Mark Zweig

MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 5

Posted by Mark Zweig | Sep 13, 2023 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

When I was about 13, I bought myself a brand-new 1972 Jawa “Cross 90” (that’s what it said on its sidecover) from Don Heida at Heidacycle in Fenton, Missouri. It listed for $275, about the cheapest new 90 one could buy at that time, and I paid an extra $20 to get some new Nitto knobbies on it in place of the stock Czechoslovakian rubber that it came with. Total price was $295 out the door. I even still have the bill of sale for it in a box in my garage attic somewhere!

Legendary Bikes: Kawasaki Samurai 250 A1

Posted by Mark Zweig | Aug 28, 2023 | Legendary Bikes |

Gary also owned a 1967 Kawasaki Samurai A1SS that he kept at my house because his aunt and uncle wouldn’t let him have a bike. It was blue with twin chrome high-mounted side pipes. The A1SS was the street scrambler version of the Kawasaki A1, released in 1967 as the first “fast” Kawasaki. It was a 250cc two-stroke rotary valve twin, with a claimed 31 hp from the factory. Kawasaki marketing said it would do the quarter mile in 13.8 and had a 105 mph top speed. Whether or not those numbers were true, we thought that motorbike was the fastest thing in the world!

MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 4

Posted by Mark Zweig | Aug 21, 2023 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

For those who don’t know anything about these, the Suzuki Tc-125 motorcycles were typical street/trail “Enduro” type machines of that era- a single cylinder, oil-injected two stroke with a high mounted front fender and motocross handlebars. What made this particular model so cool was it’s dual range 4-speed transmission, which effectively gave the bike 8 gears.

MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 3

Posted by Mark Zweig | Jul 21, 2023 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

I was really into small Italian bikes from the 60s at that time. I always had a fascination for the Sears-Allstate Gilera 106SS, and owned one that was like new with only 600 miles on it, still wearing its break-in sticker on the speedometer. I also had a beautiful black Motobi 125 with clip-ons that I restored and a completely mint, restored (with all NOS parts) 1967 Wards-Riverside Benelli 250 scrambler. But I didn’t own an Aermacchi H-D, and I thought this could be a good opportunity to get one cheap.

MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 2

Posted by Mark Zweig | Jun 21, 2023 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

So on a warm summer evening, Matt and I took off on a 50-plus mile ride to the campground. We were on a two-lane rural highway when the sky opened up out of nowhere (we didn’t have weather forecasts on our phones back then like we do today) and completely drenched us through and through. But that didn’t stop us. We kept riding. And eventually, we got to a small town with a laundromat smack dab in the middle of it, right on the highway we were riding. The door was propped open and the lights were on. I don’t know who thought of it, Matt or me, but we quickly pulled over and ducked inside to escape the rain.

MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 1

Posted by Mark Zweig | May 26, 2023 | Legendary Bikes, Ride Life |

While Frank and I were both into Kawasaki triples at that time—he had the ultimate mint blue 1972 750 H2 I always wanted—we made our money from buying up the “skid row” trade-ins that the new motorcycle dealerships in our area didn’t think were good enough to sell. That meant we had plenty of tired Yamaha Enduros, flogged Honda 750-4s with mini-apehangers and “king and queen” seats, thrashed Honda Elsinores, and rusty Japanese twins to sell. But one time, we bought a pair of really nice 1976 Kawasaki KH500s from a local Honda dealer who didn’t want to deal with them. They were orange and identical other than one of them had a sissy bar on the back.