Dear Sirs,

In your article article.php/The_MZ_1000S_anAppealing_Motorcycle

I was pleasantly surprised to see the engine described as a 270-degree twin, like the Yamaha TRX/TDM. But I have read elsewhere that it has a 180-degree crank.

Which is it, 270 or 180?

MZ used for the MZ 1000S a 270-degree firing order, sometimes also revered to as a big bang setup. The 180-degree firing order setup is something more of a standard we can find in most regular 2007/08 4-inline motorcycles.

I have no idea where the other websites get the information from, but we where told by a very reliable source that the 180-degree setup was incorrect.

It is for us not a surprise that Yamaha uses a similar setup as the MZ, Yamaha and MZ have a cross-patent-license agreement, which means that all technology of MZ is available to Yamaha and visa-versa. This you can find back into the MZ Skorpion Sport 660, this bike was based on the Yamaha 660 Tenere only offering 150% performance compared to the original Yamaha.

A good source to find a bit more about the relation between MZ and Yamaha and Suzuki can be found here article.php/The-source-of-Japanese-Racing-Technology

After the fall of the iron curtain MZ was able to access the Western legal system and forced the major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, who used MZ patents unlawful, to pay up or find another suitable solution.

Yamaha found a solution in giving MZ access to the enormous amount of motorcycle patents registered by the company. Suzuki also did a out-of-court settlement, in both cases it is not known how much both Japanese companies paid to keep this out of court.