For a 125 its amazing, lots of fun, lots of street cred, just make sure you warm up the tyres a bit before really throwing it about. Sounds lovely. Enjoyable! so far... a well made, nice riding big looking 125... at a sensible price!

The MZ SM 125 is an easy going machine, cheap to buy, fun to use and great for learners, also it has style and it is smooth riding.

Well, this is a follow-up to my previous review posted on the Mz 125-SM. I've put over 6000 kilometers on the bike in the 4 months of riding I did before putting it away for the winter. Much of my previous review holds true, but with a great deal more experience on the bike I have more to add...

The SM is primarily designed for on-road use, and it's styling and stock tires make that pretty clear, but it IS a Dual Purpose style bike and the temptation to keep going as the road gets narrower and more remote is defiantely there.

Once the pavement gives way, the well damped, long travel suspension soaks up ruts and holes with aplomb. However, this is a LITTLE bike, and the suspension is just too soft to allow for flying leaps and daring speed over humpy trails. On the other hand the little MZ 125 4-stroke has manly low-end tourque and the low ratios of the first three grears allow the little MZ to crawl up steep hills and over rocks like a trials bike. Unfortunately the stock tires are definately pavement biased and traction gives out long before you run into the limits of the engine and superbly smooth and easy to use clutch. Also it's important to remember that the hose from the radiator runs down the front of the engine right to the bottom. Crossing logs is not recomended unless you purchase the optional front skid-plate, otherwise the risk of crushing or ripping off the coolant hose is just too high.

On road, now that the little engine is fully broken-in is still a blast. It revs more freely and is much happier to pull all the way up to ignition cut-off. 6th gear will get you a constant 75 Mph on the flat (provided there is not a strong headwind) and drafting a van or truck can yeild 85, but the engine is running right up close to cut-off and perhaps it's not a great idea to keep it there for too long. Still this is impressive performance for a bike displacing only 125cc. Handling on-road is very good, though it obviously isn't a sports bike. Turn-in is very quick and the wide bars make corrections almost too easy (read: a little twitchy) but the front tyre grips very predictably, giving way to understeer rather than a tendancy to high-side. This same forward weight transfer, combined with the over-all light weight of the bike means that mid-corner braking is not recomended unless you are ready for the rear tyre to lift off the ground, which given the bodacious strength of the brakes is entirely possible. Though not ideal for eeking the most possible speed out of cornering, this handling dynamic will keep novice riders from high-siding the bike the first time they push a corner too hard.

I've changed my oil twice and filter once, both times yeilded only moderatly dirty oil, and nearly nothing stuck to the magnetic drain-plug. This confirms my initial evaluation that the German built engine is extremly well put-together and engineered. I've had no problems at all with the engine itself, only the fact that it is a small liquid-cooled power-plant and is consequently VERY cold-blooded has damped any enjoyment related to the engine. Choke is absolutely required for starting if the temp is below 50 degrees F., and will be required for several miles if you want to avoid stalling at stops. I've only ever seen the electric fan run once, and that was after sitting in a traffic jam for over an hour, indicating that the cooling system has a great deal of excess capacity. Unless the radiator is run dry I doubt this bike is even capable of over-heating.

I've had two mechanical problems, one minor, and one major: The hex-screws on the front axel clamp began to work loose, but I put a little lock-tight on the threads and cranked them back down with my Swiss-army knife (the Swiss-army hex bit fits about 90% of the hex screws on the MZ. 4mm? 5mm? Whatever size it is it's a handy tool with the MZ). The screws have not come loose since. The major problem I had was this: I parked the bike, and the next day when I went out to start it the starter motor spun but the engine did not turn over. Since there is no kick start I was out of luck and had to take my car to work. I found out that instead of a bendix gear or plunge-motor the MZ 125 uses a fixed reduction gear and a one-way bearing to drive the fly-wheel shaft directly, rather than using a ring-gear. This reduces weight and internal moving parts, but the one-way bearing is mostly plastic and specificaly designed to sacrifice itself to protect the starter motor and engine. Aparently the plastic also becomes increasingly brittle with age, increasing the chances of breakage. Although I bought the bike new, it is a 2002 model and had been sitting arround the dealer's show-room for two years before I bought it.

In the USA, MZ has a generous 24 month unlimited milage waranty, and I was very pleased to find that upon calling my dealer the part was over-nighted to them by MZ, and the dealer was able to install it the same day I brought the bike in. Total repair cost to me? About $30 for fuel in a friend's truck and a set of ratcheting tie-down straps. This is very satisfying service, especially given the relatively small MZ presence in the USA. I just hope the part isn't engineered to fail every two years...

This is a bike that you may not appreciate, or may get bored with very quickly if you are speed hungry, but one thing is for sure, it's a damn fine piece of German engineering for a very reasonable price.

Maybe the MZ SM 125 isn't the bike for you, but for the person this IS the bike for, it doesn't get much easier or more fun.

Lets begin, Do you drive on a limited access highway with a speed limit in excess of 60 Mph? Do you already have experience with motorcycles over 250cc? Do you have more than $3000 to spend on a NEW, WARANTEED bike? Do you really plan on seriously off-roading your motard? Do you want to drive in excess of 70 Mph on a regular basis? Do you weigh over 200 lbs? If you answered yes to more than one of the above questions this probably ISN'T the bike for you. However, if you were able to confidently say NO to all of the above, this is a bike thats almost alone in it's class (at least in the USA).

The MZ 125SM is not only one of the few motard style bike you can buy in the USA, it's also the ONLY street legal 125 you can buy new (scooters don't count)! Here's the scenario for the perfect 125 SM candidate: First time rider, or timid rider with little experience. Rider with a great sense of style, but little cash to back it up. Rider with a short to mid-distance commute on secondary or sub-urban/urban streets. Rider who wants to pay virtualy nothing for fuel, Rider who's willing to try something off the beaten path, and may ride off the beaten path once in a while. If you or somone you know fits this description you should definately try out a 125 SM.

This little MZ manages to look and ride like a bike much biger than it is. The gear ratios are just right to hustle the little bugger up to 55-60 MPH faster than just about any pasenger car and some low-end sports cars (my watch method yeilds about 6.5-7 seconds), but 6th is very tall and good only for flats and down-hills. In 6th the 125 SM WILL pull 75 mph, but NOT, repeat NOT into a headwind or up a hill. The DOHC, 4 valve single makes the funniest noises, about half way between a lawnmower and a model airplane engine, but it does it's job with surprising low-end tourque and exceptional smoothness. My MZ ran a little rough in the break-in period, but now she's loosened up, only very high RPM (there's an ignition cut-off at 11500) yeild any kind of apreciable vibration, and the valve train sounds like a swiss watch ticking at 6000 rpm. For a little engine the MZ 125 is specatularly smooth and refined, with a pretty wide power band, and supernatural fuel economy. I'm averaging about 97 miles per gallon!

The highway ride (smooth like buttah!) and stability of this little bike far exceeds anything in it's displacement class, and although there are 125 and 250cc luxury scooters available for a similar price they don't have the handling, braking, or high-speed stability of the MZ...

Well I've managed to take a scatter-gun approach to this review, so I'll try to sum up with this...

Are you considering a new scooter? Is there any particular reason you want a scooter instead of a real motorcycle? If not, the MZ beats the pants off any scooter in it's price range, and if you don't want a mini-harley or a mini-sport-bike it's a bike that does an excelent job of filling a small but usefull niche.