I was feeling pretty good about my discount Mastiff purchase, but I was getting antsy to take it for a decent spin. Iconic’s usual ‘Sunday Ride’ out to the Rock Store seemed like the perfect excuse!
As made obvious in the first part of this story, the bike was missing a few basics: mirrors, turn signals, tank decal, etc. Parts aren’t exactly easy to find at your local MZ dealership, but thankfully I had learned of Graham’s Motorcycles in England from researching MZs for previous posts. I asked my shop manager to order some parts through Graham’s, and he was amused to report back that they’re a little old school – you can’t order anything from their website, you just have to email them a list of what you want and they’ll let you know what they have in stock that’s OEM or what has to be sourced from the aftermarket.
Baby needs some turn signals!
I rode the Mastiff home (about 15 miles) on Saturday night, and then rode it back to the shop on Sunday morning. I felt a bit bad for my neighbors as I had to leave at 6:45am and the aftermarket Vampire exhaust is absurdly loud. Thankfully, the fueling on this bike is so good with the dual flat slide carbs that I didn’t have to warm it up in the slightest before I could slowly idle out of the echo-y parking garage.
So I met up with my partner Adam at our shop – he took our Bimota Tesi H2, which meant we had a horsepower DIFFERENCE of over 200.
That’s right – after a flash and a supercharger upgrade, this is putting 250+ hp to the rear wheel!
From our shop, we typically have a ~10 minute ride to a gas station where we meet up with a few other friends. But as I was leaving a stop light, I went for a shift from 1st to 2nd and thought the lever didn’t feel right. I tried to shift again and felt…nothing. I looked down and my left foot, only to see a small piece of metal bouncing down the road. Thankfully I had enough momentum to coast over to the side, and that’s where I got the chance to confirm that I no longer had a shift lever. I assumed that a bolt had backed out and the lever fell off, but it turns out that the lever had actually sheared. Bummer.
But look how thoughtful MZ is – they make the part number obvious when you need to replace it!
I got the bike back to our shop and parked it, and then I took my Megamoto out so I could actually get some quality riding time in. I’m really starting to gel with that bike, but more on that later.
My shop manager followed up with Graham’s Motorcycles to see if they had a shifter, but they said that it was no longer available. One of mechanics was able to weld it back, so I took the Mastiff out the next Sunday – and this time I made it to the gas station!
The Mastiff obviously gives up a lot of horsepower to other bikes, but I was ecstatic about how well it handled. If I was going to keep this a long time I’d redo the suspension because it’s too soft for my liking, but the Mastiff is an absolutely joy to huck around. Curb weight is just 386 pounds! My partner Adam took a Ducati Panigale V4R out this time, and we traded bikes for a bit. He said that he had just as much, if not more fun on the Mastiff. He approves!
I’d say I can’t wait to take the Mastiff out again – but I have to. There’s a little bit of a coolant leak that needs to be addressed, and I figure I’ll wait for the parts from Graham’s to come in so I can actually have turn signals and mirrors on it before I ride it again.
So it’ll need some work, but I want to put a few more miles on it once it’s more roadworthy and I figure I should make it even better for the next owner before I let it go!