MX Leader: an appreciation

[Climb01742]

with the lousy weather here in new england for the last couple of weeks, i've been riding my mx leader a lot lately. with every ride, i like it more and more. on the flats, this thing just rolls. i'm 180 degrees from a power rider but on the flats, even i can fly. the frame transfers power beautifully. i can totally see how guys could roll with power over the roads of flanders riding one of these. out of the saddle, there's a really nice blend of stiffness without harshness. the frame gives just enough to rock side to side really sweetly. even eddy can't rewrite the laws of physics, so this frame's weight still makes climbing a challenge, but even i, who loves to climb, will say "so what?" the way the mx rolls over the flats is so much fun, i'll gladly pay the weight penalty. add to that the feeling that this is a tank, treat it like a tank, ride without worrying about babying it, ride thru potholes and rain and muck, just purely, happily, simply ride, well, its just fun. onboard an mx, you really understand that eddy knew/knows what he's doing. i picked up this 10 year old frame cheaply off ebay. on a fun-per-dollar basis, pretty hard to beat. there are modern frames that accomplish more, but i'm never selling this one. there's something timeless and elemental about this frame. like a link in cycling's history and progress. it will probably outlive me, but not outlive my desire to ride it. thanks, eddy.

[dnovo]

What Climb said! Dave N. (owner of more than one MX-Leader)

[DWF]

the frame transfers power beautifully. i can totally see how guys could roll with power over the roads of flanders riding one of these. out of the saddle, there's a really nice blend of stiffness without harshness. the frame gives just enough to rock side to side really sweetly. even eddy can't rewrite the laws of physics, so this frame's weight still makes climbing a challenge, but even i, who loves to climb, will say "so what?" the way the mx rolls over the flats is so much fun, i'll gladly pay the weight penalty.

Designed in '85/6 and released in '87, the Columbus MAX is the best steel tubeset that has ever been produced. The popular media has always labeled it as unduly stiff, harsh, and heavy, and therefore planted the seeds in the buying public, but it is neither; it is "business-like" and it does not play games. The media took their cues from a lot of the builders of the day who hated the shaped tubes because they could not work with them as the shaped tubes are more difficult to manipulate, requiring new tooling and new methods to build with. MAX was never able to overcome that bias and it never gained the popularity it so richly deserved.

MAX has been criticized as being heavy, but it is an unfair criticism; it is not the tubeset that is heavy, it weighs a mere 110-grams more than EL/OS, only 300 grams more than wimpy Columbus Genius, it is the lugset that is heavy. Sub 4-pound frames are easily achieved with MAX in normal sizes when tigged or fillet brazed. A 4-pound lugged frame can be achieved but the amount of work that must be done to the stock lugs is tremendous. It is if, after creating perfection, Columbus' well ran dry and they had nothing left when designing the lugs. The stock lugset is a tank, a brick, a mean, ugly, mother-in-law you got in the package deal with your beautiful new bride.

To summarize: Columbus MAX: Get some!!!

[dnovo]

Marvelous observation, DWF. Dave N.

[Climb01742]

did anyone build non-lugged MAX frames? if so, who? forgot to mention, the mx descends beautifully. enuf to make a wuss like me feel comfortable.

[pale scotsman]

Hey Climb - Rumor has it that John Slawata of Landshark fame brazed a few Max frames. Gary Hobb's had one at one time, and may still for all I know. Wonder if there's still some tube sets around???

Scotsman sans tan.

[merlinagilis]

Not sure if he'll filet braze max tubing or not, but some sweeet looking frames:

http://www.llewellynbikes.com/main.htm

[dbrk]

Yesterday and today were near-perfect days in the Finger Lakes. Yesterday I rode ol'Dr.Jon's Atlanta, now repainted an unbelieveably beautiful pearl sapphire blue with silver outline decals (JB did the job...) with a Goodrich fork (Pacenti's beautiful crown...). The bike is a 60x60 and geez I felt GREAT, nuthin' like your max'd out size to make you enjoy the drops. I use a 10cm Nitto stem and all's well. Today I rode Axel's MX Leader with the Caloi decals. My wife Aimee rode the Dave Kirk "hello kitty" special for the last hour with me through the Bristol hills here in western New York. She loved the bike, this being the maiden voyage (add Herbie Hancock here...), said it was the most fun she's ever had and was especially grateful when I grabbed the scruf of her neck to pull up the really steep ones (we have...uhh...many). But I write primarily to say that the MX Leader is a fantastic ride, truly. It is so, so stable (this is my true max size, a 61cm) and it descends like no other bike. Of course the wheelbase is longer than a Clinton speech but the bike overall is as light as Bush on substance. I was prodigious pleased. Add the red Regal to the Motorola colors and the look is all to the better. Merckx makes great bikes, 'taint no doubt about it.

dbrk