November was a whirlwind for us, as we appeared on Episode 6 of Richard Hammond’s The Smallest Cog Workshop on Discovery+, launched our new website, received lots of enquiries, and welcomed over 500 new followers across our social media platforms.

We’re busy fitting out our HQ and securing costs and delivery timelines from our suppliers – our first batch of 5 production frames have now been ordered. So finally after many years we’re going to be able to build bikes for customers!

Your questions answered:

We’ve received lots of enquiries about our bikes, which is fantastic, so we thought we’d update our followers on a few of them:

Test rides will be available from our HQ, so please get in touch via the “Contact Us” form on our website if you’d like a test run.

From formal order to you being able to enjoy your Mac will be circa 16 weeks – these times may come down as our supply chain matures.

As we’re sure you know, Mac is not a mass-production approach, we’ll build bikes to order in small batches – the journey will start with your visit to Mac HQ in Yorkshire where we’ll talk through the spec and if you’ve not tried one already you can have a run-out on one of our demo bikes. If you want to order remotely, we can do that too, we’ll fit around you to make it work.

We’ll keep you informed as to your delivery date and you’ll be able to visit subject to pre-planning. Once your bike has been through the MSVA approval process you’ll collect from HQ.

Prices will start at circa £12,500 (plus the dreaded road tax). Servicing will be here at Mac HQ or via our mobile service.

SPOTLIGHT: Richard Hammond’s bike for the TT Legacy Lap

When our discussions started with The Smallest Cog we’d been running our two development / durability bikes for about 18 months and we were about to update them to latest production intent parts, then came the request for three bikes for the trip to the IOM!

We already had some more frames in build and we had an engine in stock but many of the other parts were not off the shelf at this point – we had updated designs for radiators, outriggers, airboxes as well as new versions of the wiring harness and engine controllers – all of which had been drawn up and specified – but not built!

Given this would be our first exposure on TV and the rider was going to be the national treasure that is Richard Hammond, we hatched a plan to carry out limited, mainly cosmetic updates to one of our tried and tested development bikes for him to ride while the new build bike with lots of new, first-off-tools parts would be piloted by a member of the Mac team… That’s not quite how it worked out!

By a combination of logistics and timing, the brand new build bike was the last bike to have its bodywork painted at The Smallest Cog – with the ‘Pig Pee’ paint effect and this was the bike Hammond was going to ride… Before we’d shipped the bike down to the Richard’s team it had gone through our usual set of checks and double checks – but it had a raft of new parts – and because of the tight timing we’d only been able to give it a 5 min shakedown (in the pouring rain!)

Not that we were worried, we knew everything had been built correctly but it did add an additional layer of stress to the situation – in reality, all the bikes performed faultlessly and it was a hugely proud moment to see our Macs being ridden at the front of a huge line of other bikers – it was a real honour to be part of something that honours the people, the bikes, and the communities that make the TT the incredible event enthusiasts know and love.

Have a great festive period and safe riding

Cheers

Mac Motorcycles HQ

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for regular HQ updates!