So Far Ahead

Maverick ML7 (2005)

Yesterday was about the unending march of technology, and how we find ourselves with outdated hardware before we even realize it. Today’s bike is the opposite. Imagine being so far ahead of your time, that even 10 years later “new tech” was just catching up. This Maverick is 14yrs old, and some of those futuristic innovations are now bike industry standards. That’s product vision.

I haven’t bought a new MTB in ages because of two reasons. One was quite simply that I had transitioned to mostly road riding. The road routes we have access to in the SF Bay Area are world-class. The trails are too. But with two kids and precious few weekend hours free, driving down to the trailhead, riding 3–4 hours and driving back meant at least a half-day away from home. The second reason is this bike. I honestly couldn’t find anything that was as unique or interesting to me until I bought the Cannondale Habit Black Inc.

Now let’s compare the similarities. 5–6" of travel front and rear. Hydraulic disc brakes. Inverted fork design. At one point I even had a dropper post on it! (Maverick Speedball). This was a long-travel XC bike before there was such a category. People mistakenly categorized it as an ‘All-Mountain’ bike before Enduro existed. Would you believe it weighs 26lbs? Same as that carbon Cannondale. Easton aluminum was the exotic material back then, and $3500 for the frame was the cost of entry. This was high-end stuff. It was legendary.

Paul Turner was the founder of Rock Shox. His place in MTB history was secured with his very first product, the RS1 front shock. Having made a fortune with that first startup, he went off to build another one. Taking the best ideas and the best partners, they went to build things their own way. He called it Maverick. Think skunk-works projects with unlimited funding. That’s how real innovation happens. Even if history forgets the name of his company, the work that they did lives on today in every mountain bike out on the trail.