The Bikes and Riders: Part 2, Mr. Big Max

For your edification I present the second in my occasional series on who we are, this time focusing on the youngest and most energetic Swamp Donkey, Max. And here's the man now, standing next to his latest project, an air head BMW he plans to use for longer distance motorcycling

Though he's clearly a Thinking Man's Max, he's not usually one to just sit around, being possessed of more energy than I recall having at his age.

Though primarily a Triumph guy, regularly doing battle with models old and very old, he's also got a smattering of Hondas and the aforementioned BMW.

Way back in the mists of time, the time at the start of this blog, Max began his vintage Cross Country journey on an enormous 650 Tr6, dubbed Smokey Bacon, which you may recall.

He had many ups and down with that bike. Ups, like winning his class in 2009, and downs, like what he did to the engine at Durhamtown, also in 2009:

In the end, Ol' Smokey Bacon finally screamed "enough!" at Barber that year, where Max borrowed George's Tr5t and was well and truly smitten

Through the North Carolina boys, one was acquired, though Max had to sell his Rickman Zundapp to pay for it.

It was kinda crusty, having obviously sat for decades, but really wasn't in horrible shape. Even the rear frame loop that had been cut off was still with the bike. So, fueled by beer and the crack of George's whip, it was soon torn down

The pistons were stuck solid in the bores, but otherwise, there weren't really any horrors lurking inside. Soon, a flurry of shiny new parts began arriving

 And the rolling chassis, freshly spruced up with paint and more new bits, was soon ready to receive its fresh powerplant

 And in pretty short order the little Tr5t was serving Max well in its first race

Since then its been pounding along pretty happily for a couple years now, its only real problems have been funky electrical glitches mainly caused by it starting with a complete, stock, road going loom with lights, switches and everything. That and the time it's rear wheel tried to grind through the swingarm

Not that there hasn't been some drama in its life. A couple years ago, it was stolen out of Max's bike room. Poor Max was despondent for days, until he got a call from the police that his bike was recovered. Sadly, it wasn't just found, oh no. It was "recovered" after it rammed the back of a parked van as the finale of a short police chase. First impressions were not good

Amazingly, despite the front end being trashed, the rest of the bike was surprisingly undamaged and once again, in fairly short order, was back out pounding around the woods. These days its a story of incremental improvements, tweaking carburetion, suspension and gearing to suit Max's evolving riding and installing a Morgo rotary pump to improve lubrication and cooling while eliminating the horrid plungers and ball checks of the stock pump.

Its a happy bike, which makes Max a happy rider, which is good because now in their third season together they're almost like an old married couple, grousing at each other and complaining about their aches and pains. But there's real love there, Max worries about scratching the paint when loading the bike even though he's gonna go beat the heck out of it in the woods. And the bike responds by always getting him to the finish, even when parts come loose from the abuse it receives. But that's just fitting; after all, they do make a great couple.