Someone please talk some sense into me!

[FDR]

Only joking about euro bikes being crap, love euro bikes and have raced them for many years.
John preparing the Mugen for 2014 season as we speak, fitting Ohlins and hope to improve fork action.
K-Man can ride whatever he likes, why not try a Honda

[JohnnyO]

Yes and no TBM, it has to have been available to the general public in the Evo era and fit within the rules. Yes you can race a 360 Mugen but not a CR480/500 engined 79 CR250. It would be very expensive and difficult to turn the 250 engine into a 500 but not impossible.
Bigk has a real nice RC500 Lackey replica but not legal in the Evo class..

[FourstrokeForever]

Yeah I've seen Micheal's RC replica. Nice bike. Built from RZ bottom end and married to CR480 top end. I'll stick with my 250 RC replica. I spent enough money on it already without spending a few grand more on a bigger slug....

[Tim754]

Put the Honda engine into your favoured choice of a Euro frame.....Then at worst/best any way you think of it, you only have 50% of the current dilemma  Biggie 

Spacial logic....

[KTM47]

Yeah you are right, Maico didn't win any World Championships.  That is probably because they couldn't afford to buy the Championships like Suzuki and Yamaha did.  The bikes Joel Robert, Sylvan Goebers and Roger DeCoster raced were a lot lighter than the production Maicos, but still they finished next best to those riders.

But clearly I won't convince anyone who doesn't really know Maicos of how good they are, so you might as well just remain ignorant.

The riders you speak of were long gone before your greatest bike was ever built.

So tell me why a company that supposedly sold more 490's than the entire Honda Offroad fleet in 1981 could not entice one rider good enough to win a world title. Money is one thing but a world title is something else.

The Maicos from 1974 up to probably 1980/81 were always competitive in the World Championships.  I don't know why they didn't win a Championships, but I do know that if it was limited to production bikes there is every chance they could have.

Also it didn't matter how many dirt bikes Maico sold in 1981 do you really think they could match the money the Japanese could  spend.

[firko]

So tell me why a company that supposedly sold more 490's than the entire Honda Offroad fleet in 1981 could not entice one rider good enough to win a world title. Money is one thing but a world title is something else.

Maico, even during their peak years were only a small maker, much smaller than Bultaco, Montesa Husqvarna and most of the other Euros. Despite that they fielded one of the strongest teams on the GP scene in the 1969-1975 era with three close runner up spots in the title by Ake Jonnson, Willi Bauer and Adolph Weil. By the mid seventies the factory was having trouble keeping up with the squillions of yen the Japs were throwing at R&D and they lost their solid place on the market. The 1974 model big bores were arguably the best bikes of the year but problems with the gearbox and hub castings on the early '75 models set them back a lot on the fickle US market. Despite great models like '77 AW400 and 78-79 Magnum models and then the great 1980 490, the company was in the shit financially preventing them from offering the huge amounts of money the Japs were paying to get the top riders. By 1982 the Maico company was even deeper in the shit and was totally gone by 1986. If they could have afforded a rider like Wolsink or DeCoster I've no doubt they'd have won a 500 title in 1981.

[Davey Crocket]

Wasn't Dave Thorpe the first "million dollar" man when Honda poached him from Kawasaki in the early eighties?...Honda had that many top riders on there books they couldn't have lost a world tittle in the eighties. If you looked like you could ride a bike they gave you a contract!!!

[KTM47]

Thanks Mark

[KTM47]

By the way Conan, Honda didn't even make a CR250 in 77, one of the years Lackey raced Honda!

Who was talking about 1977? Not me. I have seen the entire footage of the 1978 GP season and Brad Lackey was on a Honda. And there were 1977 CR250's. Not a very wanted or competitive bike, but I have seen one in the flesh in Wagga Wagga NSW. It had a 1977 tag on it and looked exactly the same as the '76 CR but with a bit more angle on the rear shocks.
Then again, maybe all the class A pharmaceuticals I was on at the time made me dyslexic 

John is right.  There wasn't a production CR250 in 1977.  The first of the red devils was 1978.  I was given one to race by Frasers Honda in Brisbane at the start of 1978.  The brand new model.  I didn't like it and couldn't really live with it.  I had raced a Maico 400 in 1977 so when comparing them the Maico was head and shoulders above the Honda.  The Honda had a light switch as a powerband and crappy forks and shocks.  I ended up going back to my Maico.

Kevin

[motomaniac]

Wasn't Dave Thorpe the first "million dollar" man when Honda poached him from Kawasaki in the early eighties?...Honda had that many top riders on there books they couldn't have lost a world tittle in the eighties. If you looked like you could ride a bike they gave you a contract!!!

but they did loose in 82 and 83 didn't they ?

[Maicojames]

K keep Husqvarna and get the Honda too. Even i have one, albeit a 1980. Very mean 250, the way i like 250s. My Husqvarna makes smoother power but ill race both next year

[09.0]

I thought I had found the best Evo 250 in a cr250 ra. Put a set of Simons up front. I just didn't like it.
I found the best all round Evo bike. An mc250. Goes as good as it looks!

[bigk]

Dear diary,
It seems opinions vary greatly to the point of "a storm in a tea cup scenario" so I will indeed build one of each and make an informed choice. The euro is leading the race (pardon the pun) at this point. Will the full circle turbo crankshaft make the oriental too aggressive in it's power delivery for an average bear?
K

[craigclayton]

Hi K ,have you heard of a cotton EMX !! Late 70's bike built in the uk by a chap called Mike Eatough who used to build frames for CCM.something a bit different if you can find one!!!!
There is a video on u tube of the bikes being built, I remember seeing them at local and british championship races, seem to go ok.

[nada]

Hi K ,have you heard of a cotton EMX !! Late 70's bike built in the uk by a chap called Mike Eatough who used to build frames for CCM.something a bit different if you can find one!!!!
There is a video on u tube of the bikes being built, I remember seeing them at local and british championship races, seem to go ok.

Cool, looks very much like a Villa/Can-am  from that era, But, good strong donk the Rotax, all Marzocchi Suspension the thing would be a weapon in the right hands:)