My good friend Pete Haffenden won the Florida Open Class Championship back in 1970 on his yellow 400 Maico. What a good rider.
you can't post pics of Mid Ohio 2007 VMX and not post this guy. This guy somehow ended up in the same class as Rick Johnson and a few other ex pro's (even he didn't quite understand how or why) but he did for one glorious moment of being lapped end up going around a corner at the same time with Rick Johnson.
the Buy it Now is high but if money were no object thats how you want to get one. mikuni. etc. etc. etc. etc .etc. etc.
he was a tad eccentric. at the time he had yet to get it running. claims he couldn't get a starter with enough oomph to spin it. this was taken at Mid Ohio 2007. there was a clip on youtube where he talked about it. still is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfjahmfmAU
Back in 1971, I bought a Kramer motor 250 Maico from east coast distributor ( I worked at large Maico dealer in NH) , it had radial head,aluminum swing arm and tank, cunutts, thicker seat and titanium bars . was ridden in trans-am by one of European riders. Raced it myself for few years then sold to a man in great Barrington Ma. Sorry no picture. Anyone ever heard of its whereabouts ?
that sucks that guy was cool. I wonder if he ever got the triple fired off. I remember telling Super Hunky about the triple and it sounds like he went up and saw it from the post in that link. I remember Jim had a lot to say about this Jawa and how and why it was so rare. I believe it was an early 60's factory bike built for ISDT.
This is a 73 440 "barn find" that is in line for restoration. A friend (at the time) won the summer expert open summer series on it at a local track in 73: Hard for me to look at it now.
Yikes,that may not all buff out. Looks like it has the classic "snapped off kick shaft" issue? A friend had one of those back in the day,nice torquey fast great handling bike,he could fly on it but wasnt a real good wrench,always something disintigrating or flying off on the trail. The kickbacks were spectacular,he didnt keep the comp release working so broke the cases and nearly his ankle. Old bikes required some know-how.
I remember those bikes,the Banana frame Jawa's. Supposed to be tough as nails and designed to be fixed at trailside easily. Cant be many running around today.
Yeah, it would take a lot of love to bring it back. I got it back in shape in the early eighties, then loaned it to a "friend" who wanted to get back into riding. When I tried to get it back I got a run around. Finally it showed up when I was at work and it was apparent it had been left outside for at least a year. I try not to find it when I go into the barn where it has been since then.
