Maico still have their legendary smooth power, and the left-side kick. They lost the chain-driven primary drive and backwards clutch. I wish they hadn't. If Maico had become as traditional and "normal" as Husky had, I'd absolutely bash them for it. Personally, I like all of the things that Husky got rid of, but I think the reason they got rid of them is because everyone else did. You can't sell a bike with left-side kick to the masses anymore, all of today's riders would try to kick it with their left foot. The six-speed they got rid of, I guess was for weight, but I can say it's my favorite feature on Huskies. I love Maicos, but they only have five gears and that gets extremely annoying for the kind of riding we do.
I don't like the things I do JUST because they're tradition. For example, the classic rear fender Husqvarna used for the last time on their 1979 bike no longer fit the bike, and I'm glad they got rid of it. The 1980 fender was better for that bike, but would've been worse in 1978. Maico's classic coffin tank was legendary, but it was costly to manufacture (hand-welded!), didn't hold as much gas as their newer one, and wasn't as comfortable for aggressive riding. I'm glad they changed it, even though it was tradition. However, when a company makes changes just for the sake of being more like everyone else, such as Maico's exactly-like-everyone-else's clutch, or right-side kick on a Husqvarna, I'm not going to assume that they did so for performance, rather than marketing. The "engineers live in the present not the past" argument has been used many a time by the four-stroke crowd, may I remind you.
