Scene: Harley and MZ meeting

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Scene: Harley and MZ meeting
Schulz

motorcycles

Scene: Harley and MZ meeting

Scene: Harley and MZ meeting
Harley-Fete and MZ-Emmenrausch

Some celebrate their 105th birthday, others perhaps their last birthday. Harley-Davidson and MZ, two traditional brands that share the same fate: They cannot shake their image. But while some get rich with it, others face ruin.

Michael Orth, Monika Schulz

09/25/2008

Jeanie and Ray Jordan busily flag their sparkling clean Road King Classic. 102, 103, 104 ?? exactly 105 US flags. For every year Harley-Davidson survived, one. Armed in this way, the two conquer a place in the front line of the 7500-strong Anniversary Parade through Milwaukee. Between police squadrons, mayors and Harley celebrities like Willy G. Davidson “and his lovely wife Nancy”, the Jordans burst with pride. “Proud to be Americans, proud to be here.”

Milwaukee trembles. Milwaukee is booming. Milwaukee celebrates the 105th “company”, as the world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer is called in its home on Lake Michigan. “Welcome home riders”, on bridges, facades, shop windows this unaffected sentence? and more than a quarter of a million have come home. Also fans from Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Europe. They pave the streets with heavy metal, transforming the city into a booming party zone. Up to 100 decibels are in the air on Wisconsin Avenue. Hohndorf has no avenues. It has the Alte Marienberger Strabe, and there is the MZ plant on the Ore Mountains. Hohndorf does not tremble, Hohndorf does not roar. Hohndorf rattles because it is “Emmenrausch, the official MZ motorcycle meeting”, and this in turn is mainly a meeting of two-stroke engines. Nobody came from Brazil, but a few Finns are there, on the move. Not to get drunk on great delusions. You get into the intoxication to meet other friends as a fan, no, as a friend of the brand, maybe around 1500.

at MZ there is also no Willy. There is a Steve Yap, the managing director appointed by the Malaysian investor Hong Leong Berhad, who logically does not show up at the Emmenrausch. If everything goes as it currently looks, Yap will handle the MZ case at the end of the year. If there is no investor who can stretch five million euros, then that’s it after almost 90 years of motorcycle construction in Saxony. Milwaukee lives Harley, breathes Harley, is Harley ?? and Harley is America these days, where America means nothing else than the USA. Somehow the brand with the eagle in its logo managed to become a national affair. Vietnam veterans, homosexuals, housewives, rockers, politicians, do-gooders, in short the whole of society, claimed “the all American bike” as a vehicle to realize yourself or something even bigger. Harley connects. The market share of motorcycles over 651 cubic meters is a stable 48 percent. And besides the 105 “Stars and Stripes” the Jordans still blow 100,000 at the party ?? or are ?? s 200,000? ?? Further.

Of freedom and history


Scene: Harley and MZ meeting


Orth

Chrome as far as the eye can see. 250,000 exuberant fans of all kinds.

MZ was also a state affair, and a 48 percent market share would have been a failure. Until 1989. Since then, MZ has not been driven for the very reason that one Harley-Davidson drives: because of the freedom. In 1990 the ex-GDR company still sold 70,000 motorcycles, a year later only 15,000. Standing next to his highly polished TS 250/1, Thomas explains, “you drove MZ because you had to”. When you could drive what you wanted, Emme was over for the time being. At some point some wanted to go back, but that had to do with personal, not political, biography: memories of the youth waft in the two-stroke fog, it’s that simple. New MZ, meanwhile, hang in a vacuum, aiming past the youth. They come to the Emmenrausch in large numbers, but mostly in two-beats.

Young faces are looked for longer at the Harley festival, Jeanie and Ray Jordan busily flag their sparkling clean Road King Classic. 102, 103, 104 ?? exactly 105 US flags. For every year Harley-Davidson survived, one. Armed in this way, the two conquer a place in the front line of the 7500-strong Anniversary Parade through Milwaukee. Between police squadrons, mayors and Harley celebrities like Willy G. Davidson “and his lovely wife Nancy”, the Jordans burst with pride. “Proud to be Americans, proud to be here.” You look for young faces longer at the Harley Festival, no wonder, given the prices. The event ticket costs 60 dollars. In return, there is live music, stunt shows, exhibitions at its finest and everything you know from biker get-togethers. Only on a gigantic scale. Except for bare-breasted ladies, of course. After all, we are in Puritania. Even the “sexy bikewash” and the freely organized “street parties” go off civilly. But nobody seems to mind. “I need no tits”, says Ben. He is here to meet this great community and the concert of hundreds of thousands “big twins” to enjoy.

