HLs, what's the story

[magoo]

I used to race or practice nearly every weekend back in the late 70s/early 80s, travelling all over the country and I never saw any HLs, either in shops or on the track. How common were they, who imported them and who rode them. If they are as good as they're supposed to be why didn't they seem to be raced back in the day?

[DJRacing]

There were only 400(200 in 78 and 200 in 79) HL500's made and mainly for the european market.

[paul]

there were other hallmans made dj  after market ones   i dont think there are many here though  under 10 not counting  the gmc  bikes

[Nathan S]

Didn't this forum work out that there were only three real ones in the country?
Stayt/Paul's old one, Graeme/Shoey's one, and another?

Waste of good YZ125 bits, I reckon. 

[paul]

im not sure of his name is it gary benns hes got one  and firko said there one in a collection in sydney that will never see the light off day  and there is another in sth oz too  i seem to remember 

[paul]

some time i wish i never sold it

[Graeme M]

I don't think they ever really took off in Oz. Expensive to get over here and not that brilliant really. And of course in those days real racers didn't ride thumpers. ADB saw to that!

I only recall ever seeing one raced - it featured in a few races in SE Qld but I think the rider was a C-Grader and it never did especially well.

Maybe if they'd offered it at a reasonable price and registerable it might have taken off. You only have to look at the success of the early XR500 Hondas - once they got ADR they really took off.

I suspect there were no more than 6 in the country in the late 70s. Hannington's, Addison's, the Stayt bike, the one I mentioned in Qld, one that was for sale at CD2 and in VMX a few years back, and possibly another in Victoria. Like Maico 490s, there are far more of them around now than back then!!

I was just looking at Rob's piccy of the ex-Hannington bike that I owned for a while. It sure looks nice now, and it's really neat that its entire history is known and it's still in the vintage clan doing what it was made to do, 30 years later!

[magoo]

That's a really good point about the 490 Graeme, it was unusual to see one of them at the races back then too. Why weren't they more popular among the punters back then I wonder.

[holeshot buddy]

probably because they couldnt get there mates to go to push start them

[Graeme M]

Same sort of thing. Too expensive, reputation for being fragile, hard to get parts...

It would actually be easier and cheaper to get parts for either a Maico or an HL nowadays, amazingly enough.

Like warbirds... there are more Spitfires and stuff around now than at anytime since 1950! Especially with new build FW190s and ME262s and the like...

All us babyboomers with money!

[YSS]

There could also be another point . Twin shock knowledge was not as advanced as it is today . There is still a chance that new model bikes with high tech twin shocks could see a come back.

[Nathan S]

Like Maico 490s, there are far more of them around now than back then!!

"They made 500 of them, and only 750 have survived"...

I guess the other thing is that the survival rate of the exotica would be excellent - unlike the majority of other dirt bikes, it's highly unlikely that a weekend butcher would 'just end up' with something like a Maico 490 or HL500...

[firko]

The reason HLs were not seen in those days was essentially supply and cost. With only 400 made, quite simply there weren't enough to go around and even if they were, the cost was way beyond that of the weekend punter. That is shown by the names of the guys who owned them back in the day. Just about all of them were/are very cashed up.

It's a slightly different story with 490 Maicos. Even though they were considered expensive when compared to the Japanese bikes of the time, they were in the same ballpark as a 430 Husky and you don't see too many motocross CR versions of them either. What put the 490 Maico on the map in this country was enduros. Enduros were a much bigger deal then and Geoff Ballard was winning everything both here and overseas on 490 Maicos. Ross King the importer, wanting to cash in on that sucess imported mostly 490 GS Enduros and very few motocrossers. Even then Ross told me, many of those motocrossers were converted to enduro livery. In the open class in just about every enduro in '81/'82 you'd see a shitload of GS490 Maicos. I had one myself and, in truth I had never even seen a genuine 490 MXer until I bought mine in 1999. That's how rare they were. Today there are far more motocrossers around due to the number being imported from the USA and the conversion of GS models into MXers.