maico 490 over rated

[Marc.com]

How pissed off would I be if I owned an actual Mega 2 490 and there's all these wanna-be 490's parading around as the real thing! :'(
And then to top it off people start putting all these weird colour schemes on them and stuff!
(Thank god no ones knocking out pretend 414's...... )

Guess some people get more pissed off than others, as long as you are not trying to pass a GS off as an MC on ebay then no harm done.

One up side to replicas or fakers as you prefer is it spawns a whole aftermarket industry that helps also to support the original bikes. Makes life easier to keep original bikes going if there is enough demand for spares for the hard to get parts to be replicated.

The 490 is pretty bike, was fast in its day and still is..... hell i would like one in any color.

[All Things 414]

as long as you are not trying to pass a GS off as an MC on ebay then no harm done.

No. That's never happened.

[holeshot buddy]

cant believe my old post has resurfaced
(firko must be happy)


how many 490 maicos were at the nats
i reckon more than there was in aus
back then

[Marc.com]

i reckon more than there was in aus
back then

Aussie is this black hole sucking them in from all over, bet there are a lot more in NZ than there ever was back in the day    But all to the good, some of us can finally afford one.

[Tim37]

I must say this -anyone who was racing in the uk in the mid 70s -about 83 will testify that in the open class - Maico was the weapon of choice unless you got sponsered on another brand 30 out of 40 starters on them .....Anyone who could afford one had one because they were so much better to ride than anything else you could buy .  On our rough slippery uk tracks Jap 500s were not very good , until after maico had folded .
Ride a 79 Maico or 81 and  you would be suprised just how good they are ?

[bingil 6]

I own & ride one & I must agree with all the others who have ridden one that the do instill confidence as did my last maico ( 75 250 ) There a good stable fast bike make no mistake. I did read somewhere that one of the gun yamaha riders from the early eightys not sure if it was Hanna anyway who ever it was got to ride Rick Doerty's 490 maico & he said that if he rode that bike in it's time he would'nt want to get back on his yamaha raedinto that what you will but I know as long as I'm involved in the sport I'll be keeping mine, just a pity I couldn't ride it as fast as I would like to Cheers Lou

[Tankslapper]

I remember someone talking about either the crankshaft centerline or the primary drive shaft centerline being in the optimum position relative to the balance point of the bike ?? Can anyone offer anything on this theory ?

[firko]

cant believe my old post has resurfaced
(firko must be happy) 

Always happy to see the red bikes getting a mention  .
I just read back over the previous posts to see if I'd had a dummy spit or something nasty to say but found nothing except Nathans claim that he'd hardly ever seen them at the races. I think the shitload of them at the Nats may now have filled the lads quota.
Even though I still love the big Maicos and feel that my KTM 525 V Maico 490 piece in ADB back in 2002 added to the hype, I'm a bit over the 490 Maico lovefest. They are great bikes, possibly the best privateer bike ever made but some folks are hyping the riding of a 490 Maico as the motocross equivalent to a threeway sex toy romp with Halle Berry and Pammy Anderson  !  Come on chaps. We know the big red Germans are cool bikes but let's not go overboard trying to convince the unconvincable.