American/Maico monster dirt bike?

http://www.atkusa.com/presskit/PressRelease20030729.asp


A 700cc two stroke dirt bike....

Plenty of power, I'd think! Jesus, just think of the motard you could build out of this evil monster!

Just thought I'd post this. Seems the two stroke isn't dead, quite yet anyway. CD, didn't you say you had a Maico 450 once?

Hmm, I need to save some cash....

Back when Dinosaurs walked the earth...

Goose,

Yep I had 450 for several years. Great handling and beacoup power. To boot, the piston and rings would last a season instead of ten hours.

Could also fill in for a rocket launcher if you did not use the compression release and do it right.

Maico made 750cc dirt bike back in the late 70s or eraly 80s. I think it was just a prototype. I saw the article in motocross action or dirt bike back then.
Huge air cooled single cylinder!

It was a one off bike made to compete against a BMW challenge in the unlimited class of the '73 ISDN. Husky and Maico both created 240 lb over 750cc single cylinder MXers. http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/wildbikes_rs_oct00.html
Did a little research because this did sound vaguely familiar and came up with this link. Weird thing is that Rick "Super Hunky" Siemen was one of the editors at MX mag back then if memory serves and is a principal at this site.

The 501 was an incredibly powerfull bike and most riders could never tap the potential of it back in the early 70's. I had a chance to ride one while stationed in Montana and the power made my yZ360B look like a 125cc. It was a torque monster.

I wonder if the knowledge gained from the one off helped to develop the 501?