Maico 490 on Pittsburgh c'list

[SachsGS]

I own an 83 250 and 490 and the 250s are gems as well. I'm also looking for an 86 500 WR Maico. Looks like you need to move the walls of your workshop out a bit!

[ford832]

Right, it's perfectly possible that there's a nice layer of BS in there, particularly in peoples' motives.  However, I understand there was documentation showing the orders not to heat-treat, and some Christmas-Party-Big-Talk about how there was going to be a change of hands soon.  Sounds like a pretty solid piece of journalism on the part of Super Chunk, but it's still journalism.

I find it hard to believe that a minority shareholder could possibly have that sort of influence on a company-nor why someone-even if they could-would try to put it out of business to buy what would then be a worthless,bankrupt company.The engineering department,manufacturing,design,etc surely don't take orders from a shareholder-especially a minority one.Did the rest of the company exec "take orders" from this guy too.Pbbbfffftttt, it's far more likely all the company management was abducted by Kodos and Kang in order to kill the company and steal Maico technology in an effort to improve their inter-stellar travel capabilities.One could always ask.If my more plausible theory is correct,likely the gears blew out of their warp drive long before they made it out of the solar system.

[JETZcorp]

They weren't just shareholders.  Wilhelm Jr, Hans and Peter (the Wilhelm side of the Maisch family) weren't just assigned to sit in big chairs, eat lobster and drink beer.  They they were in charge of some very major technical decisions, Peter was the primary PR guy for the company, Hans even rode in nationals.  It's also interesting to note that after the shit it the fan and Maico was on the verge of bankruptcy, they were about to get a big check from the bank to help them through and pick up the pieces.  Otto signed the check, but guess who demanded that they receive some more parts of the company before signing?  It's not like this was some ye olde little factory that was just full of a bunch of idiots who all-of-a-sudden didn't know how to heat-treat metal.

[riffraff]

From the 1978 250GP

The 1978 season had yet another win for Guennnady Moisseev, Sovjet (KTM). Torleif Hansen, Sweden (Kawasaki) was second. In third was the brother of the owner to the Maico factory, Hans Maisch. He rode the GP circuit and developed the Maicos at the same time. Talented rider actually.

[JETZcorp]

Yup.  Hans Maisch, Adolph Weil, and Wili Bauer were the big Maico names.  Gaylon Mosier would've really done some world-shaking if he'd stayed with Maico, but money probably influenced the move to Kawasaki.  And I'm not just being conspiratorial here, I've got an interview with him in Modern Cycle in 1976 where he said racing for Maico was an extremely tight-budget situation.

[JohnN]

racing for Maico was an extremely tight-budget situation.

This is very true, probably more than you know for a smaller manufacturer like Maico. At the time the race tracks were full of Japanese machines, yes there were other machines, but there were much fewer than the Japanese...

But this budget situation is not just limited to motorcycles, if you read the book by Lee Ioccoca "Where Have All the Leaders Gone" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416532498?ie=UTF8&tag=twostrmil-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1416532498
You will see that the car companies had issues as well, if an automobile did not sell well they would have severe cash flow problems...

The idea to keep in mind is that the bigger the company, the bigger the expenses...

[SachsGS]

Much of what really did damage to the Euro manufacturers in the late 70's and early 80's were currency trade fluctuations.The Yen was still relatively low but currencies like the D
Mark were going sky high.This is why Volkswagen opened a plant in the U.S. at about this time. It's amazing that bikes like KTM even sold given the fact that they were so much more expensive then the Japanese bikes of the time.

We see this happening now in the entry level market.I've read that the Chinese manufacturers have 60 % of this market.

[ford832]

Much of what really did damage to the Euro manufacturers in the late 70's and early 80's were currency trade fluctuations.The Yen was still relatively low but currencies like the D
Mark were going sky high.This is why Volkswagen opened a plant in the U.S. at about this time. It's amazing that bikes like KTM even sold given the fact that they were so much more expensive then the Japanese bikes of the time.

We see this happening now in the entry level market.I've read that the Chinese manufacturers have 60 % of this market.

Now that makes sense to me.The Japanese motorcycle industry was the death or near death of many a euro manufacturer.There's no reason why Maico would have been any different.

[JETZcorp]

I don't think KTM really hit it big until quite a long time after the "Japanese Invasion" was done and over with.  They were around, and certainly got some respect with things like the 495, but they sure are a damn rare sight at vintage races.  Maico, on the other hand, is more common in vintage racing than Kawasaki is, in terms of the number of bikes that show up.  Everyone wants their two-wheeled Porsche.

But of course, a vintage KTM is a bit like owning an old steam engine.  Not particularly unreliable, but if you need parts you are just up the creek.  That makes it hard to judge the sales of '70s bikes by the presence of '70s bikes, because some are more popular than others for various reasons.  Hell, KTM might've out-sold Maico, for all I know, but I don't think they did.

[SachsGS]

I read somewhere that in the late 70's Maico was selling more 400s in the U.K. then the total Honda dirt bike sales in the U.S. now. If you go back a little further, Hodaka sales in the U.S. were staggering in the early 70's compared to what a small manufacturer could hope to sell now.

[JETZcorp]

The statistic I heard was that in 1981, they sold more 490s than Honda sells all kinds of dirt-bikes of all sizes today.  And then of course, they also had the 250 and 400 for sale at the same time.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that they never really had the big Monster Industrial mass-manufacturing plant where the bikes were stamped out and rolled off like Model-Ts.  These things were hand-made, and that means overhead was gnarly.  That's why, even though they were selling 'em as fast as they could make 'em in 1981, they still felt like they needed to go monoshock in 1982, to keep from falling!  At the same time, Husqvarna was staying with their world-beating twin Ohlins setup, and although they had some of, if not the best suspension in the bidness, they lost big sales because they looked outdated.  Combine Maico's catastrophic monoshock failure with Husky's stubborn refusal to re-invent the wheel, and Honda's truly ass-kicking CR480, and you've got a recipe for two of the big three "Yur-peen Iron" marques falling off the radar. 

[riffraff]

Up until '77 KTM's were called Pentons here in the US, imported by John Penton

[opfermanmotors]

KTM is rare only because you cant get parts for them!  The 80s KTMs, like the 495 are rare, I think the older Pentons though are seen around more in vintage.