"mad MAX" (aka Yokel-Motion 1.0)

The Sonic has forum-form: one, two.

Although Illy isn't active on here any more, I've seen mention of him (Hard Day In January thread I think) and he's no slouch; lightweight's comment is useful too.

Selling your max frame hmmm? :D

Possibly, but I'm hoping I won't have to.

I'm trying to get hold of the Sonic guy to see if he's in a hurry to shift it: got some work from Monday, which should hopefully last a few weeks.

I'll consider that a "possible dibs pending Q's" :)

heh, would be interested if ever, I remember liking the build even if the pics have disappeared-what height are you?

A lanky 6' 3".

Photos reloaded.

Welcome home, from me and "Sir Bradley Piggins"!

Many thanks to @fidbod, who kindly agreed to sell it back to me: many thanks for that, the excellent packaging and barely raising an eyebrow when I turned-up and coolly announced I didn't quite have the full asking price on me...

I sold it to fund something more practical, which I've barely ridden and will shortly be sold. The plan is to make this more usable: the fork will be converted to threadless and bottle cage mounts added.

And it will finally get a fresh coat of paint...

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Mr. Suffolk.

I may have missed it somewhere in the thread but what is the original name of your frame?

I've been musing on fiddling with TT for my own pleasure. However I don't want to buy a carbon frame, an oldish school metal time trialer is what I'm after.

Scilly are you selling the threaded fork pal? I just bought this MAX OR tark beast but fork is Alu so wouldn't mind replacing it :

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... what is the original name of your frame?

No idea, I'm afraid!

It's currently with Winston Vaz for some tweaks and I have asked him if he has any ideas.

I found this too long in the top tube for TT, so progressed to Yokel-Motion 2.0.

Look for track frames that are shorter in the top tube than you'd ride on the road.

Noice!

Unfortunately, for you, I've just sent the frameset to Varonha to have the steerer replaced with a threadless one...

doh! Thanks anyway.

Will keep my peepers open... Thinking of going the Mirage hack route too if I can find some short ones-have you found the arms stiff enough?

Look for track frames that are shorter in the top tube than you'd ride on the road.

Like this bad-boy?

It's a 56 top tube I take a 58 with a 130 stem on the road.

I'm about your height by the way.

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have you found the arms stiff enough?

Well I'm pushing 3w/kg and have no complaints, so you should be fine...

What do you mean by "short"? If you want 165mm, it'll cost you.

Oh. Gears. :(

130mm is quite a long stem to be using with extensions, especially as a road frame will have a slacker head tube than a track frame.

But if you go much shorter in the top tube, you might struggle with the head tube being too short, unless you use stackable extensions, ie Zipp Vuka Alumina, 3T Ventus etc.

Back from Winston Vaz:

• threadless steerer;
  
• two pairs of bottle cage mounts;
  
• rear brake mount and bottom of wishbone filled;
  
• blasted ready for paint.
  
  

Removing the paint revealed a number of repairs to the top tube which show that it's seen some action, but also that it's been well cared for.

It also revealed a curious filled hole in the seat tube, just above the top tube and also the frame number: F117494.

Winston couldn't shed any light on who might have built it, nor what the hole in the seat tube was for.

I've secured a slot in the new year with one of the forum's favourite paint-slingers, so this should be back on the road for the summer!

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Looks very nice.

A thought on the curious hole in the seat tube. I am sure i have seen the odd special with a cable routed through the tube, and seat post and exit the rear, it sort of aligns with rear slot and hole. Perhaps an old attempt at aero cable run to rear brake.

Of course one needs to be very clear on seatpost height as your drilling a hole through it so it's a rare thing to do.
(i could be very wrong and it's for something more boring and simple)

Thanks!

The same idea occurred to me too, but there's no corresponding exit to the back of the seat tube...

The brake mounts themselves are a bit of a puzzle: whereas the fork takes a recessed tube nut, the rear was for an external hex nut.

I suppose the forks might not be original to the frame (there was white overspray on them, but yellow in the BB shell) and the rear mount was also a modification from the original spec.

Does the bottom of the seatpost "collar" bolt not lineup with the front one?

Looks nice like that though. Grey with gold accents for the paint?!

How is the threadless fork conversion?

A few weeks back I was trying to communicate with some of the northern framesmen about that very same issue (replace steerer tube) but then gave up because I couldn't get a straight answer if I could get a reply at all from some of them.

Is Winston the kind of chap that you can just rock up to and discuss things with?

The seat tube hole could be because it was a pre made lug that came with it and was filled during the initial build.

Does the bottom of the seatpost "collar" bolt not lineup with the front one?

Good spot: yes it does! Although having a circular base to the split in the seat tube isn't unique, so it may be that they just decided to make use of that existing feature?

If it were original, that would raise the possibility that this is a converted road frame. However there is no evidence of any cable guides (notably under the BB shell) nor down tube shifter mounts, so it doesn't seem likely.

Either way, it's certainly led an interesting life!

Paint will remain a secret for now...

When I looked into this before, I also got different answers: either replace the whole steerer (which is what Winston has done) or cut the threaded section off and replace with an unthreaded section.

Ultimately I just asked Winston if he could do it and didn't bother to ask how: his reputation is such that I was happy with whatever he was going to do.

To answer your next question, he charged £60 (return postage was £15 for the frameset, although I asked for it to be insured for £300, which cost an extra £10).

He's not very communicative via e-mail (not that I had any problems getting a reply from him): brief and to the point. I've no idea if this is because he's too busy doing awesome things with steel, or reflects his character generally.

Could be, but I wouldn't have thought the cable-through-seatpost design was common enough for there to be a specific lug.

Interesting.

As you can imagine steerer tube jiggery-pokery is a critical issue and not to be bodged.

One answer I got was that the old tube is heated out and a new one inserted, the caveat being it depends on the model of fork as to whether the fork blades would be affected by the heat.

What I really need to know however is how safe would the forks be afterwards?

I don't suppose you could take a close-up of the steerer tube - crown interface could you?

thanks,

What I really need to know however is how safe would the forks be afterwards?

Not a question I can answer, but Winston can and he wouldn't have done it unless he thought it was.

You know he used to build for Roberts? I think it was @coldharbour (no mean tube-wrangler himself), who described him as one of the most experienced builders in the business today.

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