[Yassoon]

Hey guys, just thought I'd share some of my bike pics from Cuba. I find it interesting how they can take take a 40 year old bike and make it look new...

 

[Lucky#13]

they do the same thing to cars...

 

[eXce!!eNt]

It's like a backwards center-stand in the first pic. And man, thank goodness they're in Cuba.

 

[Frog]

Can anyone tell me what's the 1st one ?
How's the steering working ?

Is it me or the 2nd bike has a 'aftermarket' frame ?

Nice machines for 40 years old, I'm always impressed at their craftman skills

 

[damarble]

That second bike actually looks pretty cool IMO, for what it is.

 

[jlmay]

second one looks similar to ex250 imo.

 

[Frog]

It might be a distant ancestor, it's an air-cooled engine.

 

[Mad Matt]

Can anyone tell me what's the 1st one ?
How's the steering working ?

I don't know exactly what it is except that MZ is an Italian 2-stroke engine mfg. The front suspension has kind of a swing arm arrangement on the front wheel. There is heavy bar or pair of bars (probably black which is why they cannot be seen) running down behind the front wheel and the "swingarm" pivot is behind the wheel. So it steers like normal. You can see the same arrangement on a lot of older bikes.

What I'm not seeing well is the front brake. If that's a drum up there it's pretty small! Looks like a small cable running into the hub instead of a lever. Could this thing have a compression band?

 

[dragknee]

man, there are some damn good mechanics in cuba. they got studebakers from the 50's, but they havent gotten any new parts since then either lol. they are still running though lol.

anyone who can strip parts from a 1963 soviet tank and make it work on your studebaker is alright in my book


you lucky canadians... i wish i could go to cuba... stupid department of state, prohibiting me from going there or spending US dollars there

 

[Mad Matt]

You could try Costa Rica. Nice people, incredibly varied terrain, great weather on the Pacific coast and the Tico mechanics are pretty damn creative too. They don't have any old tanks to pull parts from but I've seen some creative application of horseshoes and corregated metal.

 

[dragknee]

my friend went there and said that he loved it. id love to go check it out.

 

[Royson]

When we (my soon to be wife and I) take our honeymoon this coming winter, my only goal is to rent a bike like one of those to boot around on for the week. I think it'd be such a blast going from a modern (as modern as the 500 is) machine to sometihng like one of those bikes!

 

[dragknee]

I don't know exactly what it is except that MZ is an Italian 2-stroke engine mfg.

MZ is also a german motorcycle manufacturer.

MZ stands for Motorradwerk Zschopau (German for motorcycle factory at Zschopau)

thats an MZ ES250

http://www.bikepics.com/mz/es250/

 

[GeeperZ]

I thought MZ was Czech but turns out to be East German, formerly Russian:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MZ_Motorrad-_und_Zweiradwerk_GmbH

 

[dragknee]

yup, which would easily explain it being in cuba

bet you wont see any harleys down there lol

 

[Frog]

Check here, more detailed picts of the green one : http://www.bikepics.com/mz/es250/73/pics.asp

It looks like the fat green bars are there only to support the massive front fender.. I guess weight saving wasn't their priority..

 

[Gman]

I say we end the embargo and send them some 10 year old EX-500's

 

[Frog]

Send them Gs500 bikes, I need the spare ex500 parts for my 17yo ride

 

[Yassoon]

Some more pics for our American friends who don't get to go to Cuba :'(
Enjoy.

 

[Frog]

These guys will fix anything, I've read somewhere that they resort to putting Lada engines in Chevy Bel-Air.. through a Chrysler tranny

I like the 1st pict, all old cars (and Russian army truck) and 1 brand new Peugeot (can't even get those here)