It was around 1975 that the Husqvarna Company purchased the rights to the earlier MK1 unit engine and saw the introduction of the Maely MK2.
The MK2 was of the more traditional non-unit construction engine and of these there were two types. One had the carb situated central to the Cylinder Head whilst the second had the carb mounted on the left of the Head.
LEFT:The MK2 non-unit construction Engine. Note the centrally mounted carb on this particular engine. It is worth mentioning at this point about the Frames that Maely built for his machines of which there were also two types. The early frames were silver with the tank, fenders and air box painted gold with black trim and were designed to house either the "Maely" or "JAWA" engines whilst some later MK1 machines had silver frames with medium blue body work. The second type of frame designed by Maely was the Maely "Flexyflyer".
This frame used 2 small tubes just above the fuel tank instead of the single big tube seen on almost every normal speedway frame. Over the 2 tubes on a Flexyflyer is a clamp that you can adjust (by sliding it forwards or backwards) and therefore change the stiffness of the frame.
RIGHT:
The "Flexyflyer" frame, note the twin tubes and adjustable clamp to alter
frame "stiffness".
LEFT: The MK2 Maely in an earlier frame as mentioned above.
We know that at the end of the eighties,
Ken was working on the idea of another engine, the MK3 - but to date we
have no knowledge if indeed this engine got any further than the design
stage. Maybe someone out there can throw some light on this one for us.
RIGHT: A closer shot of the above engine showing this to be other type of MK2 with Carb mounted on the Left side of the engine.
Pages by Chris Byles
