Thanks for sharing this. It was one of the best historical documentary vlogs I’ve ever experienced on the tube. I always wondered what happened to Maico. Thanks for clearing it up. It is a tragedy that so many were injured and affected by one family’s dysfunction.
I was acquainted with a guy who got another 17-18 HP out of his 490 by porting it, modifying the exhaust pipe, putting another carb on it and a couple of other things I can't remember. I rode it once for about 10 minutes. It went like a bat out of hell. Scared the piss out of me the first couple of minutes, but it ended up being a lot of fun.
I worked at a maico ktm dealership in Norfolk VA back in the mid 80s. The knobby shop owned and operated by Bruce Lember, then sold to bill darling who was the mechanic that worked there. We all raced ,and we lived ate,slept ,and breathed everything motocross. We would pack up Friday afternoon drive all night during the winter down to Florida,race Saturday and Sunday drive all night just to be back at the shop Monday morning. I was 16 17 years old and was working my dream job with the best guys in the world in the best years of my life. It was great. We were all A riders, me in 125 bill on 250 and Bruce on open class. Later bill raced open then him and I both in 125 A . Everyone knew us and we had nothing but friends at the track. If someone needed something a part or whatever we had it for them. I remember rebuilding shocks ,top ends , clutches even bill rebuilding a crank between Motos. Best memories with my dad and friends and would take a million dollars to trade for them and if I had it to pay and live it all over again, a million would be a bargain. Great guys maicos unbelievable bikes but I will say they did have weak gearboxes.
Yes I too raced MX in Florida in the 80s, racing on weekends is what we did, the only thing we did. It to was my funnest years of my life. I started off racing 80s and 125s, then made the crossover to ATCs racing 200Xs and then 250Rs until I couldn't race them anymore because of them being banned.
If I made the 81 490 and it was renounded as the best thing out there my first thought would be, don't change a single thing until someone came up with something to better it. Being an old school bloke I really appreciate a bike with 4 main wires, manual choke and a tool kit with 4 spanners and a screwdriver. Keep your ABS traction control GPS heated grips etc etc. Easy to use,easy to fix and goes like stink. That's all I need.
Exactly, just like the Yamaha MX 125 and 250 that did not change in a decade because it was right from the start. Maico made the mistake of joining the pack by having a uni shock rear suspension!
I had a '78 Maico Magnum 400 that I did a complete rebuild on in the '90s. Had it apart down to the last piece. The craftsmanship that went into building that bike was the best I've ever seen in any motorcycle. Every part looked like it was machined by a tool maker. Every weld was textbook perfect. That bike was a work of art and I wish I still had it.
@@kennethmartindale8771 wonderful! My friend just had send me a pic from his round the world tour of an old R80 with character of touring . One of my friends did round the world in 8 years 280.000 km with his R100 .
I had early 80s 490 in late 90s with no kickstart and it had so much compression I'd push it down a concrete hill to bomb it 3 or 4 times before I got it lol
I saw the same thing happen at a restaurant I worked at. Known for great food and portions, the dad died and the kids started slashing quality. When ever the execs try to improve the bottom line by cutting quality it always fails. In Maico's case it was intentional. Such a sad story of what had been a primer brand.
Hell, that story isn't even unusual for the German car industry at the time. There used to be looaads more German manufacturers of cars and motorcycles and each loss stings to this day. Borgward, Glas, NSU, Zündapp, Hercules, Kreidler, Horex... Not to mention the East-German manufacturers that built amazing products under their circumstances but were coldly liquidated after reunification: Sachsenring and Wartburg, MZ and Simson. Even if some of the names still exist in some form or other, they're just empty badges slapped onto something from China that didn't want to build its own brand. :/
its happening where i work, i do granite this little thing will give you an example of whats going on since old man richard gave the business to his two sons. they hire nothing but dumb teens that dont last. i seen that the reinforcement rods we put into the slabs was cut less than a inch from the edge instead of like 4 inches farther in it does nothing on the edge. i said why are we cutting this on the edge now i get told that boss man told them to do EVERY PIECE like that becuase since they cant get it right just do it like this instead THE WRONG WAY. basically they just said keep doing it wrong like you have been since you cant learn to do it right. WTF everything is turning into this no matter what i stay the same what i touch gets done right. my name is on the line not just the business the contractors are seeing it too they are coming to me personally and asking me to do their jobs BUT I CANT DO THEM ALL lol its contagious too cause good workers are doing crap work now cause they are like if they dont have to do things right and not get penalized then why do i have too.
I love capitalism , but huge portions means little profit . Quality products deter from future sails , trained to fail is the order of the day , even when it comes to the baby boomers kids , they're parents didn't even realize they had been programmed via they're military training to undermine they're own children . Some of us were smart enough to absorb the positives and deflect the negative lessons and traits we got basted with like thanx backstabbing turkeys ... Troll as they may , I ain't wrong ... My mom s second husband died riding with me on a 79 Husky 490 board over as he was a small engines instructor at Clover Park voc school Tacoma WA
I had a Maico 250 radial head . Handled like a dream. Didn’t have the greatest power but handled fantastic. Had a Yamaha IT. It hand a lot of power but could not get out of its own way.
I am wondering how Maico got the drum brakes to work so well. Takes no time at all to get up to speed, start braking half way to the next turn, to slow the WITCH back down
The original brothers had the knowledge of metallurgy, heat treating, and machinist skills. I can imagine many of their key personnel...ie, Chief Engineer, Shop Foreman, and several old timers in the machine shop left when the kids took over. That skill and talent is the Heart of a business and not easily replaced.
"when the kids took over" was the decade of the 1970s - That decade was Maico's golden era and in 1981 "the kids" delivered what many say was the greatest dirt bike ever - the twinshock Mega 490. As someone who owned an '82 at the time I still think the '82 and '83 bikes were even better.
Sometimes and in this case "the kids" took a steaming crap on the desk of their forefathers and took the company, to places that pops, could only have ever dreamed.
ruclips.net/video/z_QjJzn2kHg/видео.html Luxembourg August 1982: Twelve 490s in this GP. No shocks collapsed. No hubs or gearboxes "blew up". What's wrong with this picture?
You are only as good as the people working for you. You have to keep your employees happy and focused. This includes rewards for exemplary performance. As soon as any of that begins to erode it doesn’t take long for everything to crumble. Nowadays, the leadership makes it all about themselves and the workers routinely sabotage their supposed company. We have lost so much in recent decades.
I was stationed at Kitzigen, Germany in 1976 and my bud was into dirt bike racing. He was also in the US Army as I was but he had bought a used Macio 250 from some German guy and got his German racing license and was pretty successful on the circuits around Southern Germany. Then he bought a brand new 250 Macio direct from the factory and went out and KICKED ASS! I got to go riding with him on the tank trails out of one of the Army bases and he let me ride his competition Macio. One HELL OF A BIKE! Long live Macio!
I had a lot of success on a '79 440Maico but as you said the best one I ever rode and to this day I will say the same was the '81 490. Amazing machine. such a sad end to an icon.
It's not uncommon in German families to torn apart like this, for some reason our culture breeds competition and jealousy amongst siblings. A couple of notable examples being the supermarket chain Aldi which split to become Aldi north, Aldi south and famously the Dassler brothers who split to form Adidas and Puma. My brother's and I can't work together, even that we all work in the motortrade we have seperate workshops on either side of town, any previous collaborations always lead to resent, arguments and not speaking for months (sometimes years).
Sometimes I find the _"prioritize family first, never sever ties"_ culture I grew up with to be a tad burdensome, but I'm glad it's nothing like... What you've described.
My Dad raced Husky 250's and 390's on a team with a former AMA Enduro champion in the late 70's. They'd get a factory race bike in a crate and immediately start grinding away metal in strategic places to make it lighter and do all kinds of crazy shit you'd never think of to get an advantage. When the 490 came out, it didn't matter how much lighter you could make a Husky or anything else. The power was just on a different level. I remember rocking the Maico shirt as a 4 year old 💪
Well done Gooner. Thank you for your time and talent putting this together. I had a 84 CR500 that was, most likely, designed with the 81 Maico in mind. I’m 64 now and remember that leap in technology and development. We are blessed to live in this moment in history.
When I was a kid I had the opportunity to ride a cr490. I had a Bultaco 250 at the time. The guy said if I could start it I could ride it. Well, that didn't go so well. The Kickstarter kicked back so hard it dang near torn the sole off my shoe on the wat to my ankle bone then slapped the back side of my knee. I was over wanting to ride that cursed red monster. I'm 53 now and would love to have that bike. Not to ride , just to admire.
I rode an 84 or 85 CR500 when I was a kid, what a beast. I might've been a 145lbs dripping wet, but I nailed the trottle & hung on. Didn't like jumping it though, felt like I was getting sucked back into the earth. Jumped back on my 125 with renewed confidence & wrung everything I could out of it with a new confidence, felt more like a toy after a few laps on the 500.
@@TugIronChief the Japanese really have the entire world beat with how impressive their engineering is. Any mechanic who knows what they're talking about will tell you the easiest engines to work on all come from Japan, not to mention their ridiculously cheap parts cost.
I ran a Yamaha 125 back in the early 70's, and a friend (much wealthier) let me take his Maico 250 around our practice track. Obviously a superior bike, it felt like an extension of my body and made me feel like I could beat the world. I've always admired the brand during it's golden years even though it contributed to my dissatisfaction of the bikes I could afford and led to my abandoning the sport for girls and rock & roll guitar! So sorry to hear that they disappeared due to family treachery - the brand deserved better.
Cant get a girl with missing teeth and broken neck. Sometimes we gotta know when to quit while ahead. Buy it ride it a while and sell it before it blows up.
I raced enduro in the late 70’s early 80’s and remember a guy lining up on an 81’ Maico 490 we were all like wow look at that monster as I sat on my IT175(which I dearly loved) ride till ya can’t walk 🐾✌️🇺🇸
@@stoveboltlvr3798thats why i love the yamaha yz250 and laugh at all the ktm fanboys "but it has a cable clutch, and no electric start".. and blah blah blah, none of them can shake me on a yz250 thats IF they can pass me in the first place, they always break down when i keep on going too, new isn't always better if it aint broke don't fix it.
I bought mine rebuilt from racer's father rebuilt, they worked. The parts were expensive & hard to get before the internet. Great bike for the time, new bikes are really state of the art, flat shifting shooting out rostertails of dirt. The controls were on xidfferent sides. Great times.
I remember 2 things about my '76 400 Maico - the insane powerband in 2nd gear and limping for a week after kicking over the bike without using the compression release lever.
I never knew Maicos were that good at the time and are still influencing today’s bikes. When companies implode sadly the employees and customers lose the most.
Same here. Carlos Serrano was a factory rider for Maico in the early 80’s and of course he was highly talented, but when he was in town he would lap the local pros on his bike. At the time I thought the RM’s CRs YZ’s and KX ‘s had supremacy over the European bikes as locally you never saw anyone on anything else but the big four.
@@PauloBerni699 Maico was mostly an open class bike. Their 400 and 450 were the popular bikes. I don't think I ever saw a 250 and although they made a 125 I never saw one outside of the dealership. I never understood why the 250 wasn't popular.
Rode a 490 once. Probably the fastest bike I have ever been on. It actually kind of scared me a little. I remember thinking "I ride a CR 250s and 500sfor fun, I got this." The 490 is a whole different breed of monster. That little maico had more low end power than any 2 stroke I have seen
Ha! Was just going to post the same exact story. I had a CR-125 and a CR-250. My buddy had a Maico and that thing was a beast. It was scary as hell. I was comfortable on my 250 and would rip it up on any day of the week. I rode that Maico for all of 10 minutes and decided I like my Honda ;)
@@timhoovermusicman I've never ridden on any KTMs everyone tells me they're great bikes. my dad was a Honda and Suzuki guy that's all we ever had. The 490 I rode belonged to my cousin. I loved my old CR 250 and my dad had a CR 500 I rode a lot both were 1986 models if I remember correctly. I don't have any bikes now but the last bike I had was a 2004 crf 450. We never did any formal racing but that CR 500 was king of the beach for a few summers drag racing out at Appalachia Bay at keystone lake in Oklahoma. Nobody out there had a faster bike for a long time.
Thanks for the very interesting video! Bought a new 1981 490 Maico for $2500 and raced it for two years. Incredibly reliable, fast and the handling was awesome. Only nitpicks were left side kickstart and tiny front brake...
