New Member with Rickman MZ

[traderyoda]

Greetings All,

I have a rare Rickman with an ISDT 250 MZ motor in it. Restoring it now. Looking for old pics of the bike if anyone has any.

Happy for the chance to contribute to the Forum!

Cheers,
Lee

[Puffs]

Welcome Lee!

That sounds very interesting - can you show us some pics please?

[traderyoda]

Will do - I'll shoot some as soon as I can.

[Blurredman]

[traderyoda]

Here are some pics of the Rickman MZ Metisse. I've torn the bike down to gently restore the nickel plated frame which is overall in excellent condition. The motor is a 250 ISDT motor. It has great compression, but the dynamo is a wreck.

[Puffs]

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[traderyoda]

Those Rickman "ankle buster" foot rests are strong but somewhat impracticable. Slippery too!

The MZ has a Rickman aluminum conical hub up front. Good unit, but not the best brake setup out there.

I won't change anything on the bike. I do need to ensure that no one removed any parts over the years though. I'm trying hard to find earlier pictures of the bike, including when it was offered on on eBay in December 2009 - hopefully someone on this Forum kept those pics.

It was built as an experimental machine for a fellow in California (Lynn Wineland) and tested in the desert to evaluate the capabilities of the motor. The exhaust is the ISDT version, but it wasn't initially shipped for England this way. I suspect the pipe Rickman installed was a poor match for the power band of the motor, so it was removed and the ISDT pipe installed; I'll leave it this way.

I suspect the electrics on this bike were never really sorted out properly. I see signs of burned out parts and the wiring harness was hanging loose. The case was left loose and a mouse ate all of the wiring on the dynamo. Perhaps the dynamo, designed for bike with lights, was never adjusted for a MX/desert racer with no lights. I'll first try to see if I can rebuild the dynamo and ensure the output is matched to the twin-coil ISDT setup. If not, I did find the VAPE setup and will go that way. I'm sure someone on this extensive site has set things up on a machine with no lights.

[Puffs]

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[traderyoda]

I gained a lot of respect for these motors in starting to go through it. Easy to see why it did well in the ISDT.

Here's a picture of the dynamo after I cleaned it up. I'm about to pull it out.

Are there any manuals for rebuilding these motors in English. I purchased a maintenance manual in German, but it doesn't cover tear down in much detail. I have a wiring diagram for the ISDT bike, but I'll have to sort out the dynamo by just learning as I go.

[Puffs]

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[traderyoda]

That's incredibly helpful - thanks!

No battery and no room in this machine. And no electronics to accompany the dynamo - just direct output sent to the dual-coil arrangement with a small capacitor bridging across each coil. A toggle switch was mounting to switch between coils.

[Puffs]

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[traderyoda]

I'm not sure that they performed any mods on the dynamo - I'll be excited to see what I find when I pull it out!

[breakwellmz]

Those Rickman "ankle buster" foot rests are strong but somewhat impracticable. Slippery too!

The MZ has a Rickman aluminum conical hub up front. Good unit, but not the best brake setup out there.

I won't change anything on the bike. I do need to ensure that no one removed any parts over the years though. I'm trying hard to find earlier pictures of the bike, including when it was offered on on eBay in December 2009 - hopefully someone on this Forum kept those pics.

It was built as an experimental machine for a fellow in California (Lynn Wineland) and tested in the desert to evaluate the capabilities of the motor. The exhaust is the ISDT version, but it wasn't initially shipped for England this way. I suspect the pipe Rickman installed was a poor match for the power band of the motor, so it was removed and the ISDT pipe installed; I'll leave it this way.

I suspect the electrics on this bike were never really sorted out properly. I see signs of burned out parts and the wiring harness was hanging loose. The case was left loose and a mouse ate all of the wiring on the dynamo. Perhaps the dynamo, designed for bike with lights, was never adjusted for a MX/desert racer with no lights. I'll first try to see if I can rebuild the dynamo and ensure the output is matched to the twin-coil ISDT setup. If not, I did find the VAPE setup and will go that way. I'm sure someone on this extensive site has set things up on a machine with no lights.

A bit more background here -

"In March of 1965 MZ sent Lynn a factory works ISDT style 250 cc two stroke bike asking Lynn to test it in his environment. By this time the Rickman kit was finished, with Triumph 500cc power. The first race on Saturday was a European Scramble with two races and the total scored for the day. There was a separate Enduro on Sunday. The Rickman chain popped off three or four times during the race and Lynn still won his class. The Mark III and Mark IV Rickmans use eccentric washer for the chain adjusters and they were back at home. The race referee allowed Lynn to ride the 250 MZ and it won the second race competing against 500cc machines. The next day the MZ finished the enduro but without a speedometer Lynn only finished 17th. When all was over Lynn was allowed to keep the MZ which he only recently sold to a collector in Iowa. Lynn snagged another MZ factory engine and sent it to the Rickmans in the UK to make a prototype frame. Lynn still has that bike today. The plan was to buy engines (both 250 and 350 cc), hubs and brakes (innovative brakes that reside on the exact centerline of the wheel reducing any tendency for the bike to pull to one side on slippery surfaces). But there was an up rising in Czechoslovakia which East German solders helped the Russians put down and the US government increased the duties from East Germany from 9% to 45% as a sanction against their actions. So there went the MZ Rickman."

[Puffs]

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