At the end of the day I believe that what ever you ride in VMX is all good. The Maico could be called the "dreamers" bike, as, 'in the day' allot of guys wanted them but couldn't afford them, but now these guys are more financial and have bought their 'dream' bike. Yes the Maico is a nice looking well proportioned/balanced bike and because in our part of the world(southern hemisphere) there weren't many to see racing so the Maico seemed to grow a certain mystique or glamour about its reputation as the best ever MXer ever built. The question of its reliability seems to be lost or forgotten by the owners of the bikes today, but as they say, "I own a Maico 490", which is nice if thats what you want, so maybe the reliability problem isnt so important these days as it would have been back in the day when the bikes were raced, remembering that most VMXers dont race every weekend and practise thoughout the week as you would have had to do back in the day. For the cost of a new Maico 490 the average motocrosser could have bought a new Yamaha and raced every weekend for the most of the season with only having to change the oil and air-filters. Parts for the Yamaha were readily available through the local dealers so you were always ready to go.
Why there is this 'thing' about Maico's, I'm not sure, but even at vmx meetings today, and with more Maicos out on the track racing than ever before, I would have thought that because they are that good they would win allot more, but go figure, its still the japanese bikes crossing the line in front of them. So at the end of the day, does anyone really care that much that, "they dont ride a Maico".
But, yes they are nice looking bikes.
