Early in 2001 rumours started to circulate on the Internet of a big MZ rally at the factory in Germany. As I'd bought a Skorpion the year before, I thought that it would be a good excuse to take the bike for a long run, and to visit Germany for the first time in about 20 years. However, I couldn't find any firm details of if or when the rally would take place, so Kathleen and I went to France for two weeks instead.

 We later found out that the rally had indeed taken place, about 15,000 people had turned up, and it had been decided to make the rally an annual affair. So, it was time to start planning a visit to the rally in 2002. Mike, and David (an MZ rider in the US) had both expressed an interest in going, and David arranged to fly from the US to Scotland then ride my 'project bike', an MZ ETZ 250 fitted with a 301 engine. The fact that the project bike was still in bits in my garage was only a minor concern! Mike wrote a couple of articles in the section newsletter and MZ Rider (MZRC magazine) giving details of the rally, and was contacted by Kurt, a German MZer who lived about halfway between the channel ports and Zschopau, who offered to arrange accommodation at a youth hostel for anyone going to the rally. Add to that the announcement that a Greek shipping firm called Superfast was going to start a ferry service from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, which would save me about 150 miles extra journey to Newcastle, or 250 to Hull, and things were looking up. Over the winter, a number of people contacted Mike saying they would like to go, and I spent long winter evenings in the garage finishing off the project bike. David had arranged with friends in Prague for us to spend a couple of nights there, so the holiday was starting to take shape.

In November 2001 I had contacted my insurance company to arrange insurance for David riding my bike. They had told me that there would be no problem, just phone them a couple of days before we leave, and the charge would be 'about £30'. Before we knew it it was July, and only a month to go. The ferry tickets had been bought, David had arranged his flights, and I had nearly finished the project bike. I finally managed to finish the bike and get it MOTed a couple of days before David arrived, but had only managed to put about 20 miles on it. Everything seemed to be OK, so it would have to go as it is. I phoned my insurance company to give them David's details, only to be told that it would be impossible to insure David for my bike, and that the person who told me so must have been mistaken. Oh dear, Problem No:1.

 David arrived and we went to a bike shop I knew to see if they could arrange insurance for him. Remember when shops could just write out a 'cover note' giving you a month's insurance? Not now they don't. The shop owner told us that shops are no longer allowed to issue insurance, and you have to deal directly with brokers. I spent the next morning phoning brokers and running into Problem No: 2. It is near impossible to get insurance for someone with only a US licence (and not an International Driving Permit), who is not resident in the UK. Note I said 'near' impossible as after phoning 14 brokers, I only found one willing to insure him, and that was for £160!! Even when I said that we only needed insurance for two weeks, they wouldn't budge from a one year policy. Then just as we thought that this was our only option, the phone rang and one of the brokers who had previously declined now decided that they could do it after all, and after a couple of calls we managed to get a two month policy for £36. I gave them my credit card details, and that was Problem Solved - or so I thought! (More later).

 With insurance in place David and I went for a run of about 100 miles around Ayrshire to get him familiarised with the bike, and then it was off to Rosyth. Rosyth is only about 60 miles from my house and as the ferry sailed at 4pm, we had a leisurely ride over, stopping for lunch in the very picturesque Culross. Soon it was through the greatly increased security compared to previous voyages, and onto the boat. The Superfast boat is undoubtedly the biggest and best ferry I've ever been on. Our cabin was on the ninth floor and there were more floors above that. Inside it is more like a very swanky hotel and as the boat wasn't very busy we had a four berth cabin to ourselves. On the way over we watched news reports on television of serious flooding in South East Germany and the Czech Republic, the areas we were heading for!

 Seventeen and a half hours and a good sleep after we left Rosyth we were riding off the boat at Zeebrugge and starting out holiday proper. For some reason I can't explain, (incompetence, most likely), I had booked the ferry for a day earlier than planned, so David and I had an 'extra' day before we met the others at the hostel. We rode the 10 or so miles from Zeebrugge to Bruges/Brugge, and spent the day wandering about playing at tourists. Brugge is one of the most beautiful European cities and you could easily spend a couple of days just taking in the architecture. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

 We headed off late in the afternoon, and got as far as Hasselt, where, thanks to a very helpful and thankfully English speaking policewoman, we found a good hotel. The next morning it was onto the motorway, briefly passing through the Netherlands, and into Germany. The journey was fairly uneventful and we soon arrived at the hostel in Hilchenbach. We arrived mid afternoon and although the hostel was closed, the guy there let us leave our luggage and helmets inside while we went for a wander around the rather pretty town. When we got back to the hostel Kurt had arrived and making waffles on his wonderful homemade waffle stove. The 'hostelmother' had made flasks of coffee, so we sat about eating, drinking, and chatting as the British contingent arrived in dribs and drabs. When David and I had got near Hilchenbach we got held up by some roadworks for about 15 minutes or so. However, the delays had got much worse by the time the others got there, and some had been held up for 45 minutes or so. Eventually, about 20 British MZers turned up, along with a number of Kurt's friends.

