How Suzuki stole communist technology to make their motorcycles faster

This is the incredible story of Water Kaaden and his innovative 2 stroke racebikes with MZ. Its also the story of one Ernst Degner and how he stole Kaaden's tech for Suzuki's race team.

📚Check out my Children's Motorcycle Book!

Support the channel!

Check out Stealing Speed by Matt Oxley

-Disclaimer-
Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

[ktwojapan]

My dad was Ron Grant. He passed away when I was a young boy in a boating accident, but he was also originally a factory rider for Suzuki back at this time, and probably these guys would have worked together, so this was fascinating. If you ever want to make a video about the Suzuki RG, Ron Grant is your man to research. He led a wild life. Absolute legend.

[Aaron-xvuy]

I drive by the old MZ factory on my MZ ETZ 125 everyday I go to school. It made me really exited to see a non German Channel talking about our truely amazing Bikes.

[jamesdarnell]

Back around 1970, Cycle magazine published a couple of articles covering the design of expansion chambers, including engineering drawings and formulas. By varying cone angles and pipe diameters, you could affect maximum horsepower and torque, rpm range and how flat the power curve was. I spent my free time in high school designing expansion chambers for motocross bikes, flat trackers and road race machines. If only some motorcycle company had paid 17 year-old me a large sum to develop expansion chambers for them, life would have been sweet. But alas, no. Instead, I went to college, got an engineering degree, and spent my life designing roadway pavement, traffic signals and streetlight systems. <sigh>

[jayaet]

I raced Yamaha TZ250s and 350s in the 70s and 80s, I was very aware of Walter Kaaden's massive contribution to two stroke technology in those days. Many thanks for your excellent documentation of this largely obcure piece of motorcycle racing history.

[bartnowakowski]

I would never research this myself, and thank you for all the hard work. My dad had MZ and riding with him on a tank as a 8-10 year old kid is what got me in to riding now 28 years later.

[yetanotherjohn]

Outstanding! I once read that Kaaden said that "a 2 stroke is more like a jet than a pump", and that his expansion chamber had a rear section that narrowed down to a small diameter pipe, that narrow area reflected the pressure wave back into the open exhaust port of the next cycle, preventing the intake charge from escaping with the exhaust, increasing power. That's why all expansion chambers have a narrow exit.

[brianprescott]

There’s another fantastic story of Walter and MZ when Grange-Over-Sands’ racer Alan Shepherd rode the team’s bikes. Alan, a fireman, would leave home, after work, and drive his van to a predetermined rendezvous on the East German border to collect an MZ to race that weekend. This meant avoiding border guards and at least once Alan’s van was shot at. Alan raced all over Europe, and even raced in America. Racing done, he would return the bike/s to Walter.

[turnfordguitars]

Great video, but you seem to have misunderstood the expansion chamber! It's not about getting the exhaust gas out quicker. It's about sending a pulse of exhaust gas back up the exhaust to stop the fresh charge escaping! Thus giving a 20% power increase!

[seniorrider]

Ah, the love of two stroke power. Mid 70's I purchased an RD-350 Yamaha. This was after my 900 Kawasaki Z1 was stolen. The RD was a quick little bike and I learned to love it for it's peppy engine and great street manners, especially in the twisty Southern California canyon roads. Having decided I wanted a nice cafe racer, I began reading everything I could on making a street bike better. Living in San Diego region, I was aware of Don Vesco and his success with making great power in two stroke Yamaha's. One of the cycle magazines had an article where his shop did porting and modifying the RD-350. I stopped by his shop in El Cajon and talked to the head mechanic and was educated on what I could do and still have a reliable street bike. Soon I had found a used TZ-250 race bike in pieces. I used the lower end ( crankshaft assembly) after having Vesco's shop check it out and left my heads, barrels, and pistons with them for porting and other mods. Put it all together, along with 36mm carbs, modified reed valves, and the TZ expansion chambers. I spent several days getting the jetting fine tuned and I had a very quick, light cafe. That bike is the bike I had the most fun on and I have had some nice ones. I had the first year Kawasaki ninja 900 and the RD still is the most fun bike. It had the dual disc front end from the TZ, alloy wheels, clip on's, a 1/4 fairing, and Don Vesco seat tail section. It would top out at 130+ and it would get there quick. I would wear out the Dunlop K81's on the edges first. I lost count of the larger displacement bikes that I embarrassed with that RD. Looking back, I must have had someone looking out for me as I truly pushed that bike way too hard for street riding and never went down. Those powerful dual discs saved me a few times.I truly believe the 70's were some of the most golden years for motorcycling. I ride an older, like new 97 Virago 1100 these days, at much slower speeds, LOL. It does have super bike bars and much improved front brakes as I am a firm believer in having very strong front brakes.

[paulevo]

I have had an MZ for many years. I knew the basics of the Degner defection to Suzuki but really appreciate all of the background details given in this video. Many thanks!

[grahamrichards]

Heat was the enemy of all that power. Konig, GDR, were building horizontally opposed 2 strokes for racing outboard motors and, with operating in water the heat problem was solved. Kim Newcombe from New Zealand, joined the factory and took up the challenge of liquid cooling one of these engines and building a GP bike. After many testing times and with great talent, he was awarded 2nd place in the 1973 500cc GP Championship posthumously.
To read about his exciting journey I can recommend the book: "Kim - The Kiwi on the Konig" by Tim Hanna. Greetings to all from NZ.

