NEW MAICO VISITS OLD MAICO: What The Maico Werks Pfaffingen Factory Looks Like Today: Vince Page Takes Us There (And Brings A 2010 Maico To See It’s Heritage)

From Maico International’s Vince Page:

Iÿrealize this is not really muchÿof a story but I thought the MXA guys might may find it rather interesting (if only for the Maico guys in the office). Last weekend Lesley White and Iÿtook an excursion over to Europe for various businessÿmeetings and on our way to Italy we stopped at the old Maico factory in Pfaffingen.

Most of the site has been re-developed into a shopping center, but round the back of the mainÿshop,ÿthe assembly room (where all the bikes were put together) still remains and in use along with a store down the side of the building.

The new Maico MMX in front of the original Maico factory.

It was a fitting tribute to let the company’s all-new 2010 MMX race bike sample its unique historic background before a wheel is turned in anger this year.

Pounding the snow-ridden roads from England to the small south German town where the name still rings bells with even its youngest of occupants, Lesley and I arrived late on Saturday afternoon and set about recording the visit for posterity despite the falling snow.

The site of the original factory has remained a shrine to the once world beating bikes and stayed a desolate and empty shadow of its former glory for many years, after the company fell from favour in the early 80’s.

The less well known sister plant that handled casting work in nearby Herrenberg closed in 1983. In 2001 a majority of the site was re-developed and turned into a shopping centre with only two original buildings remaining intact at the rear of the site.

The assembly buildings, where the production line was setup, is all that remains in Pfaffingen today.

The numbers on the floor represent each international distributor and bikes to be ship were lined up according to their destination.

Ironically the two long and eerily silent buildings that remain are the two assembly rooms where the bikes were built and set out in readiness for distributors to collect?with the distributor numbers still visible on the floor. Now being used by a company supplying garden furniture, signs of the legendary name that once paid for the upkeep are still around if you look hard enough. There are dated motocross stickers and marks on the wall, in fact you can almost hear the distant bark or a 490?if the romantic notion allows.

This is all that is left of the Maico factory today (compare it to the first photo on this page).

The tragedy of this situation is that as I walked around the buildings peering through the dirty cobweb ridden windows taking in the whole ethos of what use to be, I could almost feel the soul of the place crying for the return of the name that once occupied its square footage.

As we made our way through the building, camera at the ready, locals would glance our way and cast a knowing smile, despite the transition of time, the clear economic effect on the local community and the language barriers a knowing smile was enough between the two of us?they understood why were there.

Vince Page, wearing a two-stroke T-shirt in a snow storm, having the time of his life.

As a mark of respect to what is without doubt the best two-stroke brand in the world, we left a two-stroke motocross sticker on the collection door, and braved the German weather in our www.twostrokemotocross.com t-shirts.