The Maico factory was founded during the
1930's by Otto and Wilhelm Maisch. Since Wilhelm was involved with the
National Socialist Party during the world war II he could only be a minority
owner as stipulated by government laws in the post war period. However,
Wilhelms sons, Hans, Peter and Wilhelm Jr started to work for Maico after
their education and and in this manner maintained some control over the
development and business in the hands of Wilhelm.
During the 50's, in Europe, Maico had a reputation for building fast and
sporty bikes, rare and expensive but something to dream about. The bikes
where two-stroke road bikes, pretty conventional in design and lightweight.
They where easily converted for off-road use. Models like the 250 Blizzard,
M175 and 250 MD where common. Most of these models shared the same frame -
tubes forming a loop on each side of the rear wheel. This frame design was
retained until 1962.
In
1962 the the conventional hydraulic fork was introduced and the
bikes adopted a more modern appearance. The development
continued throughout the 60's and from the early 70's the Maico
bikes where famous for their look. The square metal tank. Thick
seats and modern motocross appearance with longer suspension
travel than most, yellow color and cylinders with huge cooling
fins. The Swedish rider Åke Johnson was a common sight around
the GP tracks. From 1973 the engines got a familiar design and
in 1974 the cylinders got their famous radial fins which were
common until 1983/84. On of the most wanted bikes for collectors
today are the 1974 models. The suspension had very long travel
compared to bikes of the past and the 400 models had power to
match anything on the track. In 1976 the suspension travel had
been raised even further with rear shocks leaning forwards. The
fact is that the suspension travel race in the late 70's was
much led by Maico. One can even say all other bikes were
following Maico. Another Maico invention was to mount the front
wheel axle in front of the lower fork leg. This allowed longer
travel and a more rigid internal structure with more overlap.
This invention characterized Maico forks throughout the entire
70's and was soon to be copied by everyone else. The '77 bikes
were much the same but looked different. The red color combined
with modern plastic side panes gave them a modern look. In 78-79
the bikes had the red color scheme, modern plastic, 38mm forks
and leaning shocks with long travel. A modern engine and a
rounded painted tank in metal.
So came 1980! The 1980 model was a completely
redesign of practically everything except most engine parts and
some wheel components. The new plastic tank came and stayed
until 1984. The brand new 42mm air assisted forks that by many
are regarded as the best conventional forks that there are, came
with a stunning 12.2 inches (310mm) of travel. Chromolly double
loop frame with a square box backbone structure made up the
frame. The most significant thing though was the geometry. The
bike had razor sharp steering, neutral handling and was so easy
to ride that a common joke was "riding a Maico is close to
cheating". The fact is that Maico got the measurements between
footpegs, handlebar and seat pretty correct. The weight
distribution was also spot on. The 440cc engine suffered by
being one and a half horse down by the new Yamaha YZ465 though.
Unacceptable.
1981 Maico 490, did it ! Maico had the easiest job in he world,
they had all the tools and knowhow to build the best open
classer in the world. All they had to do was to pinpoint a few
details that had to be bettered an do so. They bored out the
440cc to a full 490cc. They reconstructed the seat tank layout
to a more flat design. They changed the wheel spokes pattern.
The Maico 490 from 1981 is regarded as the best open class bike
ever made. The combination of useful powerband, suspension and
balance had indeed been hard to beat. Business was good, Maico
earned good money. In 1981 the Maico 490 sold more open class
bikes than, for example Honda did in their entire motocross line
in the US. The only bike that would out accelerate the mighty
490 was the awesome KTM 495.
In 1982 Maico released their first generation
single shock rear suspension. The rising rate wasn't entirely
correct or to be precise much to high. The construction also
added some weight to the bike. Combining this the bike was
changing for the worse. Regardless, a correctly tuned in Maico
was still the fastest open classer around the track.
In 1983 Maico released an entirely new engine and reworked the
frame and plastic. The new engine got rid of the chain primary
drive and was extremely small. The single shock linkage was
reworked and performed much better. Maybe the 250cc engine
gained the most and was suddenly right in the pack regarding
power output. The 490 was better again but hardly as good as the
'81 model.
The Maico line started to get into trouble. The 1982 models
didn't sell good and 1983 was an extremely important year and a
kind of a second chance to come back. Unfortunately the 1983
models faced real trouble with quality problems. wheel hubs
exploded and all kinds of things happened. The market was
overwhelmed by the Japanese bikes that proved to have good
quality, performance and also technically better with
water-cooling, disk brakes, aluminium swingarms and good single
shock systems. The Maico suffered from being air cooled, a steel
swingarm and not so futuristic plastic combined with old brakes.
The cooling system didn't have any impact on the power output
but the buyers turned their backs on it as outdated.
Things continued to go wrong in 1984. The bike got water cooling
but beside that not much of importance was changed. Still the
same old drum brakes and the hefty 42mm fork so praised back in
'80's wasn't a selling argument anymore since all Japanese bikes
had 43mm form tubes by then. The 1985 model was changed in
several ways. Maico had decided to release a water cooled engine
that was just as powerful or even stronger than any other 250
out there. They also went back to the idea of raising the
suspension travel. It had worked so good in the past. It was way
too tall. A very narrow and hard seat, a high rear end making
the front too low and then the powerband. It hit hard in the
midrange and signed off immediately. The 500cc water cooled
engine was a slightly bigger success and quite a few where built
as enduro machines for the European market. It was famous for
the nice and strong power output but the open class was already
dying and particular in the woods where a full sized two stroke
engine was and is too much to handle.
The 1986 machines got a new exhaust port like the Japanese bikes
but it was too late to save the business and in 1987 Maico went
bankrupt.
The Maico marquee today is manufactured in small scale. The
customers are enthusiasts that know what they want and is
willing to go the extra mile to get one. The machines are top
modern with ø50mm forks, Reiger shocks and everything you could
expect in terms of aftermarket goodies. The open class engine
from the mid 80's lives on in sidecar motocross racing under the
name Zabel and a displacement up to 700cc. It was and still is
one of the best motocross engines that ever left the factory.