MZ Motorcycles Scheduled to Close This Year
June 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider"
MZ Motorcycles (Motorcycle Works Zschopau), the long standing but now long troubled motorcycle manufacturer from East Germany will be closing its doors at the end of this year. Hong Leong Industries, which has owned the company since 1996 has been incurring losses on the MZ operation since that time. According to the Freie Presse newspaper from the nearby city of Chemnitz, MZ will shut down December 31st.
MZ stopped selling in the U.S. several years ago and will now close its doors entirely.
The closure had been widely anticipated, as this is the date when subsidies from the state of Saxony end. Some 40 workers at the concern are set to lose their jobs.
Link: DW-World
Posted in Motorcycle Business
| Top Of Page
14 Responses to “MZ Motorcycles Scheduled to Close This Year”
Give us your opinion but please read this first ...
This is a public forum, NO PROFANITY OR PERSONAL ATTACKS WILL BE TOLERATED! STAY ON TOPIC! All comments are filtered, if yours does not appear, do not resubmit, it has been held for review. Comments may be edited or removed by the moderator. Above all, keep the conversation civil! Thanks.
NOTICE: Comments may be delayed before display.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Too bad. They were doing OK when they had something unique to offer like the 660 Skorpion singles. They weren’t exactly top sellers but they were well respected and had a strong following. When they stopped selling those it all went down hill. Right about the same time I could afford to buy a new bike the Sport was no longer available. I still keep an eye out for a good condition Sport or Sport Cup. Like FZR400’s they seem to have all been turned into racers.
This would be a good opportunity for VW to get into the motorcycle business if they were to buy it up.
-todd
June 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Maybe Harley could buy them? MZ sounds like MV…
-todd
June 8th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Its sad when a motorcycle business that makes “REAL” motorcycles is lost, Being replaced with ugly bastards like the Vmax.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I agree: VW should buy MZ…
June 8th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
They sold a little Indonesian made, water cooled, fuel injected, 125cc street bike. They were expensive for an Asian import and parts were a big problem. I looked at a couple on Ebay. They wanted more than I would pay. They will be cheap now!
June 8th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Man - it’s a perfect opportunity for the VW Group to acquire a motorcycle brand and bring everything in -house (as opposed to the stuff I’ve heard about them working with KTM).
I’m guessing that it won’t happen though.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:30 am
DKW was a start-up right after WW1. By the mid-1930s they reportedly ran the world’s largest motorcycle factory, had developed a supercharged two stroke Gran Prix racer (they were argueably the world leader in two strokes at the time) and their signature bike was the famous RT125.
They were in tall cotton - and then it all started to go down hill.
After WWII, the factory wound up in Soviet held East Germany and became MZ. The design rights to the fabulous little RT125 were taken as war reparations (and built by BSA, Harley-Davidson, Yamaha and others). DKW, no longer possessing either their factory or intelectual property, was absorbed and disapeared.
Despite communist management, MZ continued to develop advanced two stroke science and was a dominant player in international off road racing - until their top rider defected WITH one of their race bikes, which he sold to Suzuki.
In our lifetimes MZ was mostly known for smokey, blocky Eastern European motorcycles that made one appreciate freedom and democracy. Since the fall of the wall and reunification there were flashes of hope. The 660cc Skorpion series bikes were wonderful - so good in fact they inspired BMW, with their far greater capital and branding, to create the F650 three years later.
I suspect the “MZ” name will be purchaed by an Asian motorcycle manufacturer and used to market their bikes in Europe. The tooling for the very, very nice little modern era RT125 might possibly wind up in India or China, where it could blossom once relieved of the expense of German manufacture. The old factory in Zschopau will surely close, and with it the story of one of the world’s great motorcycle marques.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’m sorry to see them go. I thought the 1000S was a unique, intriguing bike.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:09 am
“I suspect the “MZ” name will be purchaed by an Asian motorcycle manufacturer and used to market their bikes in Europe. ”
That already happened…and they are closing it down. Hong Leong cannot afford to continue to run MZ at a loss.
Also I suspect any brand equity the marque once had is long gone.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am
If Hong Leong has any motocycle manufacturing ability resident in Asia I’m unable to find it. They seem mostly to be a finacial house. They have never sold an Asain manufactured bike in Europe as an MZ that one could also buy in Asia as a Hong Leong. MZ sold Taiwanese built motor scooters, but those were brought in, not manufactured by parent Hong Leong. Asain management and investment is different from Asian manufacturing.
Chinese manufacturer Qingqi is using the old German marque Kreidler’s name for branding their motorcycles in the EU:
http://mot.kreidler.net/Kreidler_Mot_5.html
June 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The late model 15 hp RT-125 (with SuperMoto, SuperX, and FunX models) were designed and built entirely in-house, i.e. Germany. The RT is capable of 75 MPH and is a well built, relatively full size bike. If they could have continued its development into larger capacities (eventually replacing the Yamaha sourced 660 single) they would have had a nice range of bikes. In some countries -not so much the US- the brand equity is still quite high; higher than NSU (if VW were to resurrect it).
-todd
June 14th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Own an ‘05 MZ1000S with 22k miles on it. Any sources for parts — air & oil filters — shims for valve adjustments etc.? Preferably in the U.S.A. capitanlloyd@yahoo.com Thanks
July 21st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I too am really sorry to see MZ go down. I had
a 1997 Skorpian Traveler. It was a great bike,
very trouble free. That said, having a bike that rare can be a pain sometimes. Nobody makes anything for it.
Maintenance was time consuming. Had to pull the radeator off just to ajust the exhaust valves.
Oil filling was very slow with the tank under the
seat.
Still , I wish I still had it.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
If you have an MZ Skorpion I would not worry to much about parts. Except for the main frame and air filter everything else seems to be from somebody else’s parts bin. Even the swinging arm is purported to be from Yamaha, as is the light unit. Wheels and brakes bits can be found at Italian bike dealers and the engine bits are obviously Yamaha.
I have personally spotted the rear light unit on a Buell and the indicators on a Triumph.