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Printing: Maico MD 250

Swabia-
Prank

The Maico MD 250 from 1974 was actually intended as the beginning of a new era. They wanted to build real adult motorcycles, to blow the Japanese two-stroke engines properly. But the stingy executive floor not only saved the 250 mm rotary valve ratchet, no, the whole plant shut down in May 1983. A sad anniversary and reason enough to kick off the nimble MD 250 again for a journey through time with people and machines.

Hans is one of those people of whom one is
never really noticed much. Those who work quietly in the background, but have a fist behind their ears.
In 1967 Hans Hinn was hired by the Swabian family business
Tubingen. The Maisch and Co., or Maico for short, had been building motorcycles since 1934. Or better: motorized two-wheelers. From the "Wiesel" moped to the 250 "Blizzard", the 175 "Passat" to the 400 "Taifun" with a two-cylinder engine ?? in Pfaffingen in the post-war years it was stormy.
Dedicated to the two-stroke, the Maico-Crossers in particular cleared everything that could be cleared in the Stollenmetier, only the Pfaffinger missed the Motocross world championship title by a hair’s breadth. For Hans Hinn and his passion for the simple and yet capricious two-stroke engine, this is exactly the right square to work. Because the trained mechanic was one of the very skilled, he ended up with us a year later
Engineer Erich Stogerer trying. The assignment: It should be a crisp street motorcycle. Fast, sporty? and better than the Japanese.
Since money was scarce in the factory halls on the idyllic river Ammer, but ideas were bubbling up abundantly, the eager Maico men upgraded the 125 cc rotary valve engine to the 250 cc by simply grafting a larger cylinder onto the housing. “Actually, I would have liked to use a longer stroke, but the small crankshaft was fine. And design a new housing and shaft? Otto Maisch would have knocked my head down, ”says Stogerer, the designer thirty years later, about the missed opportunities.
In the end it didn’t matter, because Hans Hinn, meanwhile as a tuning genius with the transfer channels for you and you, elicited a lot of power from the drilled engine and made the Maico absolutely competitive with a hefty 28 hp. As is so often the case, the wheels at Maico only kept turning because the workforce worked out a solution for every problem. Sometimes, however, the merchants thwarted their plans. "The gentlemen ordered steel rims that rusted together in the warehouse because the copper layer under the chrome was missing," Hans shakes his head at the grim austerity program. The accountants didn’t care.
Avarice is cool, as we know today, and the merchants in
Pfaffingen were infected by the economy virus. So much so that
an office stallion gone wild one morning this annoyed
The command gave: "Shut down the fucking test bench! It just makes no noise, it also cooks gasoline, and the motorbikes also break down."
Hans and his colleagues did not allow themselves to be deterred by such absurd attacks and made the impossible possible: in 1973 the first prototype of the air-cooled MD 250 rolled through the factory gate. A little shock for her
Japanese two-stroke bearings. Why? Because the 28 hp engine had to struggle with only 128 kilograms. The basic construction of the light and delicate tubular steel frame came from the road racer, the RS 125. Although born out of necessity, the Maico was in great demand with would-be racing drivers. A street car straight out of a picture book, the MD 250.
Because weight was considered a disgrace at the time, which is why every upright sports driver tampered with the Japanese heavy metal according to the motto "hole to hole and still holds". The chic Grimeca brake with cooling air scoops also fueled the envy of the Japan faction. RD and the like dragged a fat 160 kilos through the landscape and, despite an increase in performance of two horsepower, were just able to keep in the slipstream of the groovy Swabian construction.
It is logical that Hans Hinn bought a couple of the brisk
MD 250 has been preserved. In the adventurous Maico workshop in Reusten near Tubingen, not only did a whole MD-250 family find their home, the good spirit also exists there after that
Demolition of the factory halls continued, floating between cylinders, turning-
