I
started this a few year ago (can't remember how many, but it was a
long time) as there was very little Skorpion information on the Web,
and I'd intended it as a kind of 'reference library', of parts,
articles and stories by Skorpion owners, and a 'focus' for Skorpion
owners. I think it was fairly popular at first but it's really been
overtaken by social media, so I've now decided not to renew it and it
has already disappeared.
Thanks to everyone who visited and contributed,
all the content has been saved, and hopefully anything useful will
appear somewhere else on the Web.
The rise and fall of the website mirrors what has
happened on the Web.
For a while I was a member of a couple of Yahoo
Groups dedicated to MZs, but as they were basically an extension of
the MZ Riders Club they displayed the same small minded views and
hostility towards post-unifiction models that had driven so many
Skorpion owners from the Club.
The Club started its own website and I
wrote to the committee offering to author the Skorpion pages – I'm
still waiting for a reply! So that's when 'mzriders.net' was born. If
the Club didn't want us, then we would do it by ourselves. I started
by collecting technical information, articles on touring that would
have been sent to the MZRC magazine, and some pictures, and soon I
had contributions from other Skorpion owners. Problem was that other
contributions had to be e-mailed to me then added to the website,
which made it a rather slow process. Also, I quickly reached the
maximum number of pages allowed on my Website, so had to add things
together to publish them.
Some of the 'regulars' were also members of the mzriders, and liked its format where any member could
post, add pictures, etc, and its virtually unlimited number of pages
meant that topics could be kept separate to make searching easier. A
number of people liked 'mzriders', but felt that a British based,
Skorpion centred forum would serve our needs better, so I started 'A
Singular Pleasure'. This quickly grew and almost developed a life of
its own, with a reasonably sized membership and a small group of
regulars who kept the debate going and the momentum up. (often a
problem in groups like this). It ran fairly well for a number of
years despite various problems with hosting companies and my lack of
experience. Basically I was 'making it up as I went along' and
copying what I saw on other fora.
Unfortunately it suffered from a fate many fora
and groups experience – you can have a hundred good members, but it
only takes one or two to ruin it. A couple of individuals joined then
used it to express their personal agenda in a rather forceful way. I was going through a
personal crisis at the time, so couldn't keep an eye on it, and the
forum turned from an informative and sometimes funny forum about
Skorpions into something unpleasant that I wasn't interested in, so I
left. I think everyone I knew was forced out eventually, and I've no
idea if it is still operating.
I still felt that there was a need for a Skorpion
based web presence, so I started this blog. The name 'You Can't Tour
on a Single' comes from a well known bike magazine who used it to
dismiss the Traveller out of hand. The fact that the same publication
praises the touring ability of the BMW F650 says more about the
advertising spend of MZ and BMW that the technical merits of the
bikes.
I had toyed with the title 'Burn the Witch', as
the people who ousted me from A Singular Pleasure regard anyone who
doesn't agree with their views in a similar way to which 'witches'
were regarded in the Middle Ages, but that would have been lowering
myself to their level. So, 'You Can't Tour on a Single' it was.
I hope readers find something interesting in this
blog. At the moment I'm averaging 100 hits a day, so I'll keep going
until that drops to about 2 or 3. I might start adding some of the
content from the old website here as a 'library', and some will be
shared with the MZ Skorpion Appreciation Society on Facebook.
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