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A guest at the Motoritz company

Yamaha XT and TT models

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Moritz Kullmann has lived from the used parts trade and engine overhaul for around two decades. His focus is on Yamaha’s 500 and 600 XT and TT models. His company Motoritz emerged from the hobby of yore.

"I can’t help the fact that my assistant is called Max", laughs Moritz Kullmann. After all, he didn’t choose it by name. But according to his talent. Max comes by twice a week and helps Moritz with the slaughter. Or bring it back to life. What’s up at the moment. If Moritz had a tattoo, it would probably have something to do with one Yamaha XT to do. His whole life is under these two letters. Moritz is now 46, has two almost grown-up children and has been working on Yamaha’s XT and TT models for 28 years. The now profitable business was basically born out of necessity…

A guest at the Motoritz company

Yamaha XT and TT models

Go strangers, drive Africa Twin …

His first trip after having passed his driver’s license should lead to Gottingen, 30 kilometers away. But the machine, an XL 185 bought for little money, dies. Moritz is a student, scrapes up money from every corner and buys a used Yamaha Tenere, model 1VJ. Curiosity and an expedition drive drive him 120,000 kilometers across Europe on the machine. “That was when it started with screwing,” he says. "On the 1VJ, I had five engine failures and never paid money to take the motorcycle to a decent workshop." Most repairs are made with used spare parts. Even back then, he bought two or three machines, dismantled them, fitted his own with the best parts and sold the rest. “We often had five or six bikes in the yard. Friends and acquaintances came to my house to swap or buy spare parts. ”In between he cheats, drives the Africa Twin for a few years, but ends up with the Yamaha singles again. XT and TT 600.

Screwing, dismantling, repairing, selling parts – in his huge circle of acquaintances he became Mister XT as early as the 1990s. No matter what you need, Moritz will find it in any box. He travels to North Africa several times during his studies. Now the motorhome is no longer his second home, but Morocco. While Moritz Kullmann looks back on his past, he stands in his self-built kitchen. Which, as it is, could exist in any village in Morocco. Rustic designed, made of wood and clay, held in warm earth tones. All materials almost as they occur in nature. Of course, wood is used for heating. Funny details, such as XT 500 inlet valves as cabinet or door handles, reveal his passion. He himself is in worn-out carpenter’s trousers, his hair slightly gray and short, his smile mischievous. “Honestly, I would do everything exactly the same way again today,” he says, stirring the pot and looking through the window at his dream car, lost in thought. A Toyota HZJ 78, red, 390,000 kilometers on the clock, in his possession since 1997.

"Every fifth sales person gives you a shit"

Do everything like that again. Aha. But wasn’t luck also involved in his success? “Sure,” he grins, “we’d rather say: Fate made the decision for me.” After studying forestry, Moritz got a job in the spring of 1999 near Giessen. He is no longer alone, his four-year-old son and his mother move with him from southern Lower Saxony to Hesse. "We had rented a small house to accommodate the XT-Geraffel that we had brought with us, because I wanted to continue working on the side and earn some money with it." While Moritz ponders for weeks whether he should do his clerkship, the phone rings 30 to 50 times a day and in the end someone begs for intact oil pans, cylinder heads or holds the phone to an ailing engine and says: “Here! Do you hear the? What can I do? "

“What can I do?” Moritz has heard ten thousand times in his life. He, who never trained as an engine fitter or mechanic, has become one of the cult figures on the XT scene. He set up his own business under his Motoritz label and ships used parts across Europe. And entire, completely overhauled engines. He buys XTs, mainly 500 and 600, and also likes the TTs, and takes them apart down to the smallest screw. The said Max, a mechanical engineering student, helps him occasionally. “The motorcycles come to me via a forwarding agent. I don’t have time to pick it up myself. That has one disadvantage: out of ten motorcycles that I buy without appraisal on the phone, five salespeople will give you a shit. ”Moritz grins all over his face when he says this. “But that doesn’t matter. Because I don’t have to lie down for the 250th shift drum. I’ll throw them in the junk immediately. "

"I have the best job in the world"

50 assembled engines are on the shelves, 500, 600, all model years and series. Around 400 engines, disassembled, are waiting to be revived. “I could build 200 good ones right away,” says Moritz, whose storage capacity is limited. “Everything that takes up space is sold immediately: frames, plastic parts, wheels or swing arms. Engine and electrics are the things that always work. I’ll lay it down. ”So you can call him and buy a refurbished engine? "No problem. But you can also send me a defective one and I’ll rebuild it. ” While the phone rang Sturm, he was amused about the characters who had sent him their completely dismantled engine in a sloppy moving box. “When it got here, half of it was missing, of course, there were holes in the box. A very smart customer put his engine in a plastic bag, then put it in a cardboard box and sprayed the cavity around it with construction foam. The construction foam naturally dissolved the plastic. I couldn’t get the engine clean. "

Let’s be honest: Can you make a living from it, even feed a family? His 21-year-old son studies in Leipzig, the 16-year-old daughter still lives with him. “My working hour costs 50 euros,” says Moritz. “But I am a philanthropist, I don’t want to get rich, I just want to live contentedly and happily.” In his opinion, this includes meeting nice people. “There was a hunter here who was badly shaken by fate. I repaired his XT for him and got half a wild boar in return. ”A similar thing happened to him with a student who had no money but needed a repair on his 500.“ He then stacked wood with me and mowed the lawn, ”recalls Moritz. “Hour against hour.” Unfortunately, mowing the lawn is a thing of the past. Heidschnucken now keep the green short. Moritz has never placed an ad, his large customer base was created through word-of-mouth and is growing steadily. But does he want that? “You always have to take your own space,” he says. Twice a year he travels to Morocco and dreams of a trip to Mongolia, which he will definitely realize one day. An escape? "No," he replies and has to laugh heartily. "Escape from what? I have the best job in the world."

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