Maxx Cycle
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
Email: maxxcycle@shaw.ca
Michelle: Could you please give me an intro to your shop and who you are?
Dave: I'm Dave Ladouceur. At Maxx Cycle we basically custom build really high end sport baggers. We build very high end motorcycles with engines, paint, suspension, brakes, all that kind of stuff.
Michelle: How long have you been in business?
Dave: The shop has been going on 4 years as Maxx Cycle and I’ve been building custom bikes for about 30 years.
Michelle: Does your shop specialize in any specific motorcycle or year group?
Dave: We only work on Harleys, but we specialize in the Twin Cam and M8 bikes. Most of our performance baggers are M8 bikes. Generally, where people are spending the most money are on 2017 and up bikes. Right now in my shop, I have four Road Glides in which are in excess of $100,000CAD builds. We don’t have a Dyno in house, but we work with Fuel Moto and a local Dyno.
We do everything from basic service to building custom bikes. That’s our specialty. We do oil changes and tires. We have guaranteed the lowest prices on tires in the area. We’re a full service shop but we specialize in high end performance baggers.
Where we live in Canada, I’ve basically brought the sport bagger market to life here. Like in California and all of the United States, it’s really big but we’re pretty much the only guys in Canada that are building really high end sport baggers. There’s still the odd guy doing it but we’re the only ones doing it everyday. At any given time, there’s two to three baggers getting built in here. Right now, standing in the shop I can see three right here in front of me, and the other shop has two in it as well. So there’s five of them here in different processes of the build. And generally when we do a bike build, it’s a complete bike build. We touch everything- the suspension, the brakes, the transmission, the engine, all the controls, the paint. We have a custom painter that we work with. We’re the largest dealer for BAKER in Canada. We also are one of the largest dealers with Ohlins for HD applications in Canada.
Michelle: Do you make any custom parts?
Dave: We don’t manufacture parts ourselves. We work with high end manufacturers, so we do a lot of stuff from BAKER, MJK, Kraus, Ohlins, Legends, and many others.
Michelle: What bikes does the shop own?
Dave: The shop owns six Harley performance baggers. Anywhere from 120 HP to 160 HP bikes. We have some local dudes stunting with them and theres no drag strip in our area so we don’t get to do official drag racing. We have been installing a lot of BAKER 6-speeds lately because our guys ride really hard. We’re building baggers that do wheelies and burnouts and stuff.
Michelle: Do you do any stunt riding?
Dave: My stunt riding would be consistent of doing a wheelie and a burnout. I’m not an actual stunt rider but I do do wheelies. I surprise a lot of people because they’ll see a big guy on a big bagger and all of the sudden they’ll see me doing a catwalk down the road. It shocks a lot of people!
Michelle: What are your favorite BAKER products?
Dave: Well, the GrudgeBox is the main thing we go to. Pretty much anything we do, we’ll put the GrudgeBox in it. We do Comp Sprocket Kits as well and the Attitude Adjuster. Those are things we’re using all the time. We’ve installed several of the reverse systems as well on the bikes with TRio tilting front ends.
Michelle: What is your favorite bike your shop has built with a BAKER product in it?
Dave: To date, the nicest one we’ve built was called the Venom. We’re just finishing it now. It’s a $150,000CAD bike build. It’s got a crazy custom paint job. It has Ohlins suspension, 128 CI/ 150 HP engine, BAKER GrudgeBox, and it’s got all the other high end parts like a Trask clutch basket, BAKER Compensator, really high end swing arm components, suspension, handlebars, and everything.
Michelle: Any cool news about your shop?
Dave: At the moment, we’re just expanding right now. We’ve adding 3,000 Square feet to our shop. We carry lots of parts. We carry all the tires in stock. We're trying to make it so people don’t have to wait for stuff. A lot of high end exhausts in stock. We’re also a dealer for Saddlemen seats and we stock many of those in house as well. I believe we’re the largest Saddlemen dealer in Canada as well. At any given time, we’ve got about 100 seats in house.
Michelle: Do you host any events?
Dave: Well, we will be. This year is going to be our first annual show with all of our bikes that we’ve built. So basically we’ll be inviting all of our customers that we’ve built bikes for to come to a show and BBQ. And then, we’ll be having the customers vote on which one is the nicest bike. Right now, we’ve probably got about 50 bikes that we’ve built out there. So we’re expecting to have a good turn out this summer.
Michelle: Being that you're in Canada, does American made mean anything to you?
Dave: Absolutely! American made is very important. I don’t want to put any cheaply made crap on the bikes I build. So that’s why we’re using parts like BAKER, Saddlemen, Kraus, stuff that’s made in Canada as well. So yes, that’s very very important to us.
Michelle: What are some companies you use that are made in Canada?
Dave: MJK Performance and Original Garage Moto.
Michelle: What is the best way for a new customer to get in contact with you?
Dave: Through the website, Instagram, or Facebook.
Michelle: Anything else you'd like to add?
Dave: We just love what we do and we're good at it!
