Dave....The material in early Maico frames was pretty good, a fairly close facimile of Chro-Mo but the later frames don't use nearly as quality material IMHO. I can't pull a Lozza and get all scientific here, I'm only going by their 'weldability' and ability to be straightened after being tweaked in an accident. The new repro frames are probably made from 4130 Chro-Mo or Reynolds tubing so you'd expect them to be better than the 'mass produced for a price' originals.
I noticed the lack of any extra strengthening in known trouble spots myself so that's another clue towards better materials being used. Plus....the frames would have to be
exact replicas to be deemed legal so any updates might be seen to be un kosher. I can't beleive how cheap these frames are
.