pre 80 maicos were not that good
Holy Moley, that's a bit of a statement! I realise you have this
thing about Maicos Holeshot but to say they were not that good is funny
. I was living in the US during that period and the open class hot setup for the average local racer (
as opposed to the pro hot shots) was either the Husky 360 or Maico AW400/440. I don't think many bikes would have beaten an AW440 in a drag race to the first trurn in 1977. There were a few Suzukis winning CRC races at my local tracks, Corona Raceway and Saddleback Park but they were usually pretty tricked up DG or Fox hot rods. For motocross I'd put the RM370 in thiird place and in the desert it was Husky or Yamaha and little much else.
I agree with Mark that the VB 360 Monty was a very good bike that was sadly overlooked by the majority because of the big push the media were giving the Japanese products. Bultaco were making good bikes with a dated engine, CZ were gone, Yamaha were getting pretty close to getting the mix right, OSSAs day was over in a similar scenario to that of Bultaco, CCMs were fast but fragile and expensive and in the real world only used as blingy play bikes by advertising execs or drug dealers. KTM was emerging as an entity of its own after losing the Penton logo and produced a gem in 1977 with the very fast 360 but unavailability and high cost kept them away from the average punter.
As for the HL, I have a number of differing thoughts about them. First as a part of MX history. In 1977 Yamaha went against the two stroke domination with an underfunded Swedish Yamaha entry in the 500 championship. Bengt Aberg won the Luxembourg GP and placed in a few more for an overall very successful first year. At the end of the season Yamaha HQ in Japan refused funding for the '78 season because they wanted to concentrate on the cheaper to produce 2 stroke YZ line in racing. If serious GP team funding had been allocated you can bet that more GP wins would have occurred and history
(and Magoo) may have seen the HL in a different light. Today, the HL has morphed into two distinct styles that have nothing to do with the different frames(ProFab or NV/GMC). A high proportion of vintage racers build their HLs to Evo class specs by fitting overly long post 1980 41mm forks and longer shocks creating a tall and odd looking machine that necessitates a milk crate to mount and produces an strangely awkward riding posiition. I wish more HL punters would build their bikes to the original pre '78 suspension standards which not only transform the looks of the HL but brings the geometry back into the original design concept. If built to the pre '78 9" travel limit (or the 10" the class should have) I reckon the HL would be the class gun. In evo spec, as most repro HLs are, they just don't cut it against the Maico/Yamaha/Husky two stroke onslaught.
