (the first 2 photos) and at the end of a dead end road we were hoping would get us back on course after we had taken a wrong turning. Why is it that Lancastrians rarely seem to bother to put up sign posts at road junctions??
Apologies again for the slightly poor quality, I forgot my camera and had to use the mobile phone again.
We had a great ride out, the bikes going really well. Somewhere near Whalley we stopped to look at some Moto Guzzis outside a bloke's house and he and his mate came to chat to us. The house owner has an old 250 4 speed MZ TS, and his mate tried to sell me his 5 speed TS. He is however in disgrace after admitting to cutting up an MZ and throwing it away just yesterday because he thought nobody wanted it. Both were very interested in our bikes and we spent a very pleasant 5 minutes chatting.

We had a delicious pub meal in Chatburn near Clitheroe then back home almost entirely on moorland single track roads.

The carburation is still a little out on my bike but it seems to be that if I open the throttle too much or too quickly it gases up and runs very rich. Nursing the bike and opening the throttle gradually seems to result in good performance and less problems so I can live with that for the time being at least.

Will the bike still be around in another 40 years time? Will there be any petrol left then? Who knows, the most likely scenario is that I will not be around to care! I will look after it as best I can and hopefully somebody younger will take it on in due course. I intend to go to Somerset on it in September so it will certainly be used all the time I own it.