Once I was in my garage with all my buddy's and had just serviced my 81 490 for the day's ride. We were going to leave at 4 in the morning and head up to Phelan, in the High Desert of SoCal. All packed and loaded except me...but no biggie cuz it was still daylight and plenty of fun to still be had that night. I stood on a crate to get leverage on the left side of my Maico, choked , then "tickled" that huge Bing carb. Slowly pre-loaded the kick starter to max stroke... then rose up to give it one fully powerful & committed kick. The kick back was powerful, it threw me on top of my workbench 3 feet to my side, put my knee into my mouth causing a tooth come thru 1/2 inch below my bottom lip, and damn near knocked me out. The bike was being held up with tie downs that were coming down from the rafters, to the bars...the only reason the bike itself remained secured in an upright position. After getting my head clear, and everyone laughing are butts off for a long time I looked at the Maico. The kick-starter was gone. Which got everyone cracking up again, uncontrollably. Looking around as thoroughly as we could with that many beers in us...nobody could find it. It was gone. "That's impossible, it's gotta be here somewhere" a friend said while I was holding ice from the cooler to my face and bleeding like a stuck pig...while laughing. My friend Bill was on all fours between my bike and the workbench thinking it shot under there...when he noticed a a spot of daylight on the concrete. He looked up and dropped the "F-Bomp"..."No Fu£!n' way" he said. None of us got it. "Guy's, c'mere and look at this." We did...he pointed down to show us the spot of light, then up to a hole in my old shop roof...with my kickstarter punched thru it. Granted...it was an old, very old roof. Built in 1910 and very brittle from the SoCal heat over the years...but Jeeeeezuz. We got a ladder and pulled it out easily. Put it back on my bike, the tack welded it it in two spots. Never had that to worry about again. From that point on...I bump started it every chance I had. 3rd gear, a few steps, easily done. 1st gear...no way,
Maico is still in business as a small boutique maker. They make (amongst other displacements) the Infamous 700cc 2-stroke dirtbike that was imported and rebadged by ATK. They are available from Kostetler(sp?) KTM in Germany.
They can readily build all the way down to the 440 I believe, and you can get replacement/maintenance parts for the smaller ones. But no complete smallbore bikes.
Back in the 80's my brother had 1. We lived next to a tollway and across from a highway. My brother would race everything that he could, and he was in the dirt next to the road and he won every time! That thing was incredibly fast!
I remember riding my friends 490 Maico back around 1983. I got chased by a Sheriff patrol & out ran it . I remember looking back and seeing gravel rocks peppering across his hood...... it was wild !
Ha-ha-ha-haha.... imagine doing that with an old BMW 500 cc[R-51/3] from '52.... a 30 yrs old at time bike.... and playing them around just like the scenes from some movie we saw on the video... years after I had a chance to even talk to them about it... lol, time had passed so it was ok..... never a dull moment on a bike...
Quality story. Really researched into this. I grew up looking at all those Maicos and how great they were. Its a shame that brand went into the trash. Thank you for telling the story.
I also grew up with those Maicos. My friend was a sponsored Maico 250 racer in the 70’s. He would win his race and pull a long celebratory wheely after he crossed the finish line like the stud he was that was amazing at the time! That’s why I still love riding today!
Loved mine! Went from racing Yamaha 125 and 250 to open class on the Maico with a 400 and 490 back in the 80's, what beasts. I ran the Fox Air Shocks on them. Those were the days. Then riding a scout bike for the Army Special Forces I fell in love with four strokes. After a 20 year break I am back riding with a KTM 500, but wish Maico was in the game!
I raced a 440 Maico in the open class in the late 1970s. It was an amazing bike! I raced Motocross from 1969 to about 1979 and then stopped. I sold my 440 Maico for a good dollar because it had a reputation in the area Iived and raced in for being the "fastest bike on the track". I always wondered what happened to Maico. I didn't know this story. Thank you for making this documentary.
What a great documentary! My first motocross bike was a 1982 Maico Alpha 1 in 1983. However I did not have any of those problems with it nor was I aware of any of them until watching this video! I'm pretty sure it had the updated rear shock though. In 1984 I bought a brand new Honda CR500. I raced both of them and compared the differences. Wish I had never sold either one of them. Thanks for sharing this video!
I had a go of a friends Maico 490 on a dirt track when I was a teen in the 80's. It was like mounting a horse. So much power my knuckles drag on the floor to this day!! Every gear would raise the front up really easy. An unforgettable experience.
Such a sad tale. I heard the story about Otto and Wilhelm not getting along, but never knew about the brothers sabotaging the company for their own gain. What evil little shits! Great video once again. Just love the tone of your voice as the story is being told. Cheers.
I remember a quote by Brad Lackey in a video I watched after he won the world championship and retired. He said, "If I had one of these bikes (1981 Maico 490), I could have been world champion a lot earlier." He also rode one (or possibly still rides one for all I know) in vintage motocross. Incidentally, Bad Brad started his professional career on a CZ and raced against the best of the time, many who started out on Maicos, before "going Japanese" as the 80s pop song says.
Brad Lackey and Larry Roeseler, My two motorcycle heroes. I grew up in southern and then northern Ca. I remember watching Larry as a kid wheelieing all the way down Tangelo Ave and back in Bloomington, Ca. I knew then that he was gonna be great.
Yeah, I remember reading an article about all the mods he and his mechanic had to do to the Suzuki in order to win the championship. It was no longer a true factory Suzuki, kinda a bastard itself. Ha Ha. @@BastardX13
I have been around Maico since the early 70's . My uncle had a 69 coffin tank 360 . My friends dad had a 501 . We called it the Widow maker . My first Maico was a 1980 400 . Great hill climber . Still have a 1978 400 that was set up for Magoo to race in the San Luis Obispo Ca area , but he got hurt and could not race it . All were great bikes for the time . Think I will go for ride after watching this video .
The 490 sand spider? My buddy Rob was killed on his on the Oregon dunes. He held it wide open and launched off a ridgeback dune and flew like an out of control eagle. He was estimated up 60 feet and didn’t touch ground for 190 feet crashing to the ground breaking almost every bone in his body. He bled out internally in seconds. But he did it on the bike he saved up for and was so excited to get.
@@vf12497439things happen. People sometimes don't know when to call it quits. Not placing blame but he should've known what was ahead. And if he didn't know and couldn't scout it out before hand. He shouldn't have been going balls to the walls.
I use to own 81 Maico 490, loved that bike. Would win a lot of local "Open Class" A and Money races through 81 to 83. With the problems going on with Maico, it was getting hard to get parts for it after a couple of years. I had to get rid of it and buy a Honda.
This was the most information I have ever heard about Maico. I had a Maico 440 in 1983 and raced motocross in the UK. I loved that bike, so much power, fantastic handling. I wish I still had it now. I had no idea at the time of the troubles Maico were having then, but it was probably why I only paid £340 for it. I raced it for two years, it only ever need a few spark plugs, an air filter and I changed the ring/rings for 1984, I believe it only had one ring but my memory is not 100% sure. Thnks for all the info.
when i was a kid there were about 20 kids who had dirt bikes in, mostly 125's and the older kids had 250's cr's and yz's then one kid bought a 440 maico. this thing was a monster. every saturday and sunday we would all be riding in a huge shut down quarry next to our development and make tracks and just see who could climb the biggest hill, fun stuff. the first weekend he had it he crashed it cause it was way to powerful. he busted his head open on a rock, i was nominated to ride it home and it was eff'n scary. the dude was ok but that was the last day he ever rode it and any other off road bike. the lesson i learned was never, never buy a bike that you might think is to powerful for your skill.
No one ever thinks it'll be too powerful... Their ego won't let them, doesn't matter if its a local pro or weekend warrior, usually it's the weekend warrior.. That's why people buy 450s even though they can't utilize all the power of a 250F. They feel much heavier than what the scale says due to more rotating mass, they're less stable trying to actually charge on them, and while the power can get you out if trouble, especially when you're a fast B or A rider, majority of times it gets people into trouble. I race A class, and I prefer either a 250F or 350F if i want to be lazier, its powerful enough to ride like a 450, or you can charge on it like a 250F... less rotating mass makes all the difference in the world and it allows the suspension and chassis to work properly. If you're a guy like Jett Lawrence, running a tall gear, lugging the bike, and using momentum on a detuned 450, then that allows you to be lighter on the bike and frees up the suspension rather than binding it up, and they cab be easier to ride... but most guys aren't like Jett, most guys are like, Barcia for example who tries riding it like it's a 125 and bouncing the limiter. Even pros detune 450s to make them more rideable... if you can jump a long supercross rhythm in 2 jumps, it's too much, and 450s have outgrown the stadiums... trying to be that precise on something that powerful, especially when you're tired, it's dangerous. I wish every company built 350s and raced that as the premiere class, doing away with the 450.
@@yamahakid450f That is funny because my trail riding experience has been totally the opposite. People buy a 250F because they want a light nimble bike for tight woods trail riding then they spend money on loud pipes, higher compression pistons, air filters, etc. trying to wake it up. I have a Husqvarna TE510 and it is perfect for casual trail riding.
@@yamahakid450f while that is *usually* the case, I do remember the first time I took my brother's KZ400A out onto the road after puttering about on my GN125. There was a distinct moment where I was like "i've only rode this in first gear on the field.... I am about to die" and ended up chickening out before getting into third. I eventually got a LOT more comfortable with bikes, but still haven't been over 60 on one by myself. I've never ridden an actual dirtbike, though, so maybe the audience for those is just a lot more gung-ho about it. The dirtbikes I saw around town back in the day where all stupidly fast though (the guy with a DR125, basically the same engine block as my streetbike, could easily overtook me). So I can see your point on 450s being downright impractical. One of the guys had a 600 I think it was, and that would pull away from me in 5th gear like I was standing still. The guys out there would have let me try one, but my short butt couldn't swing a leg over any of them (I was a larger, less nimble man in my youth). A 450 would likely be unsafe for me regardless of how I rode it, because your've got to be able to reach the ground with toes at least...
Thank you for this video. Been riding since the 70’s and always wanted a Maico back then. Begged mom and dad every day for one, honestly I was to young and small for one. I was pretty darn happy with my 1980 RM 80 as a kid.
Very interesting and extremely sad. As a baby boomer, I remember the Maico and what it could do. To see the demise of the brand is sad. But far worse is the cause. Family members undermining each other to the point they were willing to hurt or even risk the death of loyal, innocent customers. There isn't a prison sentence harsh enough for them. It seems to me, Otto was the one who had at least some compassion on the public. And for a while, he seemed to have tried to work in the best interests of family members who sought to sink him.
I remember Maico from when I was a kid, but I never knew why they disappeared by the time I was buying motorcycles. Thanks for a great in-depth video. I remember Cagiva, Hodaka, and Can-am too!
My Dad rode for Maico in the 70's. I inherited his '73 750. That thing was a tractor. I rode the wheels off that thing- it wouldn't die. Climbed hills like a beast too.
I graduated high School in June of 1975 in Rialto Ca, and one of the kids I went to school with was a guy name R Holiday and his Dad owned Holiday Cycles in Rialto. The lay down shock started to happening like in 1973-1974 not 1980. Holiday Cycles was leading the way with that lay down shocks even putting front forks on the rear replacing the rear shock with a vary long travel suspension. Back in 1975 Maico was know as Break O Maico.
Yeah, earlier in my MX days of 1960's-70's, the CZ was the bike to have... never heard much about Maico except for magazine ads... CZ World Champion Joel Robert was eventually bought away by Suzuki... #1 Robert on CZ and #2 John Banks on BSA rode in TransAm here at the Delta, N.W. Ohio, USA MX track... I'll never forget watching them... that track was also faked into the TransAm movie... just a Delta, Ohio sign stuck into a desert somewhere with Rocky Mountains in background... LOL! When Cycle Magazine started dynoing motorcycles around 1970 and we discovered a hundred old brands like Bultaco and Montessa didn't make any power, that killed them off... I test rode a Yamaha 250 but decided I wanted a tad more, was used to a Jawa 350cc 4 gears powered minibike, and waited and bought one of the first Yamaha 360's in Summer 1970... sold it fall '70 to an Army Captain just returned from Vietnam and then flew off to Vietnam myself... later got a Honda 175 Scrambler... '74 Ducati 450 Scrambler... Ducati 750... Yamaha 650... Honda 305 Scrambler... Kawa 440... Suzuki 805 Intruder... (earlier a Cushman Eagle, 125cc Sachs, and Suzuki 250 X6 Hustler)
Maico's legacy lives on thanks to the popularity of vintage MX in the US and Europe. Some glory days from my recollection: Ake Johnsson came within a stripped spark plug of winning the 1972 Trans-AMA series on a Maico. John Franklin won the '73 Winter-AMA support class on a radial head 250. Adolf Weil and Hans Maisch gave the factory Suzukis of DeCoster and Wolsink all they could handle throughout in the mid '70's. Parry Klassen scored a top 10 out of nowhere at the 1979 USGP in a one off effort on a Maico. The last hurrah was Magoo Chandler and Gaylon Mosier in the early 80's before both were bought off by various Japanese factories. Those were the days. Never raced a Maico but always wanted one.
