The Patterson Collection

Mike Patterson's Tiger. I am very grateful to Mike for giving me loads more MZ sidecar shots from his travels. All the shots that link from this page are from him. Links, lower right.

Also this article is by Mike.

A (very) Brief History

I did say that I’d do something about my motorcycling history, but I’ve been a bit busy this past month. So, when I came across a piece that I’d done for the Scottish Bike Show a few years back I thought, “The Very Thing!” This piece was from when we used to have a stand at the bike show, and is from the year that I brought my tiger-striped ETZ250 sidecar outfit along to put on that stand - probably 1999 or 2000. This was a last minute thing as we were given a space almost twice the size of what we had normally and it looked rather bare. So, as the outfit was the only machine that I could lay my hands on quickly I decided to bring it along.

The strange thing about the organisers of the show was that they always used to give us a stand in amongst all the classic bike clubs. So, the place was chock full of beautifully restored, and ever so shiny, British bikes and their proud and very shiny owners. Then there was US.

Now, my outfit was, and I admit it, a bit of a heap. Oh, it went all right, but it had been ridden through the previous winter months and I couldn’t be bothered to even wash it before riding it to the show. It was, therefore, not exactly what folk were expecting to see when they eventually made it past all the Vincents, Triumphs and Nortons. They were a trifle puzzled to say the least. You could see them stop and have a stare, they’d shake their heads a bit, and then go and find their mates to get them to come see the Nutters.

Some of the others clubs gave us as wide a berth as possible, we were probably letting the side down!

This piece is from the notice that I put up in front of the outfit. Other such notes on the ‘proper’ stands were full of useful technical data; mine was a bit … cheekier?

Purchased in 1997 for the princely sum of £400 as a non-runner, “The Beast” was soon put back onto the road and became my sole means of transport to and from work, shopping, section meetings and the numerous rallies run by the MZ Riders Club throughout the country.

In a previous incarnation, as a matt-black tradesman outfit, “The Beast” spent several months travelling throughout the Baltic States before finally reaching the Polar Circle. This high mileage might be why, a year after I bought it, the engine suffered terminal meltdown on the Edinburgh By-pass one sunny Saturday afternoon while travelling along at about 60mph – serious ‘brown trouser’ time, I can tell you!

However, all dark clouds have their silver lining. With the outfit off the road for a time I had the chance to do all those things I’d been thinking about:

• The engine was bored out to 300cc.
• Electrics were tidied up and indicators and sidecar lights fitted.
• Brakes were up-rated with fitment of a Brembo unit from a BMW twin.
• Tradesman box-lid changed for a seat unit from a Swallow sidecar rig.
• Home-made tonneau cover and top-box fitted.
• Whole unit given a ‘groovy’ new paint job.

This new and improved outfit has been my main means of transport ever since. Yes, I do have another bike. Yes, it’s an MZ. And, yes, it’s an outfit. I added a Silver Star/Watsonian Stratford to my stable of bikes about a year ago. This is a 500cc Rotax-engined outfit. Very smooth (these things being relative) andquite a bit faster. However, “The Beast” remains my daily hack.

As you may have noticed it is not as shiny and polished as most of the other bikes at the show. There may be those of you who think that I’m just too lazy to wash it. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are, after all, the MZ RIDERS Club. I’m merely trying to make a point! The outfit got dirty being ridden to the show, and it will get even dirtier on the way home, so why bother cleaning it?

Anyway, there is some serious debate that the only thing holding it together is the vast acreage of rust and dirt, so why tempt fate?

The Technical Bit -