A bike which refuses to perform as it should will very quickly jade even the most enthusiastic of riders as meeting after meeting brings uncertainty. Will it run all day, will it croak in the first race, will it be okay in practice but fail in the final? All these factors will spoil a rider’s day which is bad enough for a local event but if the meeting is at the other end of the country… well… Just such a situation had beset John Smith who’d been enticed out of a 24-year break from MX and was back racing again.
Despite a history of KTM and the four Japanese makes all through the Eighties and into the Nineties it was a nice looking 400 Maico which brought him to the track again. Problem was the 400 turned out to be a bit of a frustrating exercise and no matter what he did to it the bike just wouldn’t perform properly at all. “It got to the point I was about to chuck it all in and retire again, then, at Schoolhouse MX – a track in Northumberland – a chance comment to Bill Brown brought the offer to use his own bike. For some reason Bill was there with the bike but not racing. We were discussing what the problems with the 400 could be, and he was encouraging me to persevere with it as it is arguably a more forgiving motor, but seeing the problems I was having he said ‘look, use my 490 for the next race’ which I did – and what a difference. When I brought it back after the race I said I’d buy it off him on the spot.”