Earlier in my MX days of 1960's-70's, the CZ was the bike to have... never heard much about Maico except for magazine ads... CZ World Champion Joel Robert was eventually bought away by Suzuki... #1 Robert on CZ and #2 John Banks on BSA rode in TransAm here at the Delta, N.W. Ohio, USA MX track... that track was also faked into the TransAm movie... just a Delta, Ohio sign stuck into a desert somewhere with Rocky Mountains in background... LOL! When Cycle Magazine started dynoing motorcycles around 1970 and we discovered a hundred old brands like Bultaco didn't make any power, that killed them off... I test rode a Yamaha 250 but decided I wanted a tad more, was used to a 350cc 4 gears minibike, and waited and bought one of the first Yamaha 360's in Summer 1970... sold it fall '70 to an Army Captain just returned from Vietnam and then flew off to Vietnam myself... later got a Honda 175 Scrambler... '74 Ducati 450 Scrambler... Ducati 750... Yamaha 650... Honda 305 Scrambler... Kawa 440... Suzuki 805 Intruder... (earlier a Cushman Eagle, 125cc Sachs, and Suzuki 250 X6 Hustler)
@@BuzzLOLOLWow, interesting life so far! My older brother bought a used Sears(!) 250 around '70, always with the jokes his friends were, but I believe it was actually a Sachs or maybe a Puch with Sears badging, you might know, huh? Awkward riding position and funky controls, but it ran pretty good, haha. Cheers 🛵
Back in 1976 I went into a Yamaha dealer to buy a brand new IT250 Mono shock. Salesman I had known for years tried talked me into taking a Bran new 1975 leftover SC500 to see if I'd like it. That bike was crazy, I couldn't keep the front end on the ground to save my life. Bike was ludicrous, and ended up with the 250cc
Just recently I found my receipts for some dirt bikes I bought back in the 80s, 1986 Can-am 500 ASE $2,300 and 1987 Can-am 406 ASE $2,400 Canadian dollars, inflation has gone nuts since...
Had an ex-works 440. That was one vicious SOB. If the stupidly short kickstart didn’t get you first, or the piddly front brake didn’t fade to nothing and send you into something solid, the truly mind-buggering power delivery would leave you a limp and whimpering ball of sweaty putty after about 15 minutes. I bloody loved it!
@@jerrywatt6813 It was pretty much how You’d imagine sticking dynamite down your trousers might go. I can’t honestly remember exactly what year it was, but either ‘74 or’77 springs to mind. Twin shock, drum front & rear, unpainted aluminium coffin shaped tank, 4spd. Can’t remember much else, except that every time I started it I wondered exactly how brutally it would try to assault me today. Fact is, it was so way beyond my abilities to do it justice that it was a nonsense for me to ride it. I was young and daft though and I thought a gas can full of adrenaline and fear was a positive path to follow. Got smarter later on and hey! I survived it.
@@davidkeeton6716 Not that I remember, but it stripped the kickstart pinion teeth off a couple of times. It had a ton of compression and probably a fair amount of advance at zero rpm. Made it a bit of a tricky thing to avoid the occasional kickback. That hurt too. I wasn’t exactly a giant when I was younger, more a racing snake with not much mass, talent or knowledge. God, that bike was awesome.
My brothers first motorbike was a Maico (1972) The rear sprocket was almost as big as the inner rim of the back tire. It was an awesome hill climber. Mooooocho torgue, and fast.
No mention of the legendary 501 that won more races then any other bike at the time. I'll always remember the advertising slogan, " you don't test a 501; it tests you ".
I remember this time, I was racing a Yamaha YZ-250 and it seems like everyone was wondering what was going on with them, for open class the Honda CR-500 was hard to beat
I always wondered what happened to Maico. Infamous for being super quick, self dismantling and snapping the riders’ ankles with a forward kickstart lever.
Discovered this channel not long ago and literally EVERY DAY I scroll through the videos to see what to go for next, and it never disappoints me, even though maybe I couldn't care less about the topic(no, not this one...love every piece of history)... I'm SURE You're going in the 100%-right direction! Rock on! (Tommy from Italy)
I got a 440 cc 2 stroke Maico in a swap with a car and some other stuff back in the early 80s, the 440 was a secondary part of the deal. Even though I'd owned, raced and ridden many bikes, both road and off road, this Maico was an absolute beast of a dirt bike. I worked in the building trade at the time and the plumbers would pay me to dig trenches using the 440. I'd drop the clutch and dig over 1 foot deep trenches with a huge knobbie on the back. Plumbers were real happy to pay me to use it for trenches, the power band and ping of this 2 stroke was mind blowing, nothing better than anything around at the time
First time I beheld a Maco dirt bike when I was a kid at Indian Dunes in Southern California in the 80s. Everyone was doing double takes and it was the star of the show.
*I just sold my Maico 400 to a movie prop company for $25,000 It took a while to sell but I held firm. After calling me for 6 months and try to wear me down THEY GAVE IN. They hinted to me this was for an MI movie and Tom Cruse (and stunt double) would be driving it.*
When I was racing MX in the mid 70s, my best friend had 2 X 250s and he absolutely ruled the 250 class. Maico was exotic back then and very expensive, which my friends dad could afford. I idolized my otherwise geeky best friend. No one cooler, or faster. 😊
@@dpayne8611 no Maico were always more expensive as I remember from 1970 on. Maico's also requires more maintenance by someone that knew the brand and parts cost more than Japanese bikes.
My 501 Maico was the best dirt bike I had in my collection. It could not be tamed. You couldn't run it wide open but once you got it on the power band it was awesome. Never raced it. Used for freestyling and verticle jumps. It loved jumping anything.
Darn, I remember the Maico bikes in the late '70s early '80s. They were certainly in that awesome period of their existence. Most scrambler riders wanted them. Always wondered what happened to the brand. Thanks for the post.
I recall when Suzuki came out with their 400 cc motocrosser in 1972. It was a wicked bike as well, and it was an attempt to compete with Maicos, Huskies, and CZ's. Thanks for the excellent docu; very well done.
the first and scariest suzuki tm 400 came out in 71, it was the only tm 400 that was orange with a 4 speed gearbox, the insanely explosive powerband combined with the 4 speed is what made the first tm 400 such a handful to control.........
@@abruptlybluntVery cool. My first bike was a mid 70s TM 125. It came in a box, completely disassembled. I had to assemble it myself with help from only those 3rd party manuals. Good times.
Good job on the video. I owned 3 four Maicos throughout the years. Was a great bike in its day. My first was a 1969 360 X4A Square Barrel that was also owned by Lonnie. He was in Vietnam getting shot up when I had this one. It was supposedly one of the first 360s that came factory balanced and came out of Cooper Motors in Burbank. It vibrated like a blender going off the deep end. My second was a 1972 Radial finned 400 that I laid the shocks down and installed forks off a 1981 Maico. Worked much better than stock, but the kick starter ratchet stripped out and needed to be rebuilt. I ended up machining parts to fix. My final was a new, leftover air cooled 1984 M-Star 500 that I bought in early 1985 from Cole Brothers in North Hollywood. The importers were in Santa Paula (Ventura County). I set it up for desert D37 racing. Sadly, at the first race it seized on the way to the starting line of its first race. I took it back to Cole to have them check it out. The cases were split to find sand that was not cleaned out from the casting process worked its way loose and into the rod and crank bearings causing premature failure. They bored it first over and replaced the stock (weak) tranny gears with new drop forged gears. When I picked up the bike I brought it home only to hear a loud knock. Sounded like a rod knock I was very familiar with from my car racing days. I ending up talking to Ted Lapadakis in Santa Paula multiple times and finally got every cent back I payed for the bike. I immediately drove to Burbank Yamaha and secured a support ride on a new 1985 YZ490. After a few races I was amazed that I didn't have to fix something that had broken in the previous weekend's race. I swore of Euro bikes until I risked buying a CA plated 2004 KTM 525EXC. The Euro bikes have now come a long way in reliability since the old days... COMMENTS???
I have to commend you sir on your fantastic episode here telling the story of Maico and that crazy ‘81 490 ! Fantastic work, your storytelling and narration is of such good quality. Well done and Pls keep up the good work you have a huge fan here sending you love from South Africa 🇿🇦.
Terrible what happened to Maico. They out-KTM-ed KTM 20 years earlier. Then committed corporate fratricide. Reminds me of the movie "Adidas vs. Puma: A Brother's Feud". Well worth the watch.
When KTM's came out people really resented this start up company and how dare they make something so much better than the crap we were riding. Same people who didn't know Austria was a country, pretty sad.
@@jasonwooden I don't doubt that at all. I got out of dirt bikes when there was just no place to ride anymore without speed limits and rangers with radar guns. That took all the fun out of it for me.
I'm not even into bikes. But but the research, the production , te narration of this video essay is SO GOOD that you got me hooked. Great work. I'm.gladly subbed because your work is great.
Wow. A kid, we looked at that Maico in reverence. My first motorcycle (as a 17 yr old) was a 1975 Kawi 750 triple, (H2). Within months, my crazy brother & I had Keith Bontreger (under Kanemoto racing) highly modify it to a machine that had no place on the street. It's a wonder I am still alive...GREAT video. Thank you.
Wow i never knew the crazy family feud behind Maico - What a tragedy! Poor Otto it seems he was the lifeblood of the company the Maisch brothers were a cancer! Great narration - I'll be checking out the rest of your work - Cheers 👍
@@BornAGoon Thank you Mr Goon! You're a Bloody Decent Film Maker & Narrator - I love your work!! All the best in growing the channel - I'll pass on the word to all my Biking Buddies🤍🇦🇺👍
Just wow. I never knew the back story. I use to dream of having a Maico. I stared at the beautiful bike in the magazines many a hour as a kid. Thx for the info
We rode bikes as kids in the mountains and deserts of Utah. One of my friends had an older brother with that 490. When he would show up everybody just sat and watched. We had CRs, XRs and a YZ but that Maico was just different and mean!
I was born in 1946 and was racing motocross in the 60s. I remember when Maico and KTM hit the tracks. They immediately put us in the back and couldn't afford high tech machinerie!! They were ahead of their time and were heavily sponsored! For some unknown reason Maico cheapened there product because everybody wanted one!! They found out it was inferior and was not reliable. The sponsors pulled out and KTM was the going thing!! (Still is today) When you're the lead dog don't stop and pee!!😊
I think that it was back in 1970 or thereabouts that I purchased a new Maico 360 two stroke motorcycle. I loved that bike. I raced some motocross, did trail riding, poker runs and would climb the Cle Elum coal pile with ease. Nothing ever broke on it and the two-stroke power was incredible. I eventually sold it to my brother who broke his ankle while trying to kickstart the bike without using the compression release. Thanks for triggering some really great memories from my distant past adventures.
@@aquasaltyfishing4933 I am from Spokane, but I lived in Bellevue WA. when I had the bike. My brother still lives in Spokane. Do you know him? His name is Don. Took me a minute. Yes, Cle Elum is in Eastern WA.
When I was 11 my dad bought a lightly- used 81 in 82 and would let me put it around a field. Long-story-short, he moved to Texas(1,500 miles away) in 91 and gave it to my brother who parked it in a shed where it sat for 5 years. I was deep into Moto and in the best shape of my life when I talked him into dragging it out and letting me borrow it for a couple days. HOLY F^*K! It was amazing. Dad threw in a couple stiffer preload springs for the rear and once I switch those over I absolutely flew on that thing. The hype is real. It was 15 years old and still pure magic. If I could've rode it at Mammoth my life would've been complete :D
Great video. I ran a 1981 back in the day. Stunning bike. Brutal acceleration and you could pretty much leave it in one gear for the whole race. Then the cylinder literally split in half horizontally. I still remember when the replacement came in and the dealer told a mother who was hesitating on buying a small Hodaka (remember them??) for her son that my one part cost more than that bike. Yeah, thanks for that... Ha!