 The next morning it was back on the bikes and heading off towards Zschopau. David and I went by the autobahn and the journey was fairly uneventful until we could see a plume of black smoke in the distance. As we got closer the traffic started to slow, and we could smell burning plastic. I at first thought it was a factory fire or suchlike, but when we made our way to the front of the now stationary queue of traffic (filtering is illegal in Germany, but who was going to catch us), the fire turned out to be a burning VW camper on the hard shoulder. The fire was pretty spectacular with flames 50 feet high and the occasional explosion. The Fire Brigade had stopped their engines on the opposite carriageway and had run their hoses across our side of the autobahn. Eventually they got the fire out and we were on our way.

 The old East/West German border isn't marked, but you can tell you're in the East by the change in architecture. We started seeing towns full of hideous communist era housing. Drab and dehumanising certainly, but in truth no worse than Cumbernauld or Milton Keynes. We also saw communist era transmission masts, tall concrete structures with a huge aerial on top, and every hilltop in Eastern Germany is covered with wind turbines, no doubt built to replace old polluting coal power stations.

 As we neared Chemnitz we stopped at a service station where we met Mike (Traveller) and John (Kanuni 251). John had got the boat from Northern Ireland to Scotland then ridden to Rosyth to catch the boat to Zeebrugge along with Mike and my brother Stuart. Since Stuart was on his FJ 1200, he had long since zoomed off into the distance and would meet up with us at Zschopau.

 The four of us headed toward Chemnitz where we followed 'Uncle Norman's Navigational Scheme' - head towards the city centre until you see a sign for the place you are looking for. This went well until I mistakenly followed a sign to 'Chemnitz Center' and rode into a..... shopping centre! Once back into the city centre we stopped to ask a group of boys on Simsons, who put us on the right road. We started seeing MZs with German numberplates and camping gear, so assuming they were heading to the rally we followed them to Zschopau. As we approached Zschopau we started seeing signs for 'MZ Treffen' and they led us to the campsite.

 When we arrived there must have been at least 500 - 1000 people camping, but we quickly found some of the British contingent and put up our tents. The rally itself is held within the grounds of the MZ factory, and they charge 5 euros for the rally and 10 euros to camp, pretty cheap if you ask me.

 That evening we went down to the factory to see what was happening. David and I produced our 'secret weapons' - kilts, which elicited some strange responses from the Germans; either pointing and speaking excitedly in German (which I don't understand), or pretending not to notice! Women in particular are fascinated by kilts, (see left), while their boyfriends don't look too pleased and try to lead them away. I also had my photo taken by numerous people. One advantage of wearing a kilt is that the Managing Director of MZ comes up to speak to you (in English) and buys you a beer.

 

MZ had set up a huge stage on which bands played (think Reading Festival - that sort of size), lots of food and drink outlets (unfortunately for me none of them sold vegetarian food), and the most amazing autojumble you could imagine. Dozens of stalls selling virtually every MZ part ever made. If you had an old MZ two stroke you'd have to buy a sidecar to carry all the bits you'd buy home! (There were some of those for sale too). Most of us had a wander round, bought a few things, had a few drinks, and then headed back to the tents.

 I got up early on Saturday morning and went for a shower. I wasn't the only one of the British contingent to encounter naked German women wandering the shower block completely unselfconsciously. Couldn't imagine that happening in Britain, and certainly not at an MZRC rally, though I've not been to one for a while....

 It's hard to describe the scale of the rally, it's so much bigger than I'd ever imagined. On the Saturday there were even more stalls at the autojumble, there were tours of the factory, an organised run out round the mountains, and test rides on all current MZ models. There was also a high wire acrobatic display on MZs, and there were bands playing from breakfast time. Everything from 'rooty tooty' trad jazz to heavy metal. I wanted to go on a factory tour and was pleased to see that they were organising a couple of tours in English. Groups of 40 or 50 a time were being taken round on German tours, but there were only about 6 of us on the English tour, which was conducted by Peter Körner, who had worked for MZ since the 60s and is now head of sales to non Eurozone countries.

 In common with many modern bike companies, MZ don't make a lot of their bikes in their own factory, preferring to subcontract a lot of the manufacture. They make their own frames and spoked wheels, and the 125s are assembled in the plant. They don't have a production line like they had in the DDR days; instead bikes are built up from parts in a 'booth' by a team, then passed to final inspection.

