BMXmuseum.com Bikes / Supermax

from a recent email....

I was always under the impression that the 'Supermax' range of BMX bikes were manufactured and marketed in Australia by Malvern Star. It is interesting to discover that these bikes were also produced in New Zealand and sold by a different company. I am not sure which company copied who but in Australia, Malvern Star did invest alot of money developing and promoting BMX in the early 80's.

The 'Supermax' range consisted of several models. The entry level model being the 'Maxi' which was constructed of mild steel. Instead of welding the frame together, the factory joined the frame using a similar technique that was used in the manufacture of 10 speed bikes. That is that the frame was joined by a series of lugs.I think this was done because it is alot quicker and cheaper to mass produce frames this way instead of welding them as is the common practice for BMX frames.

The 'Supermax Crmo' was the flagship model. It featured a full chrome-moly frame and was advertised as being the lightest Australian made frame at the time. The frame was very similar in appearance to the Redline MX3 and shared the same small triangular head gusset as well as almost identical rear drop outs.
However, the front forks were not produced in Australia. These were made by Tange Japan.They were actually the popular TRX model that many racers of the 80's often used. They to where one of the lightest and strongest around at the time, but they were by no means unbreakable!

I can still remember the first time I saw a Supermax Crmo as a 10year old kid in 1982. The things that caught my attention was the small triangular head gussets mounted in a somewhat unorthodox location. These were so different to the systems that were used by manufacturers such as Mongoose and Diamond Back who used massive double plated head gussets in between the toptube and downtubes on their frames.

The other eye openers were the MX2 headstem and the light weight nylon pad set. Both these things were so different to anything else I had seen as all the other BMX bikes.

From my point of view Malvern Star was certainly one of the driving forces that promoted BMX in Australia during the 1980's.However I am a little interested in finding a little bit more about the New Zealand company that produced Supermax. I wouldn't be surprised if the Supermax Crmo was orginaly a Kiwi invention because of the similarity of the Redline frame. Redline to my knowledge was not imported into Australia by Malvern Star.I reckon that you Kiwis might be right in saying that the Supermax was your idea.