FOR FANS of 1970s off-road racing, when ‘Maico-maniacs’ like Adolf Weil, Åke Jonsson and Willy Bauer gave Husqvarna, CZ and the Japanese factories the hurry-up in international motocross competition, it’s often a surprise to learn that the West German company was also a successful road bike manufacturer, always with two-stroke motors of its own design.
“DRY WEIGHT IS 164KG THANKS TO EXTENSIVE USE OF ALUMINIUM”
Founded in 1920s Germany by the Maisch brothers, Wilhelm and Otto, as a spinoff from their father Ulrich’s car repair workshop near Stuttgart, Maisch & Company originally produced cycle accessories, but in 1931 began making complete bicycles, too. Attaching a proprietary 98cc or 118cc ILO two-stroke engine from 1934 was a logical step, but the brothers were later forced to switch production to aviation components for the Luftwaffe. This underwrote the move to a larger factory, which remarkably emerged from the war with very little
