Kaaden's race team operation was immediately shut down after Degner's defection, and Kaaden was not heard of again. He died of cancer aged 76 in 1996. MZ of course continued to build sturdy commuter bikes, this being their biggest market, but had Kaaden been able to continue with his race development, and had MZ developed at least one sporting model, their future could have been so much rosier.
MZ's link with DKW begin and end with the Russians releasing blueprints of the DKW 2-strokes, which developed into the RT125 and BSA's Bantam, among others. So while DKW didn't exactly revolutionize the world, they certainly made a dent in the motorcycle industry. I'm sure I read somewhere that former 250GP star Ralf Waldmann now owns the rights to MZ...
I can see how the history of Suzuki would have been different, but how did it affect MZ ? after all, they still had Walter Kaaden and his development lab.
Kaaden's race team operation was immediately shut down after Degner's defection, and Kaaden was not heard of again. He died of cancer aged 76 in 1996. MZ of course continued to build sturdy commuter bikes, this being their biggest market, but had Kaaden been able to continue with his race development, and had MZ developed at least one sporting model, their future could have been so much rosier.
great vid, but poor quality:((( a can't see anything:(
The history of MZ would have been very different had Ernst Degner not defected to the Suzuki gp team with all of Walter Kaaden's secrets.
MZ's link with DKW begin and end with the Russians releasing blueprints of the DKW 2-strokes, which developed into the RT125 and BSA's Bantam, among others. So while DKW didn't exactly revolutionize the world, they certainly made a dent in the motorcycle industry.
I'm sure I read somewhere that former 250GP star Ralf Waldmann now owns the rights to MZ...
I can see how the history of Suzuki would have been different, but how did it affect MZ ? after all, they still had Walter Kaaden and his development lab.
Music is too loud