The Hodaka Combat Wombat, best name ever for a bike! We used to call Puch "puke" because you could never get parts and when you did you'd have to open your wallet very wide.
@@mattfetter4123 Stainless steel is expensive, hard to bend, weld and and heavy. What idiot made that choice? My CanAm125 had the first street legal plastic tank, a real rocket until the Bosch ignition kept crapping out every month. Now they're making electric dirt bikes, not in my future plans.
I raced & followed MotoX in high school ('73-76). "Maico BreakO" was used then. I think it came about after Maico lost the world championship because of a loose spark plug in the last race of the season ('73)?
I started riding dirt with my father and 3 brothers in 1968 and stopped racing MX when I got married in 1977. My last bike was a 1977 KTM MC400. In 1981 I met up with some friends and they gave me a Maico 490 to ride for the day. I literally could not believe how great that bike was.
I wanted a 81 Maico 490 so bad. Coolest bike in that Era. It's funny ,this is a video on the Maico and the show a guy riding around a field on a honda xr. I remember Maico breako.
Felt very sad after watching this. Especially about Otto. Thanks for your work. I won my first race on an 82 Alpha and was disqualified because my mate borrowed it to me after shredding the rear hub on a Ktm. It did have an Ohlins shock tho!, because it was the first time i tried a bike with an Ohlins, That 490 felt much smoother all round than the Ktm and the Yz 465 i used. That 86 500 was a good bike as Pete Mathia (Brit Championship rider) won lots on it, but it was a blue one not red & yellow. Many thanx.
The worst part of it was how the machines were once awesome, Then some idiotic jealousy from Billy Boy, just completely ruined many years of work and research that Otto was so successful with... It is obvious, which of the two brothers was a better engineer. Otto will be The one who is remembered as what made that machine , what it was before Billy Boy got his destructive hands on it... This was an interesting story.... Thank You for sharing it...
I get a kick when a kid like you tries to report on something I lived through. In 1970 I started racing Maico under a distributorship sponsor. It handled well and was fast - when it was running. The term "Maico Breako" was in the common vernacular by the mid-70s. Also CZ - Seize Easy. The bikes to have back then were either a Bultaco or a Husky. Ossa had a pretty good bike in the Stiletto which I rode for a local dealer on occasion. None of the European bikes were very reliable but the Bultacos seemed to break the least. What you say may be true in '81 - I'd lost interest in racing, had a nuclear engineering degree and was heading up a successful nuclear engineering services company - but what killed ALL the European brands was the Honda Elsinore and the Yamaha YZ. When the first Elsinore came to town, I was at the Sports Center Honda dealer, cash in hand, helping them un-crate it. I never looked back at Maico or any of the other European brands. Imagine a race engine that would run a whole season without having to remove the cylinder head! And not have to clean out a gearbox after a disintegrated clutch? And properly sized chain and sprockets that didn't break? And cable ends that didn't pull out because they were crimped instead of being soft soldered. Pre-Honda, there was no rest time between heats. All that time was spent going over the bike with a fine toothed comb. For European-level races with 45 minute heats, it was a new piston ring between heats and dye penetrant inspection of the piston skirts for incipient or actual cracks. New piston between races and MagnaFluxing the rod that the engine was fond of throwing. Whole new crankshaft after 3 races. the crank pin press-fit was so loose that I started TIGing the pin to the flywheel halves. That precluded rebuilding the crankshaft but the fillet radius on the crankshaft on the primary side was so small that a crack was either forming or had formed. Your problem is that you believe all the crap written in motorcycle magazines back then. "Cycle" magazine was the only one with credibility. The centerfold each month was the test bike of the month taken apart down to the last nut and bolt and laid out in a photo-spread. Gordon Jennins, the resident engineer, wrote long articles explaining the engineering behind the various parts. "Dirt Bike"? A pretty funny rag but going back and looking at collection, it's embarrassing just how deep into their advertisers they were.
Thank you. Fascinating presentation! Just want to point out one misrepresentation of history, at least to my understanding. "It's a sad tale of how the two brothers could somehow survive the most vile political regime in history but couldn't survive each other." Of course there's no way to justify what occurred under Hitler's regime, however, Stalin, Mao, & Pol Pot's regime were far more horrific in scale compared to Hitler.
Sad what happened to Maico, great story. However, I have point out that the term 'Maico breako' was coined way earlier in this motorcycles history, like the early seventies, not in 1982 as claimed in this story. And even that was somewhat false, these bikes required regular maintenance and were built to do so. Primary chains in particular needed constant replacement, but the engines came apart effortlessly and aside from the constant costs, they were just as dependable as any other dirtbike at the time. I owned a 1974 MC250 and a 1976 AWR440 and raced these bikes every weekend back in the mid 70's.
@@fastandyc Maico's, unlike most modern MX bikes did not have gears between the crankshaft and clutch basket inside the motor. Instead, they had a three row primary chain with sprockets on the crankshaft and clutch basket. It was common to find bits and pieces of this chain in the motor oil after only a few hours of riding.
Was lucky to have a friend with a Maico 400. I best remember it having amazing low grunt torque which changed my mind about 2-strokes, and super plush forks way better than any other at the time. The 1981 490 went to longer travel rear end and improvements everywhere, but they had some serious basics down earlier on.
A couple yrs ago I acquired a company from 3 brothers where I'd worked for over 10 yrs. The oldest brother & founder checked out 5 yrs prior and traveled, seemingly unaware of how much the middle brother (COO) despised the younger brother (now CEO) whom I was close with. For years I tried tell him that his brother was sabotaging the company but he always dismissed it. The animosity was palpable and created an extremely toxic company culture, which he also refused to acknowledge. Eventually I decided I was done trying to help so I focused on buying the business from them. The first thing I did on day one as the owner was fire the HR Manager....who was also their mother. 😂
What an interesting story. Great move on your part. I hope it works out well for you. In my personal experience, families are not harmonious entities, and should not be the basis for a business. And you cannot evangelise facts or the truth. The last three years has highlighted just how ridiculous the vast majority of people truly are. With now one close long time family friend, and five members of my extended family now dead after participating in the ‘safe and effective’ chemistry experiments, four within days of their first or second jabs, and a very fit and active cousin admitted to hospital for emergency surgery, the empirical evidence supports everything I learned from my own research. Yet I’m still ostracised and called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for figuring out in 2020 and 2021 what the mainstream media is only now beginning to report. You can’t help stupid. Peace
@@G58 Bravo! Similar family tragedies with them partaking in a genocidal medical crime you mentioned. The chickens are coming home to roost with a vengeance.... The gov and controlled media are like "nothing to see here...".
@@themightyintercept6572 We need to help ourselves. One of humanity’s biggest problems is dependence upon myths, fairytales and other lies. Most people actually prefer fiction to fact, lies to the truth, and when confronted with the beauty of nature, try ascribing it to a mythological entitled for which they have zero evidence! Many even compare a wooded area to Narnia or something out of Tolkien - substitute myths. Sorry, but since 9/11 I’ve spent a lot of time reevaluating everything I once held to be true, and studying the situation of tax, debt and mental slavery in which we exist. It’s our fault for allowing this to happen to us. We look up to others to save us - rather than take responsibility for our own situations. Peace
I was blessed to have a beautiful 83' KTM 495. Awesome and full range power, low end could pull stumps, high end would take everyone's breathe away. The middle power and made it controllable between the 2. Best bike I ever enjoyed, very low maintenance as they were so well built.
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Thanks for sharing this. It was one of the best historical documentary vlogs I’ve ever experienced on the tube. I always wondered what happened to Maico. Thanks for clearing it up. It is a tragedy that so many were injured and affected by one family’s dysfunction.
I was acquainted with a guy who got another 17-18 HP out of his 490 by porting it, modifying the exhaust pipe, putting another carb on it and a couple of other things I can't remember. I rode it once for about 10 minutes. It went like a bat out of hell. Scared the piss out of me the first couple of minutes, but it ended up being a lot of fun.
Maico still exist today. The Brand is owned by Otto Maischs Granddaughter and small amounts of Bikes are still produced untill today.
Macio killed Bultaco
⁶⁶⁶
And Bulltoco where great bikes. I have one built by Gary Nixon and it's a blast to ride...
I worked at a maico ktm dealership in Norfolk VA back in the mid 80s. The knobby shop owned and operated by Bruce Lember, then sold to bill darling who was the mechanic that worked there. We all raced ,and we lived ate,slept ,and breathed everything motocross. We would pack up Friday afternoon drive all night during the winter down to Florida,race Saturday and Sunday drive all night just to be back at the shop Monday morning. I was 16 17 years old and was working my dream job with the best guys in the world in the best years of my life. It was great. We were all A riders, me in 125 bill on 250 and Bruce on open class. Later bill raced open then him and I both in 125 A . Everyone knew us and we had nothing but friends at the track. If someone needed something a part or whatever we had it for them. I remember rebuilding shocks ,top ends , clutches even bill rebuilding a crank between Motos. Best memories with my dad and friends and would take a million dollars to trade for them and if I had it to pay and live it all over again, a million would be a bargain. Great guys maicos unbelievable bikes but I will say they did have weak gearboxes.
Thanks for sharing. Motocross (and BMX) were also a huge part of my youth, and like you, I wouldn't trade that time for anything.
This post made this entire video worth posting. Awesome memories for sure.
Yes I too raced MX in Florida in the 80s, racing on weekends is what we did, the only thing we did. It to was my funnest years of my life. I started off racing 80s and 125s, then made the crossover to ATCs racing 200Xs and then 250Rs until I couldn't race them anymore because of them being banned.
@@mr.naughtypants7069okay naughty pants, why the ban? I gotta know.
@@lastlogicallibatc 3 wheelers got banned in America years ago. They were deemed to dangerous by the feds.
If I made the 81 490 and it was renounded as the best thing out there my first thought would be, don't change a single thing until someone came up with something to better it. Being an old school bloke I really appreciate a bike with 4 main wires, manual choke and a tool kit with 4 spanners and a screwdriver. Keep your ABS traction control GPS heated grips etc etc. Easy to use,easy to fix and goes like stink. That's all I need.
Exactly, just like the Yamaha MX 125 and 250 that did not change in a decade because it was right from the start. Maico made the mistake of joining the pack by having a uni shock rear suspension!
@@TugIronChief Maybe but I like to think that a (PROUDLY NOT MADE IN JAPAN) sticker would help.
@@fredsnowden5375 Right, Drz 400 also comes to mind.
The mega e 490?
Magoo chandler loved it.
I had a '78 Maico Magnum 400 that I did a complete rebuild on in the '90s. Had it apart down to the last piece. The craftsmanship that went into building that bike was the best I've ever seen in any motorcycle. Every part looked like it was machined by a tool maker. Every weld was textbook perfect. That bike was a work of art and I wish I still had it.
Copy that! Had a 250 great bike.
Now you can buy MAICO again ! They restarted production
Typical German craftsmanship that's why I've been collecting antique BMWs for 45 years
@@kennethmartindale8771 wonderful! My friend just had send me a pic from his round the world tour of an old R80 with character of touring . One of my friends did round the world in 8 years 280.000 km with his R100 .
I had early 80s 490 in late 90s with no kickstart and it had so much compression I'd push it down a concrete hill to bomb it 3 or 4 times before I got it lol
I got my 81 490 when it came out and I still have it to this day.
I saw the same thing happen at a restaurant I worked at. Known for great food and portions, the dad died and the kids started slashing quality. When ever the execs try to improve the bottom line by cutting quality it always fails. In Maico's case it was intentional. Such a sad story of what had been a primer brand.
Hell, that story isn't even unusual for the German car industry at the time. There used to be looaads more German manufacturers of cars and motorcycles and each loss stings to this day. Borgward, Glas, NSU, Zündapp, Hercules, Kreidler, Horex... Not to mention the East-German manufacturers that built amazing products under their circumstances but were coldly liquidated after reunification: Sachsenring and Wartburg, MZ and Simson. Even if some of the names still exist in some form or other, they're just empty badges slapped onto something from China that didn't want to build its own brand. :/
its happening where i work, i do granite this little thing will give you an example of whats going on since old man richard gave the business to his two sons. they hire nothing but dumb teens that dont last. i seen that the reinforcement rods we put into the slabs was cut less than a inch from the edge instead of like 4 inches farther in it does nothing on the edge. i said why are we cutting this on the edge now i get told that boss man told them to do EVERY PIECE like that becuase since they cant get it right just do it like this instead THE WRONG WAY. basically they just said keep doing it wrong like you have been since you cant learn to do it right. WTF everything is turning into this no matter what i stay the same what i touch gets done right. my name is on the line not just the business the contractors are seeing it too they are coming to me personally and asking me to do their jobs BUT I CANT DO THEM ALL lol
its contagious too cause good workers are doing crap work now cause they are like if they dont have to do things right and not get penalized then why do i have too.
