Black Panther for sale

[smr96]

Anyone interested in a 03 BP? Perfect condition only about 700mi. Great bike but too unreliable as transportation to and from work! Made me late once because of side stand switch and missed today because of dead battery!!!!! Simple things I know, and if it were just a weekend fun bike I could deal with it, but I need reliability in a commuter. I was just getting used to it's qurkiness ie. gas mileage and fuel capacity since everything's liters and kilo's. This is my 7th bike in 13yrs. and I never had problems with the other 6. Maybe 7's not a lucky number! What's the going rate on a used MZ? Maybe if I'm going to lose too much selling it I'll have to live with it.

[motardina]

sorry to hear of yiour problems. It shopuld be under warranty still (two years) don't you have a dealer nearby to sort it out? sounds like really minor issues & easy to fix-- for a good mechanic type of person anyway... My roomie commuted all summer with her baggy, zero problems, the two we have are the most reliable bikes in our garage of eight bikes!

[smr96]

Do not do business with DOUG DOUGLAS cycles in San Bernadino CA. I got suckered into the little mom and pop aspect of this dealer. 42yrs. in same place, service what we sell, take care of our customers. Yeah right. Took BP back today (good hour drive) and told them I had a dead battery thinking they would replace it out of warranty (2yrs.) Yeah right... again. Wanted me to leave bike and wanted to charge me to diagnose the problem. Didn't like the idea of 3 more trips back and forth, figure I'd be better off to buy my own maint. free gel battery then waste time and gas dealing with this place. Maybe I should have thought about that when I bought it, but then it was refreshing to see a small family run shop in this world of mega bike malls. Lesson learned: Don't buy an obscure bike made in Germany from a hole in the wall dealer promising to treat you like family at least up until you hand them the check, that's a good hour away if you do need them with a 2yr. warranty that's meaningless. I have a big four dealer (and then some) two miles from me. Might try to trade for the DRZ400 dual sport. Might be a workout on the freeway but probably much better off road and any problems can be fixed right down the street. Yeah, I'm bitter!

[jarow]

Sorry about your problem. But please don't go around giving Mz a bad name. Just because there a small company out of Germany now ( used to be one of the largets Mfg. in the world at one time) think that there quaility is bad. I work in the motorcycle industry and I'm in 6 to 8 dealers a day, 3 to 4 times a week. I see a lot of Hondas , Yam, Kaw, duc's , Victorys ( Know Vic is having tons of problems ) and I see more Suz's that have had more motor's melt down than any other mfg. out there.
I'd call the factory and see if they can refer you to someone else

[phlat65]

others here have had battery problems, mine is still OE, and my bike is a 2001!!

my bike has been dead nuts reliable, but so was my xt600.

if you are going to get a drz, wait for the sm version.

[smr96]

Don't get me wrong, I love the bike and I'd love to drop a new batt. in and keep it, but the idea of something more major happening and having to search for a good dealer bothers me. I took it to the dealer down the street for trade in appraisal and when the guy wheeled it into the maint. dept. all of the mechs. gathered round and oooed and awed! Until one proclaimed that if they sold it whoever bought it wouldn't be able to bring it back because they don't (won't?) work on it! As for giving MZ a bad name I'm just going off of previous history of 7 bikes in last 13yrs. (8 if you count the TLR I had to return after 4 days because the dealer screwed up the contract.) That's 5 Suzuki's, 1 Kawasaki, 1 Honda, and 1 MZ. All street. I won't even try to count all the dirt bikes, quads, watercraft. I've kept each an average of 2 yrs. w/ exception of a 1200 Bandit that I kept for 4yrs. This MZ started being a problem before even leaving the dealer when they couldn't get it to turn over. I searched every dealer in so. CA. from the MZ web site before buying and chose the one I did because they actually had a bike to look at. Many are authorized dealers but don't actually carry bikes or even have a regular motorcycle shop. They call the factory and try to locate a bike. I'll search for a more reliable dealer, I just hope that replacing things like brake pads, oil filter, chain, sprockets,etc. isn't going to be a pain! As for Doug Douglas, who knows how long this bike sat there or what experience they really have selling MZ's. I have a feeling they were happy to see this bike go and don't want to see it come back!

