Here's the first one then! I'm off to see my flawless and brilliant child in Casablanca sometime during April. She'll be there working and learning, all expenses paid, for a month or so and I'm unashamedly using her as an excuse to take an extended trip by bike from the Midlands to Morocco. At this point (and doubtless on the day of departure) I'm totally unprepared beyond having an idea, a profound abscence of any common sense and a motorcycle, which in a former life probably carried a sensible, more mature gentleman, to and from his place of work. Having sold my Yamaha R1 to Paul (friend, fellow sportsman and property developer of note), I find myself confronted with the last bike in the garage, as it were...a 1986 MZ ETZ 250. This has been kicking about unregistered for five or six years now, unloved, neglected and ignored. Well all that's about to change! Paul and his brother transported the bike (NB. I will not be giving it a name, cute or otherwise, though I reserve the right to use titular expletives as and when required) to my workshop in Solihull where the transformation from humble Eastern European commuter to Paris/Dakaresque mile eater will take place. It won't be pretty! Genetically speaking the MZ is definitely a chromosome or two short of a R1150GS. In fact it has about as much in common with the BMW as we do with plankton....unless you live in Bilston!
We're talking a pre trans continental, preparatory budget of £20 or so, so be prepared for innovative if slightly unorthodox solutions to storage (suggestions gratefully received), touring modifications, spares and repairs etc. Pictures and tales of long hours sweating over the complexity of the mighty beast will be forthcoming.
