Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. Quick Spin 1998 Maico 500 Cross Makin' it again By Kit Palmer ome of my earliest fond memories of motocross include the Maico motorcycle and the men who rode. them. Images of Adolf Wei!, Willie Bauer, Werner Schutz and Steve Stackable, to name a few, throwing out milelong roost and jumping those coffin"tanked, yellow machines around the tracks are still etched in my mind as if they happened just last Sunday.• It could be said that in the early '70s the German company that manufactured these bikes was the leader in motocross technology. If I'm not mistaken, Maieo was the first motocross bike to feature angled - or "moved-up" - shocks (which, of course, led the way toward the long-travel-suspension boom). And they were one of the first motorcycles to boast such innovations as leading-axle forks and radial cylinder heads (though it did take them a while to figure out "up-pipes"). Sadly, the one-time leader in MX technology is now the follower. The Maisch family basically lost control of their Maieo empire in the early 1980s, and things have not been the same since. The small eompany has changed ownership many times since then and, as a result, there have been many Maico comebaCks. All of them have failed and, quite possibly, the latest has, too. (I'll get to that later.) Since most of Maieo's energy over the last two decades has been spent in the courts rather than on the drawing boards, the Maico product has been struggling to keep up. Still, Maieo keeps trying, and that's far better than simply quitting. S U Recently I got the chance to spin a few laps on one of Maico's latest products, a box-stock 1998 model 500 Cross that was acquired by Dirt Dynamic/ Vintage Iron's Rick Doughty, who, among other things, is a Maieo dealer in the Southern California area. Even though Maico has produced (and still does prod",ce) a 250, and has even dabbled in the 125 market in the past, their forte has always been the 500 - you know, the bikes Weil, Bauer, Schutz and Stackable rode. The 500 Cross surprised me a little in that it did!)'t produce the kind of power I was expecti ng from a bike wi th the Maico name on it. Instead, it felt more like a strong modem 250 but with more torque and less revs on top. There's no real hit anywhere in the powerband, just a smooth transition from bottom to mid to top, but, on the flip side, this made the 500 Cross very easy to ride. Doughty says that a less-flow-restrictive muffler goes a long way in improving the Maieo's power output. Maieo literature claims the 500 Cross pumps out 67 hp at 6500 rpm. If this is in fact true, then this bike is severely choked up, as Doughty claims. The Maico's five-speed transmission changed. gears reasonably well, and the clutch pull was surprisingly light, though you still had to pull the lever all the way to the handlebar in order for the clutch to fully disengage. Even though I was unable to give the Maico's suspension a thorough workout (much of which had to do with a relatively smooth track), the bike seemed to float around the course quite weH, admittedly better than I thought it would. The 500 Cross comes fitted with 50= Marzocchi Magnum conventional-style forks and a Dutch-made Reiger shock, but both seemed to be set up a little on the soft side for hard-core motocross. After all these years, it amazes me that Maieo's reputation as .a great turner is still intact. To this day, it rails through the turns with the best of them. Maieo's other reputation - for having horrible brakes - is, however, a thing of the past, as the 220mm (rear) and 260mm (front) Brembo disc brakes are up to the job. Perhaps the biggest giveaway that I was riding something different was the Maieo's ergonomics. The back end sits up awfully high, and the whole bike feels very narrow, except that my knees could still distinctly feel the sudden flare of the radiator shrouds. The leftside kickstart lever is a definite blast from the past, but at least it no longer folds underneath the frame at the bottom of the stroke. Overall, the 500 Cross felt, to me, more like an off-road bike than a hardcore MXer, much of which had to do with its smooth, linear powerband, its cushy suspension and its great turning abilities. Still, I had a lot of fun riding the bike on the track. Unfortunately, the latest word out of Germany is that Maico's problems are continuing, as the company has again filed for bankruptcy. However, Ronnie Smith, the Maico importer for the United States, says there is a chance that the company will come up for air once again. Lets hope so. For more information about Maico, Smith can be reached at 258/831-3029, or Doughty at 714/694-0066. CIf Product Evaluation , Power Brand Aluminum Exhaust Pipe " Recycled Power By Matt Freeman irst it was the XR400; next came the aluminum-framed CR250, and finally the YZ/WR400. All of these bikes were highly anticipated before they made it into the dealer showroom, and rightly so. But it's not often that something other than an actual new motorcycle gets as much hype before its release than the Power Brand aluminum pipe. When word got out that a line of aluminum-conbstkructed exhausht pipeks for motocross i es were in t e ma ing, there were plenty of naysayers. They said it couldn't be done. They said aluminum pipes would be too fragile and would literally come apart at the seams. They said it w as a waste of .timhe. TICler/e were even a few naysayers ill t e yc e . News office. They were wrong. Recently, we got our hands on a couple Power Brand pipes and right away we were impressed. The beautiful welds appeared to be strong, the overall finishes were good, and they even came with the O-rings already installed. We mounted up the Power Brand aluminum pipes to our '99 RM125 and YZ125 and gave'em a try. F "I !Iii IIiii III =! ~ lii o 'E c. c( 22 Because alUlllinum is so much lighter than steel, Power Brand could afford to make their pipes thicker than a normal steel pipe - twice as thick to be exact, and the YZ125 stock pipe is still a pound and half heavier than the Power Brand pipe. Not only ate the Power Brand pipes lighter in weight, they work well, too. In stock trim, the YZ125 motor is arguably the best power-making motor of all the '99 125cc machines, yet the Power Brand pipe managed to increase power throughout the YZ's powerband while providing more over-rev on top. The RM125 benefited, too. The RM not only gained more power on top but also off the bottom. As far as durability is concemed, we can't honestly say that these aluminum pipes will hold up to the rigors of weekly racing, because we've only ridden with them a few times, but so far, so good. For now, it appears that in this case form and function do, in fact, walk hand in hand. However, all that glitters is not gold, and there are a few hang-ups with the Power Brand aluminum pipes. An impressive feature of the pipes is that they are built with stainless-steel inserts at the spring hooks, but the angles at which they are welded are all wrong. While mounting both pipes, we ran into difficulties trying to fit the spring hooks into the inserts simply because they were placed on the pipe facing the wrong direction. Getting the pipe on can be done, but not as easily as mounting a stock or other aftermarket pipe. In any case, it's a quick fix on the part of Power Brand, so hopefully they will reposition the spring hooks before making their next run of pipes. $329.95 will get you a pipe for your 125cc, 250cc or 500cc motocrosser. Minibike pipes are $299.95. If these prices sound high, well, it's because they are. Unlike the weight of the Power Brand pipes, the price is heavy. But if you are a serious racer and you want to shave weight off your bike, an aluminum pipe is definitely one of the places to start. After purchasing your new bike, the chances are you scrapped the stock steel handlebars for an aluminum set. Why stop there? Your competition won't. CIf Power Brand 624 Garrison St., Suite 102 Oceanside, CA 92054 160/966-1680 .WWW.xtletnemx.com

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