@@petejones6827 Yeah, that's pretty sad.
I seen the same thing happen in a industrial painting company
I love capitalism , but huge portions means little profit . Quality products deter from future sails , trained to fail is the order of the day , even when it comes to the baby boomers kids , they're parents didn't even realize they had been programmed via they're military training to undermine they're own children . Some of us were smart enough to absorb the positives and deflect the negative lessons and traits we got basted with like thanx backstabbing turkeys ... Troll as they may , I ain't wrong ... My mom s second husband died riding with me on a 79 Husky 490 board over as he was a small engines instructor at Clover Park voc school Tacoma WA
My Dad was desert racing during the "Maico Breako" period. Despite the hub issues he mentioned, he said those bikes were FAST, and had great handling.
I had a Maico 250 radial head . Handled like a dream. Didn’t have the greatest power but handled fantastic. Had a Yamaha IT. It hand a lot of power but could not get out of its own way.
I am wondering how Maico got the drum brakes to work so well. Takes no time at all to get up to speed, start braking half way to the next turn, to slow the WITCH back down
Yeah, sold my 440, got yz465, all those tracks in so cal deserts are mine! Have to get wheels rebuilt with better rims and spokes.
@@Oldguy-k3t Nice buy, I'm a Yamaha guy myself. Love my Yamaha two strokes.
You mean until they break a hub and leave you paralyzed in the desert?
The original brothers had the knowledge of metallurgy, heat treating, and machinist skills. I can imagine many of their key personnel...ie, Chief Engineer, Shop Foreman, and several old timers in the machine shop left when the kids took over. That skill and talent is the Heart of a business and not easily replaced.
"when the kids took over" was the decade of the 1970s -
That decade was Maico's golden era and in 1981 "the kids" delivered what many say was the greatest dirt bike ever - the twinshock Mega 490. As someone who owned an '82 at the time I still think the '82 and '83 bikes were even better.
Sometimes and in this case "the kids" took a steaming crap on the desk of their forefathers and took the company, to places that pops, could only have ever dreamed.
ruclips.net/video/z_QjJzn2kHg/видео.html
Luxembourg August 1982: Twelve 490s in this GP. No shocks collapsed. No hubs or gearboxes "blew up".
What's wrong with this picture?
You are only as good as the people working for you. You have to keep your employees happy and focused. This includes rewards for exemplary performance. As soon as any of that begins to erode it doesn’t take long for everything to crumble. Nowadays, the leadership makes it all about themselves and the workers routinely sabotage their supposed company. We have lost so much in recent decades.
I was stationed at Kitzigen, Germany in 1976 and my bud was into dirt bike racing. He was also in the US Army as I was but he had bought a used Macio 250 from some German guy and got his German racing license and was pretty successful on the circuits around Southern Germany. Then he bought a brand new 250 Macio direct from the factory and went out and KICKED ASS! I got to go riding with him on the tank trails out of one of the Army bases and he let me ride his competition Macio. One HELL OF A BIKE! Long live Macio!
Macio?
Maico?
@@jaycoppola4324 Macchiato.
@@shira_yone WOW!!!....THAT'S THE FUNNIEST THING THAT I'VE EVER HEARD,IN MY WHOLE LIFE!
🤔
@@jaycoppola4324 unfortunate.
@@shira_yone ???
You must be a full-time professional grocery bagger.
I had a lot of success on a '79 440Maico but as you said the best one I ever rode and to this day I will say the same was the '81 490. Amazing machine. such a sad end to an icon.
It's not uncommon in German families to torn apart like this, for some reason our culture breeds competition and jealousy amongst siblings. A couple of notable examples being the supermarket chain Aldi which split to become Aldi north, Aldi south and famously the Dassler brothers who split to form Adidas and Puma. My brother's and I can't work together, even that we all work in the motortrade we have seperate workshops on either side of town, any previous collaborations always lead to resent, arguments and not speaking for months (sometimes years).
FYI this was passed down to the German descendants in America. Amazing how many farms and businesses are destroyed by greedy siblings.
Sometimes I find the _"prioritize family first, never sever ties"_ culture I grew up with to be a tad burdensome, but I'm glad it's nothing like... What you've described.
You ever seen blacks ?🤣🤣
That's insane really, I couldn't imagine resenting or turning on my family, ive worked with them for years now.
So is that explanation for what happened between Michael and Rudolf Schenker?
My Dad raced Husky 250's and 390's on a team with a former AMA Enduro champion in the late 70's. They'd get a factory race bike in a crate and immediately start grinding away metal in strategic places to make it lighter and do all kinds of crazy shit you'd never think of to get an advantage. When the 490 came out, it didn't matter how much lighter you could make a Husky or anything else. The power was just on a different level. I remember rocking the Maico shirt as a 4 year old 💪
Well done Gooner.
Thank you for your time and talent putting this together.
I had a 84 CR500 that was, most likely, designed with the 81 Maico in mind. I’m 64 now and remember that leap in technology and development. We are blessed to live in this moment in history.
When I was a kid I had the opportunity to ride a cr490. I had a Bultaco 250 at the time. The guy said if I could start it I could ride it. Well, that didn't go so well. The Kickstarter kicked back so hard it dang near torn the sole off my shoe on the wat to my ankle bone then slapped the back side of my knee. I was over wanting to ride that cursed red monster. I'm 53 now and would love to have that bike. Not to ride , just to admire.
I have (still) an 82 YZ 490, and would drool over the Maico. There were very few dealers and they were so expensive!!!
I rode an 84 or 85 CR500 when I was a kid, what a beast. I might've been a 145lbs dripping wet, but I nailed the trottle & hung on. Didn't like jumping it though, felt like I was getting sucked back into the earth. Jumped back on my 125 with renewed confidence & wrung everything I could out of it with a new confidence, felt more like a toy after a few laps on the 500.
I had an 86. Awesome machine for Jawbone canyon Cal.
Always wondered what happened to Maico. Seems like it's the same old story; bean counters and rotten managers destroy companies.
In the early 70's, when i was about 10, I got to ride my Dad's friends' Maico 501. Talk about power to weight..😅
RIP Norman Holloway.
I just saw a video of a brand new maico 700 two stroke. Enduro ish. Thing looked mean. Anyway they might still be making bikes
@@TugIronChief😂😂😂really???
@@TugIronChief the Japanese really have the entire world beat with how impressive their engineering is. Any mechanic who knows what they're talking about will tell you the easiest engines to work on all come from Japan, not to mention their ridiculously cheap parts cost.
Ever notice. Things before their time, never last.
I ran a Yamaha 125 back in the early 70's, and a friend (much wealthier) let me take his Maico 250 around our practice track. Obviously a superior bike, it felt like an extension of my body and made me feel like I could beat the world. I've always admired the brand during it's golden years even though it contributed to my dissatisfaction of the bikes I could afford and led to my abandoning the sport for girls and rock & roll guitar! So sorry to hear that they disappeared due to family treachery - the brand deserved better.
Cant get a girl with missing teeth and broken neck. Sometimes we gotta know when to quit while ahead. Buy it ride it a while and sell it before it blows up.
Allow me to add that Maico was already leading in Enduro and Motocross in the 70ties. I rode a 74 model GS 250 and it was THE bike to own.
What an incredibly sad story. That 81 490 really is a gorgeous machine!
If it works, leave it alone and don't change what's been proven to work. Great looking bike!
I raced enduro in the late 70’s early 80’s and remember a guy lining up on an 81’ Maico 490 we were all like wow look at that monster as I sat on my IT175(which I dearly loved) ride till ya can’t walk 🐾✌️🇺🇸
@@stoveboltlvr3798thats why i love the yamaha yz250 and laugh at all the ktm fanboys "but it has a cable clutch, and no electric start".. and blah blah blah, none of them can shake me on a yz250 thats IF they can pass me in the first place, they always break down when i keep on going too, new isn't always better if it aint broke don't fix it.
@@MDM1992 ....BS
I bought mine rebuilt from racer's father rebuilt, they worked. The parts were expensive & hard to get before the internet. Great bike for the time, new bikes are really state of the art, flat shifting shooting out rostertails of dirt.
The controls were on xidfferent sides. Great times.
As a young kid i remember the Maico's being legendary and then disappearing but never what happened. Thank you for this wonderful documentary.
thank you for watching it
I remember 2 things about my '76 400 Maico - the insane powerband in 2nd gear and limping for a week after kicking over the bike without using the compression release lever.
The compression release save my life on multiple occasions !:👇🤠
The Maico 400 had insane power.
Mate had a 80’s 500 probably the 490, left hand kicker. The kick back was a b1tch, proper leg breaker. 😂
hahaha yea those bikes were some dangerous kickbacks !
You only forgot to turn the bars hard Right, once. When your knee hits the LH bar, the pain is a reminder.
I never knew Maicos were that good at the time and are still influencing today’s bikes. When companies implode sadly the employees and customers lose the most.
Same here. Carlos Serrano was a factory rider for Maico in the early 80’s and of course he was highly talented, but when he was in town he would lap the local pros on his bike. At the time I thought the RM’s CRs YZ’s and KX ‘s had supremacy over the European bikes as locally you never saw anyone on anything else but the big four.
@@PauloBerni699 Maico was mostly an open class bike. Their 400 and 450 were the popular bikes. I don't think I ever saw a 250 and although they made a 125 I never saw one outside of the dealership. I never understood why the 250 wasn't popular.
the works Maico team were the first to put the shocks half way down the swingarm to get more travel the Japanese were watching
@@timmayeaux2743 We were copying the Maico style and moving our shocks up on whatever we had. It worked too. I had a DKW Hornet at the time.
Rode a 490 once. Probably the fastest bike I have ever been on. It actually kind of scared me a little. I remember thinking "I ride a CR 250s and 500sfor fun, I got this." The 490 is a whole different breed of monster. That little maico had more low end power than any 2 stroke I have seen
Remember the ktm 495?
@@timhoovermusicman the maico 490 looked bad ass
Ha! Was just going to post the same exact story. I had a CR-125 and a CR-250. My buddy had a Maico and that thing was a beast. It was scary as hell. I was comfortable on my 250 and would rip it up on any day of the week. I rode that Maico for all of 10 minutes and decided I like my Honda ;)
@@timhoovermusicman I've never ridden on any KTMs everyone tells me they're great bikes. my dad was a Honda and Suzuki guy that's all we ever had. The 490 I rode belonged to my cousin. I loved my old CR 250 and my dad had a CR 500 I rode a lot both were 1986 models if I remember correctly. I don't have any bikes now but the last bike I had was a 2004 crf 450. We never did any formal racing but that CR 500 was king of the beach for a few summers drag racing out at Appalachia Bay at keystone lake in Oklahoma. Nobody out there had a faster bike for a long time.
@@blitzzbob5643 my friend had a CR500 late 80's... They were mighty machines for sure.
Thanks for the very interesting video! Bought a new 1981 490 Maico for $2500 and raced it for two years. Incredibly reliable, fast and the handling was awesome. Only nitpicks were left side kickstart and tiny front brake...
Wasn't that left leg kick fun...? I had a Penton/KTM that had same thing. It was just odd.
That tiny front brake was probably one of the reasons you went so fast! 🤘
I had the 250 same year. Loved it. I had a yz250 prior. The Macio made the Yamaha feel like tinkertoy.
