I stopped by Max's office yesterday to see how things were going.
Max _did not_ have a bike at his booth at the Toronto bike show on Friday when I was by. Apparently
they got hung up in customs, but he says he did have bikes there for Sat. and Sun. He had about ten
bikes around the office in various stages of assembly. Apparently he has started shipping a few to
dealers. He expects a larger shipment in two weeks.
I know many of you don't care for CLWB bikes, especially over-engineered ones, and this is not the
bike I would have designed, but I was impressed with the final version of this bike.
Max is the sort of guy who has bike parts all around his office and drawings of future projects on
the walls. He can hardly look at something mechanical for more than a few minutes without thinking
about how it might be done better. I think he probably drove his suppliers nuts, but I think the
bike is better for it.
I am no engineer, but here are some of the details that I thought were interesting. The crossover
sprockets are fairly small, so Max found some stainless steel ones for durability. The rear
derailleur cable runs through the chainstay. On earlier prototypes, the suspension pivot was
concentric with the crossover; now it is above the crossover axle. The pivot/BB area look very
robust and apparently is quite difficult to make. The kickstand doesn't clamp on; it bolts securely
to a braze-on. The rear derailleur hanger/dropout is replaceable. The replaceable bit is CNC
machined. Max was in the proccess of re-designing the bracket so it would take an off the shelf
item. Seat clamp is aluminum on aluminum, very tight tolerances; no plastic as on the prototype.
Both bikes come with braze-ons for disk or rim brakes. Upper model has disks standard. The shock on
the base model has adjustable rebound. The other model has a Cane Creek shock. The large diameter
handlebar riser is stiff, not flexy. Seat base is vastly improved over the first one I tried. Max
spend a lot of time and money on molds for this. I won't know how it works for me until I spend a
couple hours on it, but a couple minutes was too much on the first one.
Current accessories include a seat back bag and fenders. Rear rack will follow shortly.
Toronto is still in the grip of winter, so I did not test ride, and as I say, at this point, it
would really take a longer ride to judge the bike now.
To me, this bike has much of the sophistication of a Bigha or Cannondale, but at at least ten pounds
less weight and at prices that are closer to BikeE (suspended) prices.
I have no commercial interest, and as I say, it is not the bike I would have made, but at this point
I am impressed enough that I would not rule out owning one for some of my riding.
Site is here: maxarya.commaxarya.comOpen ↗
Bikes in the pics are close to the final but don't go by the pics for details. I would say if anyone
is interested, they shouldn't bother contacting Max; he doesn't sell direct. They should try to get
their dealer to get one in.
Sorry if this is overly commercial. As I say, I have no financial interest in this project. But it
has been interesting to see the process up close (similar to watching sausage being made ;-) and I
hope Max is able to make a go of it. Once he gets further into the recumbent community, you all
might be able to get him to do something more performance oriented.
John Riley