Double Take: 1995 MZ Skorpion

I say double take because this is one of those bikes that at first glance looks familiar and then as you get close always strikes me “what is that?!” A guy in town owns one and it turns up from time to time at the local bike meets. This conservative design is perhaps more cafe than sportbike, but the details are really cool. It’s a German bike, with a Yamaha 5 valve single, and features Italian components!

1995 MZ Skorpion for sale on eBay

And to continue with the double take theme, the seller tells me that he bought this bike when he spotted it on our site in June of 2012. This time around it’s a no reserve auction with an opening bid of just $1795. Not a bad little bike for (potentially) under two grand!

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from the seller:

This bike is great fun to ride but gets very little use in my collection so It is time to find a new home for it. It’s really light, handles great, stops on a dime and has loads of torque. It runs great, shifts smooth and the clutch works perfectly. The chain and sprockets are in excellent condition. It uses a Yamaha 660 engine which has a Holeshot Performance Vortex slip-on exhaust system, K&N filter element in the stock airbox with the top removed and a matching Holeshot Performance carb rejet. The exhaust has a nice single cylinder bark to it. This past summer I serviced the forks – new 20W fluid and seals and I noticed it has Progressive Suspension spings installed, oil and filter change, brake fluid flush, coolant flush and a new battery. It also has less that 200 miles on the rear tire and less that 1,000 miles on the front. I replaced the OEM directional signals with Triumph signals in the front and an integrated LED taillight with signals in the rear.

The plastics on the bike are in very good condition with original paint that still shines well and the bike shows no signs of ever being dropped. The center stand is in place. These bikes are a wonderful mix of German engineering and framework, Italian suspension, wheels, brakes and controls and Japanese electrics and drivetrain. Because of the ‘parts bin’ approach to the build it is surprising what parts are available for the bike. I have a parts interchange chart that will come with the bikes paperwork and I have the engine service manual in English that goes with the bike.

Everything electrical works as it should except the clock. Both instruments work perfectly. MZs have an odd speedometer where the speed is in MPH but the miles are in KpH. So the odo shows 31k which translates to 19,300 miles.

Clear title in my name. If you know MZs then you know what fun this bike is to ride and how durable they are. It is rare to see one in this condition for sale.