The American Harley customer is beyond his Sturm und Drang era. Dress up, make pirate scarf, he nicely stands in the 25-meter line for the Miller Beer, in a good mood pays six dollars for it and happily pays ten for parking within easy reach of the festival area. Apart from a few scattered hard cores, the guild no longer has anything in common with the image of the one percent per cent being displayed. Hollister, Easy Rider, Captain America ?? everything damn far away. Weirdly decent people are those who collect coal for good causes, help each other with maneuvering and that “true america” have long since found themselves on their porch or in 30 kilos overweight.

Outlaw image and professional philistine


Scene: Harley and MZ meeting


Orth

Tickets for the stylish, newly opened museum had long been sold out – there were refreshingly stylish moments for free.

Okay, okay, that’s also a cliche now. Nevertheless: It borders on genius how the Motor Company was able to preserve and gild its outlaw image. How she knows how to sell professional philistines the feeling of individuality without falling into the disrepute of the opportune mass producers among the real freaks. Mass production? Not an issue for what was once the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. It is true that MZ achieved a growth rate of 11.6 percent in the motorcycle business in 2007. But in absolute numbers that reads sobering: 221 instead of 198 machines. Only 838 of the 125s could be sold. Axel and Marc, one with Ba-ghira, the other with ES 250/0, both young, say: “It’s just because of the prejudice.” East, GDR, over there, two-stroke, flag. The core problem of MZ: They were never considered to be like that “all German” like Harley as “all American” is applicable. The VEB motorcycle could not be turned around in such a way that Germany as a whole wanted to find it moving. But that doesn’t have to be due to MZ, that could very well also be due to this whole of Germany, which is by no means so in many ways “united” is like that “States”.

In the MZ question, for example: mismanagement, wrong model policy, villains who siphoned off millions in subsidies, and a Far East investor who wasn’t interested in a Saxon motorcycle, some say. The others still do not see MZ as a loss-making small business with around 30 employees. “MZ? I can tell you why I drive this MZ”, says Erhard from Berlin and tells without any Ostalgie about 1969 and the dream of a 16-year-old: Trophy Sport 250, red. The reality of the company, which has been bleeding to death for years and now has its back to the wall, does not play a role in such MZ stories. Just as in Milwaukee it no longer matters that Harley-Davidson would not have survived the early 1980s without government help.

Old US ovens against Japanese big bikes


Scene: Harley and MZ meeting


Schulz

Service is still very important here: Bike Wash for dirt finches.

The technically outdated US ovens were powerless against strong Japanese competition. Ronald Reagan set this up, imposing protective tariffs of up to 45 percent on big bikes from the Far East. Meanwhile, Harley reorganized itself, and sales slowly climbed back over 30,000. From then on, the story reads like the fairy tale of the dishwasher and ?? You already know. In 1995 the 100,000 were cracked, in 2006 by the hair the 350,000. At the moment the numbers are slipping down a bit, and there is already talk of layoffs, but sales in 2007 were still just under six billion US dollars. The bottom line was that it made around a billion in net profit. For the 105th time you can already afford a Bruce Springsteen with Foo Fighters, ZZ Top and Kid Rock. The BOSS sings for three and a half hours. His show is brilliant hardly makes you believe in a 59-year-old. That’s the way it is with legends.

There’s also rock at the Emmenrausch. Not kid, but peat. But also live. And of course there is a sexy bike wash. with ALL. There is soft ice cream and beer, bratwurst and places to pitch your tent that couldn’t be nicer. There is a friendly neighborhood and relaxed togetherness, wonderful conversions that were not created with an accessory catalog, but with ingenuity and attention to detail. Nothing is “great”, but everything is real. And then there was the possibility of renting a personal Dixi toilet for 30 euros over the weekend. As a statement, so to speak. “It’s a matter of honor. You can close the work, but not MZ”, says Christian, “because that’s what people have in their hearts.” Or as a patch on a tattered denim jacket. Also a statement. That’s the way it is with legends.

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