While I dont agree about less coils decreasing spring rate. T do think your on to something here. If the spring is set on the shock with too much preload then cutting off a coil or 2 will make it seem like the spring is softer. But if there is no preload on the spring and you do the same thing it will be stiffer. I have sent a few sinngle shocks out for modification. When a stiffer spring was needed they would cut a coil off the spring and make a spacer to fill in the difference. If a softer spring was needed they would sell me a new one.

 

Does anyone know where to get new tires for these quads? I want to get some better rear tires; the stock tires are entirely too small and are contributing to the bumpy ride...

 

That's the key, the spring must have some preload it can lose, or it won't work.

 

On my Yamoto i thought the rear shock had too much preload on it. I cut the spring base off and sure enough the spring was set with 1/2 a inch of preload stock. I was just going to re weld the base on the shock lower until i realized that the shock only had 9/16" of total travel. No spring mod in the world would help that.

What year was your Maico? I have always wanted a Maico for my "collection". They were so cool in the mid to late '70s.

 

You can get anything that fits. Id check with the advertisers here and see what they have to offer.

 

Ya know, I don't really recall what year it was. I got the bike used from a neighbor in 1981 (I was 17 at the time). I raced it in open class in some local clubs for a couple years. The previous owner was a former racer and the bike had quite a few mods and aftermarket parts.

It was a beast for sure. Kick starter was on the left hand side, so it was awkward to start, if you could kick it over at all. Many times it would fire half way through the kick start and end up flipping you over the bars (had to stand on the left side and kick it with my right foot while holding the bars...and you had to come up and down on the starter with your full weight...a precarious balancing act for sure). Push starting it required 4th gear on pavement or forget it, it would just drag the rear wheel even if you hopped down on the seat when you dumped the clutch.

When it came up on the pipe, the thing had so much power it was near uncontrollable. Had t be very touchy on that throttle hand :-)

I ended up selling it back to the former owner after nearly killing my self on it over the couple years I owned it. I went back to 250cc bikes :-)