RELISTED as the high bidder last time could not come and get the bike quick enough - I should be clear that I do want it collected within five days (inclusive) of the end of the auction.
So it must be collected by the end of next Saturday - August 11th, as I am working on Sunday and then probably (hopefully) going on holiday...
Dear All
It is with a heavy heart that I am selling the Skorpion I have recently bought - the acquisition of a very cheap Triumph that needs more money spending on it plus my chopper finally being finished plus more family expense and a shortage of space mean the Skorpion has to go...
This is the ad I have put on ebay (I hope it is Ok to list it here?), I hope I have sung the Skorpion's (and the forum's) praises enough!
I have started the auction off at £599 and it will likely go higher (I hope so!) I paid £710 for the bike and spent some money travelling to get it etc so would be happy to take £780 from a forum member.
The bike is MOT'd for nearly a year and it runs and rides beautifully...
If anyone is interested, give me a call on 07896 921115 anytime reasonable (I work from home).
The listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MZ-Skorpion- ... 3374229706
MZ Skorpion MOT Low Miles Yamaha XT660 Paoli Forks Bilstein Shock Grimeca Brakes
If you don’t know about the MZ Skorpion and think - eeuugh, an MZ - you need to do some reading and riding on this fabulous bike.
There are NO MZ parts on this bike; the frame was designed by Seymour Powell, a pair of very cool British designers.
ENGINE
The engine is the fantastic five valve, twin carburettor 660cc Yamaha as found in the XT, XTX and Adventure Yamahas and the Raptor quads and many other applications. I have owned dozens of bikes over the years and I had an MZ Baghira supermoto with this engine ten years ago, and I fell in love with the big 660 single and always wanted another. It has the low down grunt of a big old British or Italian single but then it revs beautifully thanks to the five-valve head and twin carbs, and as it has a balancer so no unpleasant vibes.
I picked this bike up in Sunderland and rode home to London via the east coast - a dream journey and not too tiring.
This engine uses no oil or water, has no leaks and has a lot of power, nicely run in at 20,000 miles. These engines routinely do 80-100,00 miles in hard used adventure bikes...
COOLING SYSTEM
It has one large radiator at the front and an expansion reservoir under the seat, with two electric fans with sensors for the fans and for the temperature warning light, both of which work well, the fan sensor was renewed recently (receipt in service history) and the fans did come in when sitting in some traffic in the recent very hot weather.
EXHAUST
The exhaust is all STAINLESS STEEL with an L&W silencer on a slightly modified collector pipe. It is not noisy at all but seems to give good power. You can probably bash the baffles out to make more noise if you really want...
CLUTCH AND GEARBOX
The clutch is light and positive with no dragging or slipping. The gearbox is a delight, giving very fast changes and it is never a problem to find neutral.
FRAME
The Seymour Powell frame gives extremely good handling, the frame is so stiff that you can (and many people do) cut the cross member under the tank out to improve access to the engine and not compromise the handling at all.
FORKS
The Italian Paoli forks are very good and don’t dive badly under braking, have good damping and these are in excellent condition with good seals and stanchions with no leaks at all.
REAR SUSPENSION
The rear suspension is by a very stiff swing arm and a Bilstein shock which is in perfect condition with great damping and no leaks.
BRAKES
The brakes are oversize Italian Grimeca discs with proper four pot front and two pot rear calipers - no cheap crappy sliding calipers here.
The brakes on this bike are terrific, one finger gets the front tyre howling if you want, and I have not found any fade.
TANK AND PLASTICS
The tank and bodywork are by Acerbis, the Italian makers of tanks and plastics for Triumph, Ducati and many top on- and off road brands.
Being a Sport model, it comes with two rear ‘modules’, one solo fairing and one passenger seat - there are passenger footrests fitted and working.
The metallic green paint is very good, a few tiny bubbles on the tank low down, a few very small scratches here and there but it looks very smart. There are two holes in the rear of the bodywork where a rack was fitted to the ends of the subframe.