 At the time of the visit (August 2002), they had just ceased production of the Skorpion, and were concentrating on the Baghira, the 125 and the Charly scooter. The Moskito scooter is built in Asia and shipped complete to Germany. They were testing final prototypes of the 1000S, and were hoping to start production soon.

 Back outside it was time for more walking about looking at bikes. There was a fantastic display of MZs and DKWs, including off road bikes, road racers, etc, which had been borrowed from the nearby Augustusburg museum. Apparently, 17,500 people visited the rally and it seemed that most of them had come on MZs. After getting something to eat we wandered back down to the factory which was now packed with people watching the bands. There was a wide selection of acts from doo-wop to glam rock, and the concert was being broadcast by local radio. Eventually most of us wandered back to the campsite for a cup of tea, and I fell asleep and missed a spectacular firework display. The climax (so to speak) of the evening's entertainment was the much vaunted 'Erotik Show', which as far as I know none of the British saw, us being fine upstanding chaps who aren't into that sort of foreign hanky panky. (OK, we'd all fallen asleep by then).

 

Factory almost surrounded by campers

So it was up on Sunday morning, down with the tents and the start of the homeward journey for most of the campers. David had been awarded the 'Long Distance' award, so we waited until early afternoon when he was presented with a very impressive trophy. We then headed south towards Prague, our next stop. Prague is only about 85 miles from Zschopau, a fairly easy ride. Once in Prague we rode about a bit (ie we got lost) until we met up with David's friends, Tom and Martina, with whom we were going to stay. The following morning Tom took us in his car into the city centre and we spent the day wandering around looking at the truly stunning architecture. Unfortunately, this was only two days after Prague was flooded and most of the city centre was closed while buildings were being pumped out. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen and would advise anyone travelling in the area to pay it a visit. Just watch out for the cobbles!

 The next morning it was back on the bikes and the start of the journey home. We headed west from Prague, stopping off in the popular resort of Karlovy Vary, before crossing into Germany. We travelled on for a few more hours, and then spent the night in a hotel near Bamburg where the owner insisted on us putting the bikes into his garage.

 Up next morning to the first rain of our journey. Not much to report other than during the long wet ride through Germany we had the opportunity of comparing the performance of Triumph and Alpinestars waterproof jackets. Final result: Triumph 1 Alpinestars 0. We crossed into the Netherlands and stayed at a hotel near Maasricht.

 It was then the fairly short ride to Zeebrugge for the ferry. We stopped in Antwerp, an interesting enough place to spend a few hours, in the hope of finding a bicycle shop. Bicycle bits are much cheaper in the Netherlands and Belgium than the UK, but we couldn't find a shop, so it was off to Zeebrugge.

 This left only the 60 mile ride back home from Rosyth, which took place in traditional Scottish drizzle. We finally arrived home in one piece having travelled just under 1500 miles. I was very impressed by the way both bikes coped with the trip. The ETZ in particular was impressive with its higher than expected cruising speed (c.70 - 75 mph), and for a bike just completed before the trip, only a few trivial problems. The Skorpion just behaved like a modern bike - started every morning, performed perfectly, and only consumed a little oil. After it rained, I sprayed the Skorpion's chain, but that was all the attention it needed. For those of you who've got your anoraks on, The ETZ got about 55 - 60 mpg and the Skorpion about 70 - 75. This makes it a fairly economical bike to tour on, and don't forget the ETZ used a lot more oil.

 The Emmenrausch Rally is now an annual event, so keep an eye on their website for details. If you go to any further rallies, write in and let us know how you got on, and if you see the 'Erotic Show', what was it like?

 A slightly unhappy postscript to this story. Remember I said that the insurance company quoted us £36 ponds for David's insurance? Well a month later a charge of £150 pounds appears on my credit card bill. I get on the phone to them to complain and they ask me the policy number. 'But you didn't send me a certificate, so I don't know the number'. 'We can't do anything without a policy number'. 'OK, do you keep a record of names and addresses of policy holders?' 'Yes', I gave them David’s name and my address, but (they said) he wasn't on their computer. Next I asked if they kept a record of the registration numbers of bikes insured. They said yes, so I gave them the ETZ's number, but it didn't appear either. I gave up at this point as they made it clear they weren't going to do anything. Guess what arrived a year later? A policy renewal addressed to David at my address, made out with the ETZ's number! Basically the company lied and stole money from me, so guess who I'll never be going back to? I can't name them due to libel laws (they're bigger than me and can afford better lawyers), but ask me directly and I'll tell you.

Stuart's route from Glasgow to Zschopau

Emmenrausch website: http://www.emmenrausch.com/

Superfast Ferries: http://www.superfast.com/