Mighty MuZ 251 Saxon Tour
This old-timer had done 92000 miles on the MuZ before his eyesight gave out – now, you probably have to be half blind to buy one of these old stroker horrors from the nineties but a hundred notes for a legal runner in 2004, you don't have much choice in the matter. That was my excuse, anyway.
The Iron Curtain hack didn't look that bad, more faded patina than rust, and still ticked over in the usual querulous manner. For that kinda dosh, you really don't bother haggling and just ride the little bugger, see what happens.
The Saxon a curious commuter, surging slightly at tickover revs but churning out enough torque to walk the talk, then seemingly going somnolent until 4000 revs when it became a bit lively, but only to the extent of worrying old dears in decaying Metro's. Time warp city more than anything else.
A couple of days exploration, it churned up to about 70mph maximum, turned in around 60mpg and barely kept my mate's 100mpg Benley in sight. Not exactly inspiring but about what I expected for the dosh.
A week into ownership, the clutch cable snapped. The gearchange had required vicious application of a heavy-duty boot; any hesitation met with a curious grinding noise. Without a clutch we were deeply into the agricultural zone, with lots of venal bouncing and self-destructive noises but the old heap was relentless in its determination to return us to base.
I am a bit paranoid about oil levels in strokers and was very amused to find that the sight-glass in the tank had gone AWOL, leaving me with sod all oil! I don't care if a bike has done a million miles, this kind of crap design just doesn't do it for me! That was two weeks into ownership and I got the distinct impression that the machine was disintegrating beneath me!
The combination of a poor headlamp and a dodgy rear brake meant I nearly ran off the road when the latter locked up on a shadowy back lane – I don't mean it momentarily locked up but the bugger seized up solid and went into a massive skid until some desperate prayers and soiled underwear saved the day! I soon began to loathe riding in the wet, neither brake up to much – as might be expected at this age!
A month into ownership, became evident that the electrics were fast decaying – flickering headlight, dead indicators and starting that was an art I had yet to acquire. Usually six or seven kicks but sometimes totally dead. A new spark plug a weekly ritual. The choke cable was half seizing up, as well, which didn't help general running until a new one was fitted.
In fact, the carb was all gummed up with noxious muck and needed a complete dismantle and clean up. Proved very awkward to put back together and I had visions of them being assembled by huge Teutonic wenches as my puny wrists were almost done in by the spring. All that effort made very little difference.
A bit of a fiddle with the needle height and idle screw got her running a little cleaner – a spark plug now lasted as long as three weeks. A search on the web revealed that, to ease production in the factory, the 251 and 301 shared identical carbs! The little bugger was running too rich. Drilled the silencer and slashed the air-filter, the old heap then managed to run up to 75mph and turn in 65mpg!
Problems with the main fuse blowing and the battery dying a death made the thing a rolling death-trap as it could stop dead without any warning in the middle of the traffic flow. The connectors tend to corrode, taking them apart and putting them together again sufficient to clean up the contacts. The HT coil also disintegrated... I bought a non-runner for a fiver and used parts from that to keep mine running. In fact, there are an awful lot of these old heaps stored away waiting for desperate punters.
The MZ was supposed to have good handling but mine always felt very edgy, down to knackered steering head bearings, hardened tyres and well battered wheels. It never actually threw a wobbly so I adapted to its needs and talked nicely to it! Probably lucky that it didn't do more than 75mph!
When I bought the bike, there was a new MOT certificate – god knows how it managed that and I was determined to ride it for a year and then put a match in the petrol tank rather than spending a small fortune on new consumables, bearings, exhaust, etc.
However, after six months, when the little beast seemed to hum along quite well as it crossed the 100k mark, I found that I rather liked the bike! So I decided to replace what I could with used stuff, see how far down the road to righteousness I could get.
It was whilst hammering out the steering head bearings that I had second thoughts – bits of the steering head column cracking up can do that to you! It was rather like the time I took the forks out of the yokes of a Honda CB350K4 – I'd left the front wheel on and the forks rolled away as they popped out of the top yokes... leaving the bottom yokes completely distorted as if they were made out of tin rather than steel.
Everyone has their limit and that was mine. The whole mess of bits sold off for a tenner; I still think, though, I'd had very good value out of the little stroker single!
Dave Harrison