[notkanyewest]

I own 2 MZ Bikes (a ETZ 150 and a ES250/2 trophx deluxe) and I am so happy that MZ is mentioned in the english part of youtube and not just by some east german racing geeks like me!

[stephenlarkin]

There is an excellent documentary called "Missile from the East" (available on DVD), which describes Ernst Degners life and, of course, tells in great detail, the story of his defection and subsequent career with Suzuki and beyond. It"s absolutely unmissable.

[deaddocreallydeaddoc]

I remember the Suzuki X-6 that came out in the mid 60s. They were fast for the time. A similar thing happened with MX. CZ of Czechoslovakia developed the two-stroke that ended up ending the four-stroke MX machines, namely BSA and Jeff Smith (world champion, 1965-66), first with their big 360cc two-stroke in 1967, piloted by East German Paul Fredricks. Belgian rider Joel Robert was taking consecutive 250cc world championships on the CZ 250. Sometime around the time that Robert and the CZ team, including Roger DeCoster came to the U.S. for a series of races called the InterAm, they bumped into Suzuki people, and soon, by 1968, a twin pipe 250cc Suzuki MX machine appeared, looking uncannily like the CZ twin pipe that the Belgians rode. By 1970, Suzuki came out with factory 250, and 380cc MX machines for the two, and they took world championships on those. Suzuki dominated MX for some time after that while the other Japanese brands caught up and the European brands struggled to keep up. But it's not really true that Suzuke benefited from a communist development. The bottom line is that this stuff came out of the Third Riech or earlier German research.

[burkestorti]

In the early 1970's my brother & I purchase a used Yamaha 200cc two stroke twin, did some research & managed to make it as quick as a stock Yamaha RD400. We tinkered with larger carbs, & ports. The secret was in the expansion chamber exhaust pipes. During our first test, the extra power caused the stock clutch to slip. I went for a ride with two friends from work with their identical Honda CB500 fours. They were shocked, when I left them behind on the local twisty roads. I also passed a guy on his Suzuki 750 "water buffalo"!

[c.s.s.]

Thank you for such an interesting video. This one is worth viewing twice.
I was lucky enough to have someone a long time ago explain the basics of the workings of a two-cycle engine, that it made all of the difference to me. The man was a seasoned mechanic, motorcycle enthusiast, and just an overall gear head. What he explained was the “reverse re-burn principle” that all two strokes work on. Basically the exhaust is so key in the performance of the engine for the fact that some of the partiality burnt fuel that is in the exhaust stroke, is pulled back into the combustion chamber with the fresh air/fuel mixture. This is also what allows the unburnt oil/ fuel mixture to act as a lubricant.
To add to this, I was able to read about exhaust resonance and the use of sound waves to enhance the performance of a two-stroke in Snowtech magazine. So the design of the expansion chamber, and the length and diameter of the exhaust has everything to do with the performance of the engine. Think of the pipe as a musical instrument itself. The tuned exhaust sounds good because of that. The sound waves can be manipulated to produce different outcomes with respect to the application of the power and torque demands. It gets pretty deep but it is so interesting to me. I love to play with old motorcycles and snowmobiles and get them to run the best that is possible.

[portedbikes]

I did not know about this story of the 2 strokes, but I loved to work on 2 stroke engines, port and polish those engines was the highlight of my younger years as a motorcycle mechanic, it is amazing how much power you can extract from those little engines, that sound that those engines deliver when peak torque is near its end... so sad to see them gone. Playing with those transfers to make them synch with the RPM you were aiming for, porting reevs, cutting rotative valves, jetting, polishing, customizing exhausts, every little change will have an impact on power delivery... it brings a smile to my face. Thanks for sharing this info 😊

[yakacm]

I was aware of this story already as my father raced bikes in the 50's, 60's and 70's. There was a British racer called Alan Shepheard, who was a works MZ rider. My old man sold garage equipment for US company Sun Electric. 1 day he was interviewing folk for a position as salesman, and got a CV from no other than Alan Shepheard, and obviously gave him the job without much hesitation, after which they became friends, we went to Alan's house up in Grange few times, I was about 5 so don't remember much. Alan actually ended up racing a some of my old mans bikes a few times. Alan told my dad some stories, 1 of which sticks out. When he was riding at Dayton, the bike wasn't running well, he placed a call back to Walter Kaaden, who suggested it might be the imperialist petrol that was too high an octane rating and suggested to add some kerosene to the fuel, which did the trick, and the bike ran great and Alan won at Daytona. My father also owned a 250 MZ ISDT replica from 1976, and my god the acceleration from that thing was mental. The ISDT Replica was very trick, apparently each one was hand built by apprentices as their final piece of work after their apprentices, as a kind of exam piece, to show wat they had learned over their apprenticeship, they go for pretty big money these days.

[outdoorfreedom]

This really brought back a lot of memories. In ther mid 60s I was riding for a friend that was way beyond a great mechanic. He built his own 50cc GP bike, mag frame and ultra light. He used a Tohatsu engine and removed the clutch for more power. He used a kill button to shift. This may have been where he got the idea? On my bike, a Honda, he made an electronic ignition system that did away with all the hardware and battery. Anything to save a bit of weight. I found it odd that GP racing never caught on in the states like it did in Europe?

[内田ガネーシュ]

I think of Walter Kaaden was an automotive revolutionary with the midas touch. Someone who gave the souless two wheels; a heart, but was dealt a bad hand by fate. If there ever was a tragic automotive gothic romance novel, Kaaden's tale would be a timeless hit.