Once I was in my garage with all my buddy's and had just serviced my 81 490 for the day's ride. We were going to leave at 4 in the morning and head up to Phelan, in the High Desert of SoCal. All packed and loaded except me...but no biggie cuz it was still daylight and plenty of fun to still be had that night. I stood on a crate to get leverage on the left side of my Maico, choked , then "tickled" that huge Bing carb. Slowly pre-loaded the kick starter to max stroke... then rose up to give it one fully powerful & committed kick. The kick back was powerful, it threw me on top of my workbench 3 feet to my side, put my knee into my mouth causing a tooth come thru 1/2 inch below my bottom lip, and damn near knocked me out. The bike was being held up with tie downs that were coming down from the rafters, to the bars...the only reason the bike itself remained secured in an upright position. After getting my head clear, and everyone laughing are butts off for a long time I looked at the Maico. The kick-starter was gone. Which got everyone cracking up again, uncontrollably. Looking around as thoroughly as we could with that many beers in us...nobody could find it. It was gone. "That's impossible, it's gotta be here somewhere" a friend said while I was holding ice from the cooler to my face and bleeding like a stuck pig...while laughing. My friend Bill was on all fours between my bike and the workbench thinking it shot under there...when he noticed a a spot of daylight on the concrete. He looked up and dropped the "F-Bomp"..."No Fu£!n' way" he said. None of us got it. "Guy's, c'mere and look at this." We did...he pointed down to show us the spot of light, then up to a hole in my old shop roof...with my kickstarter punched thru it. Granted...it was an old, very old roof. Built in 1910 and very brittle from the SoCal heat over the years...but Jeeeeezuz. We got a ladder and pulled it out easily. Put it back on my bike, the tack welded it it in two spots. Never had that to worry about again. From that point on...I bump started it every chance I had. 3rd gear, a few steps, easily done. 1st gear...no way,
@@ragtie6177 👍cool story
Maico is still in business as a small boutique maker.
They make (amongst other displacements) the Infamous 700cc 2-stroke dirtbike that was imported and rebadged by ATK.
They are available from Kostetler(sp?) KTM in Germany.
I heard they will build you whatever bike you want
@@BornAGoon as long as its a 500, 620 or 700....no more 250,320,380..parts are drying up
They can readily build all the way down to the 440 I believe, and you can get replacement/maintenance parts for the smaller ones. But no complete smallbore bikes.
Back in the 80's my brother had 1. We lived next to a tollway and across from a highway. My brother would race everything that he could, and he was in the dirt next to the road and he won every time! That thing was incredibly fast!
I used to do this at our old family farm.
With a legal maximum speed of 55mph, did the people on the highway know they were involved in a race with your brother ?
@@CaptHollister of course they did.
Had two 1981 490's and one 490 Alpha 1 and I have to say they were fantastic.
What a great turning, handling and the engine power was awesome.
Rodger DeCoster was my childhood hero. The other kids played baseball, I rode dirt bikes.
I remember riding my friends 490 Maico back around 1983. I got chased by a Sheriff patrol & out ran it . I remember looking back and seeing gravel rocks peppering across his hood...... it was wild !
Ha-ha-ha-haha.... imagine doing that with an old BMW 500 cc[R-51/3] from '52.... a 30 yrs old at time bike.... and playing them around just like the scenes from some movie we saw on the video...
years after I had a chance to even talk to them about it... lol, time had passed so it was ok..... never a dull moment on a bike...
Quality story. Really researched into this. I grew up looking at all those Maicos and how great they were. Its a shame that brand went into the trash. Thank you for telling the story.
Thank you very much Glad you took the tie to watch it
I also grew up with those Maicos. My friend was a sponsored Maico 250 racer in the 70’s. He would win his race and pull a long celebratory wheely after he crossed the finish line like the stud he was that was amazing at the time! That’s why I still love riding today!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Loved mine! Went from racing Yamaha 125 and 250 to open class on the Maico with a 400 and 490 back in the 80's, what beasts. I ran the Fox Air Shocks on them. Those were the days. Then riding a scout bike for the Army Special Forces I fell in love with four strokes. After a 20 year break I am back riding with a KTM 500, but wish Maico was in the game!
I raced a 440 Maico in the open class in the late 1970s. It was an amazing bike! I raced Motocross from 1969 to about 1979 and then stopped. I sold my 440 Maico for a good dollar because it had a reputation in the area Iived and raced in for being the "fastest bike on the track". I always wondered what happened to Maico. I didn't know this story. Thank you for making this documentary.
What a great documentary! My first motocross bike was a 1982 Maico Alpha 1 in 1983. However I did not have any of those problems with it nor was I aware of any of them until watching this video! I'm pretty sure it had the updated rear shock though. In 1984 I bought a brand new Honda CR500. I raced both of them and compared the differences. Wish I had never sold either one of them. Thanks for sharing this video!
I had a go of a friends Maico 490 on a dirt track when I was a teen in the 80's. It was like mounting a horse. So much power my knuckles drag on the floor to this day!! Every gear would raise the front up really easy. An unforgettable experience.
Such a sad tale. I heard the story about Otto and Wilhelm not getting along, but never knew about the brothers sabotaging the company for their own gain. What evil little shits!
Great video once again. Just love the tone of your voice as the story is being told. Cheers.
Don't forget, today it is almost impossible to learn history accurately.
@@karlwithak. You sound vaccinated.
I remember a quote by Brad Lackey in a video I watched after he won the world championship and retired. He said, "If I had one of these bikes (1981 Maico 490), I could have been world champion a lot earlier." He also rode one (or possibly still rides one for all I know) in vintage motocross. Incidentally, Bad Brad started his professional career on a CZ and raced against the best of the time, many who started out on Maicos, before "going Japanese" as the 80s pop song says.
Brad Lackey and Larry Roeseler,
My two motorcycle heroes.
I grew up in southern and then northern Ca.
I remember watching Larry as a kid wheelieing all the way down Tangelo Ave and back in Bloomington, Ca. I knew then that he was gonna be great.
Bad Brad, my favorite open classer. Also the first to win the championship with the Simons inverted fork, I believe.
Yeah, I remember reading an article about all the mods he and his mechanic had to do to the Suzuki in order to win the championship. It was no longer a true factory Suzuki, kinda a bastard itself. Ha Ha. @@BastardX13
I have been around Maico since the early 70's . My uncle had a 69 coffin tank 360 . My friends dad had a 501 . We called it the Widow maker . My first Maico was a 1980 400 . Great hill climber . Still have a 1978 400 that was set up for Magoo to race in the San Luis Obispo Ca area , but he got hurt and could not race it . All were great bikes for the time . Think I will go for ride after watching this video .
When I was racing a 1973 SC 500 Yamaha ( light switch) we called the 501 the clod flogger.
They weren't evil. Just the very best motocross bike ever produced. The 1981 490 is a monster undefeated.
@klinestill I think the criticism was against the video's title. After all, it does say: "...the most evil motorcycle brand..."
@klinestill
Project much. SMFH.
The 490 sand spider? My buddy Rob was killed on his on the Oregon dunes. He held it wide open and launched off a ridgeback dune and flew like an out of control eagle. He was estimated up 60 feet and didn’t touch ground for 190 feet crashing to the ground breaking almost every bone in his body. He bled out internally in seconds. But he did it on the bike he saved up for and was so excited to get.
@@vf12497439things happen. People sometimes don't know when to call it quits. Not placing blame but he should've known what was ahead. And if he didn't know and couldn't scout it out before hand. He shouldn't have been going balls to the walls.
@klinestill You may want to pay a tiny bit of attention to the difference between being a helpful internet citizen and a snarky sarcastic ass.
Thanks for the videos of Carlsbad Raceway! I raced that track nearly every weekend in the early 70's on my awesome Bultacos. Great memories.
I did too Bruce. I rode a Maico 250 and an Elsinore 125.
Those places were legendary for the sport. I remember reading about them in TN. Thanks for your spirit and loyalty to the sport and commenting.
I use to own 81 Maico 490, loved that bike. Would win a lot of local "Open Class" A and Money races through 81 to 83. With the problems going on with Maico, it was getting hard to get parts for it after a couple of years. I had to get rid of it and buy a Honda.
This was the most information I have ever heard about Maico. I had a Maico 440 in 1983 and raced motocross in the UK. I loved that bike, so much power, fantastic handling. I wish I still had it now. I had no idea at the time of the troubles Maico were having then, but it was probably why I only paid £340 for it. I raced it for two years, it only ever need a few spark plugs, an air filter and I changed the ring/rings for 1984, I believe it only had one ring but my memory is not 100% sure. Thnks for all the info.
when i was a kid there were about 20 kids who had dirt bikes in, mostly 125's and the older kids had 250's cr's and yz's then one kid bought a 440 maico. this thing was a monster. every saturday and sunday we would all be riding in a huge shut down quarry next to our development and make tracks and just see who could climb the biggest hill, fun stuff. the first weekend he had it he crashed it cause it was way to powerful. he busted his head open on a rock, i was nominated to ride it home and it was eff'n scary. the dude was ok but that was the last day he ever rode it and any other off road bike. the lesson i learned was never, never buy a bike that you might think is to powerful for your skill.
No one ever thinks it'll be too powerful... Their ego won't let them, doesn't matter if its a local pro or weekend warrior, usually it's the weekend warrior.. That's why people buy 450s even though they can't utilize all the power of a 250F. They feel much heavier than what the scale says due to more rotating mass, they're less stable trying to actually charge on them, and while the power can get you out if trouble, especially when you're a fast B or A rider, majority of times it gets people into trouble.
I race A class, and I prefer either a 250F or 350F if i want to be lazier, its powerful enough to ride like a 450, or you can charge on it like a 250F... less rotating mass makes all the difference in the world and it allows the suspension and chassis to work properly. If you're a guy like Jett Lawrence, running a tall gear, lugging the bike, and using momentum on a detuned 450, then that allows you to be lighter on the bike and frees up the suspension rather than binding it up, and they cab be easier to ride... but most guys aren't like Jett, most guys are like, Barcia for example who tries riding it like it's a 125 and bouncing the limiter.
Even pros detune 450s to make them more rideable... if you can jump a long supercross rhythm in 2 jumps, it's too much, and 450s have outgrown the stadiums... trying to be that precise on something that powerful, especially when you're tired, it's dangerous. I wish every company built 350s and raced that as the premiere class, doing away with the 450.
@@yamahakid450f That is funny because my trail riding experience has been totally the opposite. People buy a 250F because they want a light nimble bike for tight woods trail riding then they spend money on loud pipes, higher compression pistons, air filters, etc. trying to wake it up. I have a Husqvarna TE510 and it is perfect for casual trail riding.
Where did you grow up?
@@clarkstonguy1065250f is underpowered
@@yamahakid450f while that is *usually* the case, I do remember the first time I took my brother's KZ400A out onto the road after puttering about on my GN125. There was a distinct moment where I was like "i've only rode this in first gear on the field.... I am about to die" and ended up chickening out before getting into third. I eventually got a LOT more comfortable with bikes, but still haven't been over 60 on one by myself.
I've never ridden an actual dirtbike, though, so maybe the audience for those is just a lot more gung-ho about it. The dirtbikes I saw around town back in the day where all stupidly fast though (the guy with a DR125, basically the same engine block as my streetbike, could easily overtook me). So I can see your point on 450s being downright impractical. One of the guys had a 600 I think it was, and that would pull away from me in 5th gear like I was standing still. The guys out there would have let me try one, but my short butt couldn't swing a leg over any of them (I was a larger, less nimble man in my youth). A 450 would likely be unsafe for me regardless of how I rode it, because your've got to be able to reach the ground with toes at least...
Thank you for this video. Been riding since the 70’s and always wanted a Maico back then. Begged mom and dad every day for one, honestly I was to young and small for one. I was pretty darn happy with my 1980 RM 80 as a kid.
thanks for taking the time to watch the video and comment
Very interesting and extremely sad. As a baby boomer, I remember the Maico and what it could do. To see the demise of the brand is sad. But far worse is the cause. Family members undermining each other to the point they were willing to hurt or even risk the death of loyal, innocent customers. There isn't a prison sentence harsh enough for them. It seems to me, Otto was the one who had at least some compassion on the public. And for a while, he seemed to have tried to work in the best interests of family members who sought to sink him.
Baby boomers ruined everything
@@johnnybgood774 Johnny Be Good now. :)
@@johnnybgood774 still at it, today
@@wvadventurer all in fun my friend. Have a good day.
I remember Maico from when I was a kid, but I never knew why they disappeared by the time I was buying motorcycles. Thanks for a great in-depth video. I remember Cagiva, Hodaka, and Can-am too!
Nice thanks for watching and commenting
👍🏼well said…and thanks for adding memory of those old brands.
My Dad rode for Maico in the 70's. I inherited his '73 750. That thing was a tractor. I rode the wheels off that thing- it wouldn't die. Climbed hills like a beast too.
Wow...what a heart breaker.....they ought to make a movie from this story. Very nice job putting this together.
