I'm a fricking Maverick (owner)!

If you've never heard of them, head on over to their site and read a bit. Also check out the wheel path video, it's crazy!

So I finally did it. Welcome to the 21st Century of mountain biking! Granted Maverick started a bit before the actual turn of the century, but this was what I've been waiting for - at least for the past week while it was being shipped.

6" up front and 4" of rear travel. Disc brakes are a welcome upgrade from a guy who started on "cantilevers" and recalls "U-brakes". Yeah, I'm old. The bike came in this ordinary Specialized box, but I was as excited as can be. I pulled everything out and the massive DUC 32 was in it's own wrapping. Surprisingly light for that much travel. Pretty good packing job by the seller 'cause he's a bike shop manager for a store in NYC. Those are my old stomping grounds and I guarantee there aren't any trails in NYC worthy of this rig. I wanted to build it up right away, but Max needed to eat and he's way cooler than any aluminum, steel and rubber contraption.

I finally got some quiet time at 3am and started to put it together. I'm no professional mechanic, but I did alright for not having any instructions. The DUC is a pretty straight forward assembly, as was the front disc brake. I made the final adjustments to some bolts, seat height and dropped the rear air pressure down to 100psi. I think Mav suggests something in the 30-40psi range, but we'll have to see. I didn't get a cool "sag-o-meter" in the manual, so I'll give them a call.

Took it out for a 5 minute parking lot ride and OMG. This thing is fricking awesome! I was riding straight into curbs with hardly a pause. My standard two-stairstep-drop is now just a muted "thump-thump". I don't even have the suspension setup for my weight yet, but it's so plush I sit through all this stuff. Now I'll be able to keep up with my buddies on the downhill! It's not that heavy either, probably no more than a few pounds up on the Bontrager. There is a "climb mode" on the fork, but I'll have to tear it down to get it working again.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with my purchase (Thanks Honey!). Can't wait to go try out some trails with this beast.

Funniest part? Maverick uses a "serial name" instead of a number. Mine is "Daddy", which is what I had just become a few months ago. Cool huh?

-Hong