Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
All’s Weil That Ends Weil
By Kent Taylor
We love our brands! From French wines and designer purses to acoustic guitars and soda pop, there’s just something about that name. In the motorcycling world, brands have come and gone—and there are some that have even come back again. Indian, Triumph, Norton, BSA, Benelli, MV Agusta and others are proof that good motorcycles deserve second chances. Somebody made a convincing argument, and shrewd business folks from China, India, Great Britain and even here in the USA took a chance and revived many a storied marque. The motorcycles have changed, but the DNA remains—a trustworthy brand name is slapped on a new machine. Even if that is its only connection to the past, this motorcycle is already a trusted family friend.
One name that is still sleeping, however, and awaiting a much-deserved resurrection is one-time motocross giant Maico. Anybody who can name all three of Charlie’s Angels will recognize the sleek, aluminum coffin-style tank that was strapped to one of the greatest motocross motorcycles of all time.
Cycle News put the new Maico AW 440 to the test in its 1976 February 10 issue and hit up their thesaurus for nearly every superlative they could find for their report. “Ultra trick” showed up early on, along with “faster…better…streamlined…improved.” Staffer John Huetter loved this German machine and found very little to quibble about.
The 440, of course, referenced the cc displacement of the bike, while the “AW” paid homage to Maico legend Adolf Weil, the silver-haired German racer who spent a staggering 14 seasons as a Team Maico rider. In 1970s Grand Prix competition, Weil was usually one of the oldest competitors on the track. He won the 1973 Trans-AMA championship just a few weeks before his 35th birthday. Granted, in 2025, Eli Tomac is well into his 30s, and Malcolm Stewart picked up his first Supercross win at age 32, but it was a different world in the 1970s. Back then, there were about as many 30-year-old motocross champions as there were Bigfoot sightings. The authentic sightings, anyway.
“There is a reason why Adolf Weil always looks so smooth, so controlled, so effortless,” wrote CN, “as he steely eyes his way around a Grand Prix track…he is on a motocross machine that helps him rather than hurts him. In doing so, it gets from A to B with less fuss, drama or bother than most of the machines it will be pitted against.”
Weil’s machine, we were told, was pretty much the same motorcycle that we could buy from our local Maico dealers, and from the photos, there is little reason to question those similarities. Huetter did uncover some differences between the standard Maico and the Grand Prix racer. Weil’s specs claimed nine inches of travel, both front and rear, about an inch and a half more than the stock machine. Also, the over-the-counter Maico carried 10-15 extra pounds. But even though those weight savings could’ve been realized with the purchase of some magnesium bits here and there, the CN staff suggested that the owner save their money because the Maico’s power-to-weight ratio was still going to give the rider all the steam they needed.
The Maico placed its power where it was most useful—on the ground, with CN noting that, “the rear wheel doesn’t want to jump around and throw the horses into thin air.” A new five-speed gearbox and redesigned expansion chamber were helping to keep those ponies in line. The final cog in the process, a soft-compound Metzler knobby, chewed up the dirt and spit it back out on the competition. Many a motocross rider knew that to follow a roosting Maico meant a hearty helping of marble-sized roosting was on the way.
After a few gripes about the hand controls and the cartoonishly long kickstand, the CN staff stated, “Everything else on the AW Replicas works better than it ever has…the Maico chassis magic has worked again. The bike turns faster and better yet still feels stable in straight-line charges at speed.” The new machine had also been cured of its “old Maico bugaboos…there was no leakage from the head gasket, no drool from the shift lever.” The brakes were better, with a beautiful conical hub up front providing as much stopping power as any other front brake of the day.
Few machines blended form and function as well as the Maico. A photo shows the AW 440 overlooking the Southern California coastline, peacocking like it believes it is the King of the Hill. One of CN’s test riders summed up the first day of riding with the single sentence, “I want one.” Earth-moving power and straight-line stability. Powerful braking and the ability to carve corners like a hot knife through bologna. This was the Maico AW 440. It was good to be the King. CN
Click here to read the Archives Column in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
Subscribe to six decades of Cycle News Archive issues