I graduated high School in June of 1975 in Rialto Ca, and one of the kids I went to school with was a guy name R Holiday and his Dad owned Holiday Cycles in Rialto. The lay down shock started to happening like in 1973-1974 not 1980. Holiday Cycles was leading the way with that lay down shocks even putting front forks on the rear replacing the rear shock with a vary long travel suspension. Back in 1975 Maico was know as Break O Maico.
Yeah, earlier in my MX days of 1960's-70's, the CZ was the bike to have... never heard much about Maico except for magazine ads... CZ World Champion Joel Robert was eventually bought away by Suzuki... #1 Robert on CZ and #2 John Banks on BSA rode in TransAm here at the Delta, N.W. Ohio, USA MX track... I'll never forget watching them... that track was also faked into the TransAm movie... just a Delta, Ohio sign stuck into a desert somewhere with Rocky Mountains in background... LOL!
When Cycle Magazine started dynoing motorcycles around 1970 and we discovered a hundred old brands like Bultaco and Montessa didn't make any power, that killed them off... I test rode a Yamaha 250 but decided I wanted a tad more, was used to a Jawa 350cc 4 gears powered minibike, and waited and bought one of the first Yamaha 360's in Summer 1970... sold it fall '70 to an Army Captain just returned from Vietnam and then flew off to Vietnam myself... later got a Honda 175 Scrambler... '74 Ducati 450 Scrambler... Ducati 750... Yamaha 650... Honda 305 Scrambler... Kawa 440... Suzuki 805 Intruder... (earlier a Cushman Eagle, 125cc Sachs, and Suzuki 250 X6 Hustler)
I had a '78 Maico 400 that was a beast of a dirtbike. It would go straight up a tree if you aimed for one. Maico also built world-class trials bikes.
Buddy had one, he would break out at keg parties. It would bite the brave , every time.
Maico's legacy lives on thanks to the popularity of vintage MX in the US and Europe. Some glory days from my recollection: Ake Johnsson came within a stripped spark plug of winning the 1972 Trans-AMA series on a Maico. John Franklin won the '73 Winter-AMA support class on a radial head 250. Adolf Weil and Hans Maisch gave the factory Suzukis of DeCoster and Wolsink all they could handle throughout in the mid '70's. Parry Klassen scored a top 10 out of nowhere at the 1979 USGP in a one off effort on a Maico. The last hurrah was Magoo Chandler and Gaylon Mosier in the early 80's before both were bought off by various Japanese factories. Those were the days. Never raced a Maico but always wanted one.
Earlier in my MX days of 1960's-70's, the CZ was the bike to have... never heard much about Maico except for magazine ads... CZ World Champion Joel Robert was eventually bought away by Suzuki... #1 Robert on CZ and #2 John Banks on BSA rode in TransAm here at the Delta, N.W. Ohio, USA MX track... that track was also faked into the TransAm movie... just a Delta, Ohio sign stuck into a desert somewhere with Rocky Mountains in background... LOL!
When Cycle Magazine started dynoing motorcycles around 1970 and we discovered a hundred old brands like Bultaco didn't make any power, that killed them off... I test rode a Yamaha 250 but decided I wanted a tad more, was used to a 350cc 4 gears minibike, and waited and bought one of the first Yamaha 360's in Summer 1970... sold it fall '70 to an Army Captain just returned from Vietnam and then flew off to Vietnam myself... later got a Honda 175 Scrambler... '74 Ducati 450 Scrambler... Ducati 750... Yamaha 650... Honda 305 Scrambler... Kawa 440... Suzuki 805 Intruder... (earlier a Cushman Eagle, 125cc Sachs, and Suzuki 250 X6 Hustler)
And Jim west
Don't forget Jim west.
@@BuzzLOLOLWow, interesting life so far! My older brother bought a used Sears(!) 250 around '70, always with the jokes his friends were, but I believe it was actually a Sachs or maybe a Puch with Sears badging, you might know, huh? Awkward riding position and funky controls, but it ran pretty good, haha. Cheers 🛵
@@carlsaganlives5112 - Likely a Puch 'twingle' with one oval piston on two connecting rods...
Back in 1976 I went into a Yamaha dealer to buy a brand new IT250 Mono shock. Salesman I had known for years tried talked me into taking a Bran new 1975 leftover SC500 to see if I'd like it. That bike was crazy, I couldn't keep the front end on the ground to save my life. Bike was ludicrous, and ended up with the 250cc
Just recently I found my receipts for some dirt bikes I bought back in the 80s, 1986 Can-am 500 ASE $2,300 and 1987 Can-am 406 ASE $2,400 Canadian dollars, inflation has gone nuts since...
Had an ex-works 440.
That was one vicious SOB.
If the stupidly short kickstart didn’t get you first, or the piddly front brake didn’t fade to nothing and send you into something solid, the truly mind-buggering power delivery would leave you a limp and whimpering ball of sweaty putty after about 15 minutes.
I bloody loved it!
Was what they called the 440 magnum that bike was brutal ha ha !!!
@@jerrywatt6813 It was pretty much how You’d imagine sticking dynamite down your trousers might go.
I can’t honestly remember exactly what year it was, but either ‘74 or’77 springs to mind.
Twin shock, drum front & rear, unpainted aluminium coffin shaped tank, 4spd. Can’t remember much else, except that every time I started it I wondered exactly how brutally it would try to assault me today.
Fact is, it was so way beyond my abilities to do it justice that it was a nonsense for me to ride it.
I was young and daft though and I thought a gas can full of adrenaline and fear was a positive path to follow. Got smarter later on and hey! I survived it.
Did the kickstart lever travel come to an abrupt stop on the left footpeg by design? Like my Bultaco Pursang 350🤬
I had one and I loved it
@@davidkeeton6716 Not that I remember, but it stripped the kickstart pinion teeth off a couple of times. It had a ton of compression and probably a fair amount of advance at zero rpm. Made it a bit of a tricky thing to avoid the occasional kickback.
That hurt too.
I wasn’t exactly a giant when I was younger, more a racing snake with not much mass, talent or knowledge.
God, that bike was awesome.
Owned and raced both the 81 and the 83 490. Only issues I had was the kick starter on the 83 stripping out.
My brothers first motorbike was a Maico (1972)
The rear sprocket was almost as big as the inner rim of the back tire.
It was an awesome hill climber.
Mooooocho torgue, and fast.
No mention of the legendary 501 that won more races then any other bike at the time.
I'll always remember the advertising slogan, " you don't test a 501; it tests you ".
I remember this time, I was racing a Yamaha YZ-250 and it seems like everyone was wondering what was going on with them, for open class the Honda CR-500 was hard to beat
Great story. I had no idea what had happened to Maico. It's real sad.
I always wondered what happened to Maico. Infamous for being super quick, self dismantling and snapping the riders’ ankles with a forward kickstart lever.
Discovered this channel not long ago and literally EVERY DAY I scroll through the videos to see what to go for next, and it never disappoints me, even though maybe I couldn't care less about the topic(no, not this one...love every piece of history)...
I'm SURE You're going in the 100%-right direction!
Rock on!
(Tommy from Italy)
I got a 440 cc 2 stroke Maico in a swap with a car and some other stuff back in the early 80s, the 440 was a secondary part of the deal. Even though I'd owned, raced and ridden many bikes, both road and off road, this Maico was an absolute beast of a dirt bike. I worked in the building trade at the time and the plumbers would pay me to dig trenches using the 440. I'd drop the clutch and dig over 1 foot deep trenches with a huge knobbie on the back. Plumbers were real happy to pay me to use it for trenches, the power band and ping of this 2 stroke was mind blowing, nothing better than anything around at the time
First time I beheld a Maco dirt bike when I was a kid at Indian Dunes in Southern California in the 80s. Everyone was doing double takes and it was the star of the show.
Wow I remember Maico as one of the great motocross branded bikes. What a shame it had to end in that kind of a disaster!!
*I just sold my Maico 400 to a movie prop company for $25,000 It took a while to sell but I held firm. After calling me for 6 months and try to wear me down THEY GAVE IN. They hinted to me this was for an MI movie and Tom Cruse (and stunt double) would be driving it.*
When I was racing MX in the mid 70s, my best friend had 2 X 250s and he absolutely ruled the 250 class. Maico was exotic back then and very expensive, which my friends dad could afford. I idolized my otherwise geeky best friend. No one cooler, or faster. 😊
Wasnt Gilera and Husaberg the most exotic? I always thought Maico was cheap 😅
@@dpayne8611 no Maico were always more expensive as I remember from 1970 on.
Maico's also requires more maintenance by someone that knew the brand and parts cost more than Japanese bikes.
My 501 Maico was the best dirt bike I had in my collection. It could not be tamed. You couldn't run it wide open but once you got it on the power band it was awesome. Never raced it. Used for freestyling and verticle jumps. It loved jumping anything.
....... I had a 250 BSA Victor . It had a 72 tooth back sprocket! Had a Norton Camando 500 . Indian motorcycles too .
Darn, I remember the Maico bikes in the late '70s early '80s. They were certainly in that awesome period of their existence. Most scrambler riders wanted them. Always wondered what happened to the brand. Thanks for the post.
thank you for watching Gunner
I recall when Suzuki came out with their 400 cc motocrosser in 1972. It was a wicked bike as well, and it was an attempt to compete with Maicos, Huskies, and CZ's. Thanks for the excellent docu; very well done.
the first and scariest suzuki tm 400 came out in 71, it was the only tm 400 that was orange with a 4 speed gearbox, the insanely explosive powerband combined with the 4 speed is what made the first tm 400 such a handful to control.........
@@abruptlybluntVery cool. My first bike was a mid 70s TM 125. It came in a box, completely disassembled. I had to assemble it myself with help from only those 3rd party manuals. Good times.
I bought a RM 400 in the early 80s that needed a top end after I rebuilt it and rode it 3 times I had to sell it, too much for me
I missed the Maico bikes. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Husqvarna were the dirt bikes of my youth.
Good job on the video. I owned 3 four Maicos throughout the years. Was a great bike in its day. My first was a 1969 360 X4A Square Barrel that was also owned by Lonnie. He was in Vietnam getting shot up when I had this one. It was supposedly one of the first 360s that came factory balanced and came out of Cooper Motors in Burbank. It vibrated like a blender going off the deep end. My second was a 1972 Radial finned 400 that I laid the shocks down and installed forks off a 1981 Maico. Worked much better than stock, but the kick starter ratchet stripped out and needed to be rebuilt. I ended up machining parts to fix. My final was a new, leftover air cooled 1984 M-Star 500 that I bought in early 1985 from Cole Brothers in North Hollywood. The importers were in Santa Paula (Ventura County). I set it up for desert D37 racing. Sadly, at the first race it seized on the way to the starting line of its first race. I took it back to Cole to have them check it out. The cases were split to find sand that was not cleaned out from the casting process worked its way loose and into the rod and crank bearings causing premature failure. They bored it first over and replaced the stock (weak) tranny gears with new drop forged gears. When I picked up the bike I brought it home only to hear a loud knock. Sounded like a rod knock I was very familiar with from my car racing days. I ending up talking to Ted Lapadakis in Santa Paula multiple times and finally got every cent back I payed for the bike. I immediately drove to Burbank Yamaha and secured a support ride on a new 1985 YZ490. After a few races I was amazed that I didn't have to fix something that had broken in the previous weekend's race. I swore of Euro bikes until I risked buying a CA plated 2004 KTM 525EXC. The Euro bikes have now come a long way in reliability since the old days... COMMENTS???
I had a 1982 Maico 250, but later traded it on a YZ250. I always wondered what happened to Maico. Very interesting story.
thanks for watching the video
Was it as bad as the 490? How did it fare in 1982 against the water cooled rockets from Japan?
@@j.albertogratacos2076 No breakdowns, but the water cooled bikes blew past me and they obviously had better suspension.
I have to commend you sir on your fantastic episode here telling the story of Maico and that crazy ‘81 490 ! Fantastic work, your storytelling and narration is of such good quality. Well done and Pls keep up the good work you have a huge fan here sending you love from South Africa 🇿🇦.
Thank you for watching jacquiroga
Terrible what happened to Maico. They out-KTM-ed KTM 20 years earlier. Then committed corporate fratricide. Reminds me of the movie "Adidas vs. Puma: A Brother's Feud". Well worth the watch.
Yea almost just like that Feud
When KTM's came out people really resented this start up company and how dare they make something so much better than the crap we were riding. Same people who didn't know Austria was a country, pretty sad.
@@dicksonfranssen My 2003 EXC450 is the best bike ever for the time.