[stitchgonewild]

European Cycle in Garden Grove sells MZ. It's not a bad place. I got my 916 there and had my monster serviced there. The owner, Steve, is a nice guy. Or, you can go to socal Ducati in Brea. They don't sell MZ any more because low demands on MZ, but they're still a MZ dealer. They have a huge service area. I just talked to the owner, Tom, last week, and he told me that they can service MZ(I was thinking to get a Blank panther, or 125 SM )

[Randew2U]

My cursed 04 BP bike has been ok so far actually. It went end-over on the previous owner with less than 200 miles (a cop could have got killed on it). I found and purchased it on here for 4G's this past summer. Talk about luck, when I went to the credit union, the woman processing my loan asked me if id ever been in a motorcycle accident, I said no. She then said the everyone she has processed a motorcycle loan for was in an accident. I said "jeeze why did you tell me that". When I went to get my insurance cards, the goober writing the policy pointed out that it has 666 as the last three digits of the VIN, I said "jeeze why did you tell me that". Of course I went and took the motorcycle safety course and purchased Joe Rocket Ballistic 5.0 jacket and pants, lol. Hey, please list it in the for sale section for quick disposal.

[gedge]

you shouldnt let little faults like this put you off a great bike. The standard battery isnt much good admittedly , but its a cheap fix. and the kickstand switch is easily overcome ( i just cable tied mine up so that its doesnt do anything...).
Once the bike get running they seem to be among the most reliable bikes on the market if this forum is anything to go by. Ive had mine since May and done 5000k on it. The only time I thought I had a problem was when I forgot that it wont go with the cut out turned off
Keith cross has over 40k on his bike all trouble free except a carb diaphragm splitting...
Persevere..you know you want to

[smr96]

I went to the shop in Garden Grove about a year ago. They had 3 MZ's sitting in the back of the shop that looked like they had been there awhile judging from the layer of dust on them. They didn't have a BP but I think they had a red Baggy, 125sm, and the 125 dirt only model in green. I called them about 4 months ago about the 125sm for racing the mini-moto class in supermoto (an idea I'm still throwing around). I called them again about 2 weeks ago about a 125 dirt only for the same purpose since I really don't need a street legal 125. I would just swap to street rubber for sm and have a fun play bike to ride off road w/ my kids. The person I spoke to said they had a green one, I'm sure it's the same one I saw when I was there, but I was put off when the price he quoted was more than what the MZ web site lists it for. The fact that they probably still have those same 3 bikes is not meant as a put down to MZ! It's just not a well known brand and everyone wants the latest hyper-bikes. I try to have an open mind. I went from an 02 ZX6R to a Silverwing scooter fer chrissake! Stitch, if you're interested I'll sell you my BP and keep the Silverwing to commute on and get the MZ125 to play on... or if you know the owner of ECS see if he'd be willing to work a trade. We could even meet at the shop and work somethin out. I'm going down that way today already (the block) for a friends b-day party.

[Scheffi]

Of course I respect your coming decision. But a faulty battery could you get in every motorcycle. This is simply only bad luck! It says nothing about the quality of the MZ.

Ask the Harley-owners... they would be happy about such small problems!

Joerg

[keithcross]

The problems experienced by this owner could well put him off. As far as batteries go, a duff one could effect any manufacturer. A friend of mine even had this happen on a Honda 750 a few years back.
The side stand switch does seem to be a bad design, however mine is still working after 41,000kms and my bike is used for fun and a daily 36 mile commute.

Keith

[stitchgonewild]

[DAVID THOMPSON]

hello

i once had a bmw 1974 r90s it lost the flywheel off the crank
at 1,500 miles the bolts broke

after sorting it out i went on to put 479,512 miles on it in
28 years so dont throw in the towl too soon

my rt125 also had some lay down and die problems
but seems to be doing ok now

ar dave

[Brian]

I absolutely hate my Baggy !!!! for two reasons !!!!!

!) This bike WILL NOT START WITH THE KILL SWITCH OFF

2) This bike WILL NOT START WITH THE GAS TURNED OFF EITHER !!!!

3) Oh yea, when there is no more gas in the tank the engine stops working...................

So its for sale FIRM $ 20,000.00 US currency only please NO HAGGLERS



Oh by the way, Phlat and I went to a track in BC yesterday and he was jumping his Panther as well dropping 2 gears from 80 MPH backing it in......In fact he was hangin with all the fast guys........ I'm sure he hit the rev limiter more than just once tsk tsk tsk that MZ sure is a dud...........