ELECTRICS
The electrics are mainly Denso, the biggest and best Japanese supplier, with some lighting by CEV.
This bike has an expensive new lithium-ion battery which starts the bike first time every time. There is also a fused Optimate plug/socket for top up charging.
The headlamp is not a Sport one (they are notoriously poor) but a nice chrome unit mounted on rubber lined custom brackets. Indicators and the rear light are standard and everything works well, including all the warning lights.
CHAIN AND SPROCKETS
The bike and has recently had a service and a recent chain and sprocket set, it is very easy on the chain, the adjustment has not changed in the 500-odd miles I have ridden it.
HANDLEBARS
I did not fit the Renthal handle bars, they are a bit straight and low for me but are easily changed if you don’t like them. You can easily fit the original clip-ons as the original Sport risers fitted are usable above and below the yokes.
The levers are Grimeca and work nicely, the handlebar switches are CEV or Denso and work nicely, along with the left switch-mounted choke lever.
There are quite new grips fitted and some hefty handlebar end weights stop any buzzing through the ‘bars.
There are no marks or scratches on the bar ends or footrests or on the silencer which points to the bike not having been dropped or in any sort of accident. It rides straight and true and steers beautifully.
FOOTRESTS
The footrests are adjustable to many configurations - they are set down and forward on the bike now but can easily be put into original Sport rearset position - no need for expensive Tarozzi etc rearsets that don’t work that well.
TYRES AND WHEELS
Tyres are fairly new matching Pirelli Diablos front and rear which suit the bike well, they have at least 5mm of tread left, front and rear.
The wheels have been balanced and there is no vibration from them. They are enamelled or otherwise coated in gloss black which I think looks better than the original dull grey, the coating is very good with just a couple of bits of lifting.
SERVICE HISTORY
There is not much formal history, just a receipt for a new rear sprocket, spark plugs and an oil filter, plus handwritten notes of oil and oil filter changes every 3,800 miles. It seems that Skorpion owners do their own servicing - it is a very easy bike to look after, oil changing is very simple and the oil filter is on the side of the engine behind a cover. Valve clearances are easy to check and don't need doing often anyway.
There are MOTs dating back to 2008 confirming the low mileage; the bike has had a few owners, all in the Sunderland /Newcastle area it would seem; it was bought from a dealer up there and appears to have the original dealer number plate on the back.
There is a reprint of the owner's manual and some service sheets with tips on servicing. These bikes are very well served by an excellent forum - mzriders.com - very nice helpful people.
SPARES
Spares are no problem for these bikes, Graham's Motorcycles in the UK various companies in Europe, have a lot of the Skorpion-specific parts and of course most of the bike is either Yamaha or other common brands so nothing is very expensive or hard to find. If you want to tune the engine, there are of course all the XT/Raptor tuning equipment to choose from plus Slipstream Tuning in the UK, and great advice from Bill Jurgenson in the US who has built some very fast (and very long-lived) tuned engines for his racing and fast road bikes, he can be found on mzriders.com and also a guy who has built an MZ Manx - http://hajokootstra.blogspot.com
SUMMARY
So, to sum up, a lovely sports or touring single with low mileage and some service history, that has a lusty engine, great handling, terrific brakes and is economical (I get 50-plus to the gallon), a bike that is really nothing to do with the MZs of old - and all for half the price of anything else with the wonderful Yamaha engine. Cheap to insure, fast enough for most - around 50 horsepower as standard and tunable to 65/70 horsepower quite easily (will cruise at 80-90 all day long with more sporty handlebars, I stick to 70-75).
Probably a future classic - there aren’t that many left - come and have a ride on it and you may be very pleasantly surprised...
I bought the Skorpion recently as my BSA/Harley chop was damaged by a moped thug hitting me head-on and it was taking forever to have new girder forks made but they are ready now and I’ve also bought a wrecked Triumph Bonneville America to rebuild so the Skorpion is just one bike too many...
Cash on collection from N7 Islington/Camden in North London, no Paypal please.
Call anytime reasonable (I work at home), don’t message, with any questions: 07896 921115.