Weapon of Choice

I am a great fan of the MZ Skorpion 660. I currently have two, a 1994 Sport and a 1994 Traveller (and another one in bits for spares). It's the Traveller that we're concerned with here, and as this particular machine hadn't been used for over a year it needed to be thoroughly checked and serviced to get it roadworthy and road legal for the upcoming rip to Norway in July 2011.

As well as making sure that it was mechanically sound, I thought that I'd also make it a bit more 'rugged' and more capable of coping with rougher roads and gravel paths than it was at present. Essentially, something that was a little less likely to get damaged should it get dropped.

So, to that end, it got changed from a fully-faired touring model, into more of a dual-purpose one. This involved swapping the bodywork, changing the handlebars for higher wider ones, as well as fitting some beefier tyres and decent off-road style hand-guards. I also knocked up a radiator guard to cope with the stone chippings that cover the unmetalled road surfaces that you find the further north you travel in Norway.

While this was going on, it was treated to some new tyres, a pair of Brembo calipers to improve braking, some new cables, and a lot of the existing rusty fasteners were changed for stainless ones. Other things were done as and when I came across something that I thought would benefit from it.

My target for a rebuilt and roadworthy machine was the end of May 2011 so that I could attend a motorcycle event in Northern Ireland. I had planned on this being the final shakedown ride to test everything out on a decent sized journey before heading off to Norway. I actually finished the work in mid-May, in plenty of time, and the bike passed its MOT without a hitch.

That's the bike ready, then. What you'll see documented here is both the start and the end of that transmogrification process, broken down into handy-dandy bite sized chunks and illustrated where appropriate with some pictures. It wasn't necessarily done in the order displayed, which is why some of the photos might seem to be out of sequence. 

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