Only the early ones, by the time the '81 models rolled around, you could quite comfortably rely on a Maico, because the main points of weakness (down-pipe, fiberglass fenders, weak rims) had been pretty well ironed out. They only got unreliable again when the internal sabotage deal hit for '82 and '83. There were a few things Maico did that kept them lasting, too. For example, instead of using aluminum clutch plates that liked to wear down and pollute the oil and such, their clutch design was small enough that they figured it was okay to use steel, which gave you a lot more life in between clutch changes. For the longest time, also, Maicos went without reed valves, which in the early days did have a tendency to occasionally get sucked into the engine. By some strange alien voodoo that no one fully understands, they still managed to get a better power delivery that the competition even without the reed valves, so they figured it was okay to go without the extra moving parts until '83.