valve housings, gears and crankshafts.
Hidden on the dusty shelf: original construction drawings, molds and cylinder blanks. A paradise.
Behind the humming lathe in a gray work coat, the cigarette in the corner of his mouth and the glasses on his nose-
top: Walter Nieser, the legendary Maico racing mechanic and
one of Hans Hinn’s old companions. Anyone who claims that time cannot be stopped is wrong. Here in the Ammertal is
everything possible. Here they meet regularly, the engineer Stogerer, the former Maico works driver Peter Frohnmeyer, and there are occasional high-profile visitors from Munich. Ex-Maico racing driver Heinz Paschen, today responsible for the development of the BMW Formula 1 engines, likes to indulge in the Maico troop
in old memories. As I said, time stands still sometimes
in the Ammertal.
But unfortunately only sometimes. When we and Hans arrive at the former factory site for a photo session, the Pfaffinger housewives are handing over the shopping trolleys where the venerable halls once stood. In supermarket. A garden specialist is exhibiting his flower pots and garden gnomes in the former assembly hall that still exists. A bit wistfully Hans spun through the filthy windows, which are still decorated with a few ancient, yellowed Maico stickers.
In order to nip any sentimentality in the bud, get down to business and in no time the slim Maico 250 is maneuvered out of the workshop. Quickly put another drop of oil on the chain, remove the choke, step three or four times: won’t work. “Lean,” Walter grumbles. "Z ?? cold," Hans growls, fiddles with the choke, kicks. Runs How To Hear ?? and sees. What a moped. So tiny, so spartan, so transparent. The on-board electronics get by with four cables, the frame with pipes as thick as a thumb, the double simplex brake with a drum, as small as a cookie jar. Only the coarse fan-shaped cylinder stands out powerfully.
It’s nice, such an old maico. As I said, more like a moped than a motorcycle, but pretty snappy. Downstairs, the rotary slide motor is still sizzling a little fat, the landscape is full of smoke. At 3000 rpm it goes ahead, and from 5000 rpm Hans clearly had his fingers in the game, the MD 250 cheers cheerfully up to over 8000 rpm, lifts, hey presto, the front wheel and whistles merrily with the rotary valve. Quickly into the next gear, but it’s hidden somewhere between the automatic gearshift and the transmission shaft.
Draw-wedge gear, it shoots through my head. Pull wedges, only mopeds had that. As the name suggests, pull wedges have to be pulled. Yesterday and today. Long and longer, switching was an act. But the feather-light MD 250 goes like crazy. Well, back then. Today one would rather say: passable. However, this comes close to excessive exaggeration when it comes to the chassis. The skinny frame tubes ?? exact dimension: 22 x 2 mm ?? live honestly. Goal in vain. It bends and lurches when you let it run smoothly, with bumps and potholes the fork and shock absorber report sick, and only with energetic grip does the Grimeca double simplex brake cause something like deceleration.
Still nice. Ammertal up and down again, a detour to the Swabian Alb, through narrow valleys, over wide ranges of hills. With every kilometer, time turns back a little. Small exit? No way, the fuel is the same. And it’s already ticking in your head: How much oil does it need for twelve liters of fuel with a 1:50 mixture? Uh, well …? One liter of oil for 50 liters of fuel … makes 0.2 liters for ten, makes twelve, uhh …? At the latest when switching the fuel tap to reserve, it dawns: One in the saddle
M.aico MD 250 time actually stands still.

Technical data – Maico MD 250

Engine: air-cooled single-cylinder two-stroke engine, displacement 245 cm3, bore x stroke 76 x 54 mm, compression 1:12, power 27 HP at 7800 / min, a Bing round slide carburetor, Ø 32 mm, inlet via rotary plate valve, mixture lubrication 1:50, Six-speed draw key transmission. Chassis: double loop frame made of tubular steel, weight with a full tank of 128 kg, Marzocchi telescopic fork, tubular steel swing arm with two Girling struts, drum brakes, Ø front 180 mm, rear 160 mm, front tires 2.75-18, rear 3.25-18. Driving performance: 0 100 km / h in 6.6 seconds, top speed 159 km / h, price 1973: 3300 marks.

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