@@jasonwooden I don't doubt that at all. I got out of dirt bikes when there was just no place to ride anymore without speed limits and rangers with radar guns. That took all the fun out of it for me.
@@dicksonfranssen Rangers with radar guns? Where do you live? I’ve never heard of such any state out West.
I'm not even into bikes. But but the research, the production , te narration of this video essay is SO GOOD that you got me hooked. Great work. I'm.gladly subbed because your work is great.
Welcome aboard!
Wow. A kid, we looked at that Maico in reverence. My first motorcycle (as a 17 yr old) was a 1975 Kawi 750 triple, (H2). Within months, my crazy brother & I had Keith Bontreger (under Kanemoto racing) highly modify it to a machine that had no place on the street. It's a wonder I am still alive...GREAT video. Thank you.
......I loved the Kawi triple 750 , but I wrecked on it . Lol ..... it was my asshole brother in laws ! Lol .
Wow i never knew the crazy family feud behind Maico - What a tragedy! Poor Otto it seems he was the lifeblood of the company the Maisch brothers were a cancer!
Great narration - I'll be checking out the rest of your work - Cheers 👍
thank you for visiting the channel and commenting on the video
@@BornAGoon Thank you Mr Goon! You're a Bloody Decent Film Maker & Narrator - I love your work!! All the best in growing the channel - I'll pass on the word to all my Biking Buddies🤍🇦🇺👍
@@BornAGoon Are you a bot?
Maico made great bikes before 81. I raced them from 73 to 77 and I can say there was nothing better.
They should have just split like Adidas and Puma.
One of the best documentaries I have ever watched on YT
Just wow. I never knew the back story. I use to dream of having a Maico. I stared at the beautiful bike in the magazines many a hour as a kid. Thx for the info
Very well made docu. It still hurts me to this day that the company went down.
By the way...its pronounced My-co.
Best regards from Germany.
We rode bikes as kids in the mountains and deserts of Utah. One of my friends had an older brother with that 490. When he would show up everybody just sat and watched. We had CRs, XRs and a YZ but that Maico was just different and mean!
Riding in your Utah tracks…nothing beats Utah riding either!
I was born in 1946 and was racing motocross in the 60s. I remember when Maico and KTM hit the tracks. They immediately put us in the back and couldn't afford high tech machinerie!! They were ahead of their time and were heavily sponsored! For some unknown reason Maico cheapened there product because everybody wanted one!! They found out it was inferior and was not reliable.
The sponsors pulled out and KTM was the going thing!! (Still is today) When you're the lead dog don't stop and pee!!😊
Great video, thanks so much for sharing and telling this story!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I think that it was back in 1970 or thereabouts that I purchased a new Maico 360 two stroke motorcycle. I loved that bike. I raced some motocross, did trail riding, poker runs and would climb the Cle Elum coal pile with ease. Nothing ever broke on it and the two-stroke power was incredible. I eventually sold it to my brother who broke his ankle while trying to kickstart the bike without using the compression release. Thanks for triggering some really great memories from my distant past adventures.
Sounds like someone from eastern Washington?
@@aquasaltyfishing4933 I am from Spokane, but I lived in Bellevue WA. when I had the bike. My brother still lives in Spokane. Do you know him? His name is Don. Took me a minute. Yes, Cle Elum is in Eastern WA.
@@denniscliff2071 No i Dont know him
Thanks for the history lesson well done. I got to ride a ‘81 490 it was right on par with my ‘87 CR 500.
When I was 11 my dad bought a lightly- used 81 in 82 and would let me put it around a field.
Long-story-short, he moved to Texas(1,500 miles away) in 91 and gave it to my brother who parked it in a shed where it sat for 5 years. I was deep into Moto and in the best shape of my life when I talked him into dragging it out and letting me borrow it for a couple days.
HOLY F^*K! It was amazing. Dad threw in a couple stiffer preload springs for the rear and once I switch those over I absolutely flew on that thing. The hype is real. It was 15 years old and still pure magic. If I could've rode it at Mammoth my life would've been complete :D
Great video. I ran a 1981 back in the day. Stunning bike. Brutal acceleration and you could pretty much leave it in one gear for the whole race. Then the cylinder literally split in half horizontally. I still remember when the replacement came in and the dealer told a mother who was hesitating on buying a small Hodaka (remember them??) for her son that my one part cost more than that bike. Yeah, thanks for that... Ha!
The Hodaka Combat Wombat, best name ever for a bike! We used to call Puch "puke" because you could never get parts and when you did you'd have to open your wallet very wide.
Hodaka 100 , stainless tank. Had one of those money pits.
@@mattfetter4123 Stainless steel is expensive, hard to bend, weld and and heavy. What idiot made that choice? My CanAm125 had the first street legal plastic tank, a real rocket until the Bosch ignition kept crapping out every month. Now they're making electric dirt bikes, not in my future plans.
I raced & followed MotoX in high school ('73-76). "Maico BreakO" was used then. I think it came about after Maico lost the world championship because of a loose spark plug in the last race of the season ('73)?
Remember cz seize easy?
I started riding dirt with my father and 3 brothers in 1968 and stopped racing MX when I got married in 1977. My last bike was a 1977 KTM MC400. In 1981 I met up with some friends and they gave me a Maico 490 to ride for the day. I literally could not believe how great that bike was.
I wanted a 81 Maico 490 so bad.
Coolest bike in that Era.
It's funny ,this is a video on the Maico and the show a guy riding around a field on a honda xr.
I remember Maico breako.
Felt very sad after watching this. Especially about Otto. Thanks for your work.
I won my first race on an 82 Alpha and was disqualified because my mate borrowed it to me after shredding the rear hub on a Ktm.
It did have an Ohlins shock tho!, because it was the first time i tried a bike with an Ohlins,
That 490 felt much smoother all round than the Ktm and the Yz 465 i used.
That 86 500 was a good bike as Pete Mathia (Brit Championship rider) won lots on it, but it was a blue one not red & yellow. Many thanx.
Thank you for the kind words and the comment
The worst part of it was how the machines were once awesome, Then some idiotic jealousy from Billy Boy, just completely ruined many years of work and research that Otto was so successful with... It is obvious, which of the two brothers was a better engineer. Otto will be The one who is remembered as what made that machine , what it was before Billy Boy got his destructive hands on it... This was an interesting story.... Thank You for sharing it...
I get a kick when a kid like you tries to report on something I lived through. In 1970 I started racing Maico under a distributorship sponsor. It handled well and was fast - when it was running. The term "Maico Breako" was in the common vernacular by the mid-70s. Also CZ - Seize Easy. The bikes to have back then were either a Bultaco or a Husky. Ossa had a pretty good bike in the Stiletto which I rode for a local dealer on occasion. None of the European bikes were very reliable but the Bultacos seemed to break the least.
What you say may be true in '81 - I'd lost interest in racing, had a nuclear engineering degree and was heading up a successful nuclear engineering services company - but what killed ALL the European brands was the Honda Elsinore and the Yamaha YZ. When the first Elsinore came to town, I was at the Sports Center Honda dealer, cash in hand, helping them un-crate it. I never looked back at Maico or any of the other European brands.
Imagine a race engine that would run a whole season without having to remove the cylinder head! And not have to clean out a gearbox after a disintegrated clutch? And properly sized chain and sprockets that didn't break? And cable ends that didn't pull out because they were crimped instead of being soft soldered.
Pre-Honda, there was no rest time between heats. All that time was spent going over the bike with a fine toothed comb. For European-level races with 45 minute heats, it was a new piston ring between heats and dye penetrant inspection of the piston skirts for incipient or actual cracks. New piston between races and MagnaFluxing the rod that the engine was fond of throwing. Whole new crankshaft after 3 races. the crank pin press-fit was so loose that I started TIGing the pin to the flywheel halves. That precluded rebuilding the crankshaft but the fillet radius on the crankshaft on the primary side was so small that a crack was either forming or had formed.
Your problem is that you believe all the crap written in motorcycle magazines back then. "Cycle" magazine was the only one with credibility. The centerfold each month was the test bike of the month taken apart down to the last nut and bolt and laid out in a photo-spread. Gordon Jennins, the resident engineer, wrote long articles explaining the engineering behind the various parts. "Dirt Bike"? A pretty funny rag but going back and looking at collection, it's embarrassing just how deep into their advertisers they were.
Bought my ‘78 400 Magnum from Barry Mayo’s Champion Cycle near Pontiac, Mi. Loved that bike so much.
Thank you. Fascinating presentation! Just want to point out one misrepresentation of history, at least to my understanding. "It's a sad tale of how the two brothers could somehow survive the most vile political regime in history but couldn't survive each other." Of course there's no way to justify what occurred under Hitler's regime, however, Stalin, Mao, & Pol Pot's regime were far more horrific in scale compared to Hitler.
Well written and produced. I always wondered what happened to the brand.
Sad what happened to Maico, great story. However, I have point out that the term 'Maico breako' was coined way earlier in this motorcycles history, like the early seventies, not in 1982 as claimed in this story. And even that was somewhat false, these bikes required regular maintenance and were built to do so. Primary chains in particular needed constant replacement, but the engines came apart effortlessly and aside from the constant costs, they were just as dependable as any other dirtbike at the time. I owned a 1974 MC250 and a 1976 AWR440 and raced these bikes every weekend back in the mid 70's.
Thanks for the tip I went down a huge rabbit hole with this one Could have made a whole movie out of it
Chains on most Motocross bikes need constantly replacing
@@fastandyc Maico's, unlike most modern MX bikes did not have gears between the crankshaft and clutch basket inside the motor. Instead, they had a three row primary chain with sprockets on the crankshaft and clutch basket. It was common to find bits and pieces of this chain in the motor oil after only a few hours of riding.
I had two they were at the top of my list of my favorite motorcycle ever.
Wow! What a story. I had no idea what happened to Maico. I remember the Maico 501 was a fast bike for straight line drag racing. I never rode a Maico.
Was lucky to have a friend with a Maico 400. I best remember it having amazing low grunt torque which changed my mind about 2-strokes, and super plush forks way better than any other at the time. The 1981 490 went to longer travel rear end and improvements everywhere, but they had some serious basics down earlier on.
A couple yrs ago I acquired a company from 3 brothers where I'd worked for over 10 yrs. The oldest brother & founder checked out 5 yrs prior and traveled, seemingly unaware of how much the middle brother (COO) despised the younger brother (now CEO) whom I was close with. For years I tried tell him that his brother was sabotaging the company but he always dismissed it. The animosity was palpable and created an extremely toxic company culture, which he also refused to acknowledge. Eventually I decided I was done trying to help so I focused on buying the business from them. The first thing I did on day one as the owner was fire the HR Manager....who was also their mother. 😂
wow what a story
What an interesting story. Great move on your part. I hope it works out well for you. In my personal experience, families are not harmonious entities, and should not be the basis for a business. And you cannot evangelise facts or the truth. The last three years has highlighted just how ridiculous the vast majority of people truly are.
With now one close long time family friend, and five members of my extended family now dead after participating in the ‘safe and effective’ chemistry experiments, four within days of their first or second jabs, and a very fit and active cousin admitted to hospital for emergency surgery, the empirical evidence supports everything I learned from my own research. Yet I’m still ostracised and called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for figuring out in 2020 and 2021 what the mainstream media is only now beginning to report.
You can’t help stupid.
Peace
@@G58 Bravo! Similar family tragedies with them partaking in a genocidal medical crime you mentioned.
The chickens are coming home to roost with a vengeance.... The gov and controlled media are like "nothing to see here...".
@@G58 so so so correct.... may a higher power help us all...........
@@themightyintercept6572 We need to help ourselves. One of humanity’s biggest problems is dependence upon myths, fairytales and other lies. Most people actually prefer fiction to fact, lies to the truth, and when confronted with the beauty of nature, try ascribing it to a mythological entitled for which they have zero evidence! Many even compare a wooded area to Narnia or something out of Tolkien - substitute myths.
Sorry, but since 9/11 I’ve spent a lot of time reevaluating everything I once held to be true, and studying the situation of tax, debt and mental slavery in which we exist. It’s our fault for allowing this to happen to us. We look up to others to save us - rather than take responsibility for our own situations.
Peace
I was blessed to have a beautiful 83' KTM 495. Awesome and full range power, low end could pull stumps, high end would take everyone's breathe away. The middle power and made it controllable between the 2. Best bike I ever enjoyed, very low maintenance as they were so well built.