CCM Maverick (2024 – ) review

Visually speaking CCM’s minimalist street bikes are as much about the spaces between the various components as anything, the total lack of cladding or other bodywork the better to show off the exquisite engineering and workmanship. The distinctive lattice style chromoly steel frame and swingarm are a visual trademark shared across all CCM’s bikes, originally inspired the 2016 Spitfire and since adapted into a variety of trendy configurations including Bobbers, roadsters, café racers, flat trackers and scramblers. The bench seat and raised exhausts of the Maverick mark it out as the latter, harking back to CCM’s earlier competition bikes and those built for stunt man Eddie Kidd back in the day. You may not be ready for jumping a line of London buses yourself but you’ll at least look like you could if you wanted to! Like everything in CCM’s world the base bike is just that, and blank canvas onto which you can add your choice of frame finishes, tank colour schemes, saddle materials, CNC’d goodies, carbon fibre trinkets and more. At a cost. Whatever you go for the Maverick is a proper head turner, the fit, finish and detailing all the more impressive the closer you look at it.

There’s not much to the Maverick and it may look a little dinky at first but, in fact, the riding position is surprisingly generous, even for your six-foot tester. The 840mm seat sounds tall but the Maverick is so skinny it doesn’t feel it, and your legs easily fall flat to the floor. Low, mid and high bar options are available according to taste, the default mid ones giving a surprisingly low and stretched out position given the look and off-road influenced 19-inch front and 17-inch rear wheel configuration. For all that the Maverick feels more like a street bike than true scrambler and, while a bike this extreme is never going to be comfortable in a conventional sense, the riding position strikes a perfect balance between sporty and upright for the kind of backroad scratching it encourages.

There are many reasons to love the Maverick but there’s no pretending this is a practical bike. The bench seat is at least a fraction more useful than the single saddle configuration on the Bobbers and others in the range but you need to add pillion pegs as an extra if you’re planning to ride two-up and, let’s face it, even then no pillion is especially going to enjoy the experience. Nor is there anywhere to hide for the rider when it comes to wind, rain, spray or other discomforts. On the plus side the skinniness and chuckability mean it’s a hoot on twisty roads and for threading through tight gaps, the trendy bar-end mirrors not compromising your traffic splitting abilities too much.

Built by Italian firm SWM, the 600cc single at the heart of the Maverick has roots in Husqvarna’s period under BMW ownership and the TE630 trail bike of the time. Which aligns with CCM’s off-road racing heritage and gives the Maverick a suitably raw and raucous character. 50 horsepower and 55Nm in a bike weighing just 145kg combined with the snappy throttle response of a muscular, torquey single mean the Maverick has very sharp responses. The power band is pretty narrow and you need to get busy with the gears but that’s all part of the fun, an optional 38t rear sprocket available if you want a slightly calmer response for cruising. But that’s not what this bike is about, the eagerness of the throttle response threatening to send the front wheel skywards if you’re not careful and performance strong in the kind of backroad and B-road realm this bike lives for. As you’d expect, the engine sends plenty of fizz through the grips, frame and saddle and you never forget the single-cylinder configuration, CCM’s scale also meaning it can duck the noise limits mainstream manufacturers have to abide by. If you want refinement look elsewhere but for sheer excitement the Maverick is hard to beat. Braking via the beautifully machined levers is sharp even with the standard single-disc set-up, the rear having a similarly strong effect. You can pay extra for the bling of a twin-disc front set-up if you want but, functionally, the standard arrangement works just fine – just remember there’s no ABS if you’re riding in the wet. If it were our bike we’d be moving the lovely levers inboard just a fraction to make them easier to operate two-fingered, the clutch light enough and the front brake sufficiently powerful to make this feel natural.

CCM may have its roots in the dirt and the Maverick’s looks shout that loud and proud but with just 120mm of suspension travel front and back it’s more about the style than any real ambitions to head off road. That’s fine, given a bike like this is probably too precious to be dropped in the undergrowth and otherwise abused like you might a Honda CRF300 or similar trail bike. While the standard set-up of Marzocchi forks and a YSS monoshock has adjustment if needed both were pretty firm as tested which, in combination with the lack of weight, spiky power delivery, lack of rider aids and pointy handling mean it’s not a bike ¬for relaxed cruising or jittery riders. Which is fine, given CCM’s background in competition. Once you dial into this and start riding more assertively it all comes together, though, and the Maverick responds in kind, eagerly diving into the bends and making the most of its lack of weight with an addictive sense of agility. The harder you ride it the better it gets, your confidence growing with every mile. True, given the performance it’s a bike for twisty, ‘technical’ roads rather than open and faster ones but for invigorating blasts along the lanes it’s way more fun than a bigger, more powerful and sophisticated machine by virtue of stripping riding back to its most thrilling basics.

Once you’ve put the burly starting price to the back of your mind running costs for the Maverick should be relatively reasonable, on the basis you’re not going to be racking up huge miles on it and its lack of weight and modest power shouldn’t put too much strain on consumables. Insurance probably won’t be cheap but, against that, residuals should be strong based on the exclusivity and desirability. While fuel consumption isn’t going to break the bank it’s worth noting CCM recommends running its bikes on more expensive E5 ‘super’ unleaded rather than everyday E10.

Harder to quantify than with more mainstream bikes but we’d take some confidence in the Maverick’s sheer simplicity, and fact there’s a lot less to go wrong. Combine that with the Husqvarna-derived motor’s trail bike roots and CCM’s background in tough, no-nonsense off-road racing machines and you’d have to hope it’s going to be pretty dependable as well.

Buying from a small, specialist brand like CCM might have you worried about ongoing support and servicing but geographical gaps in its network of official dealers are being plugged with an increasing number of accredited service shops, including specialist mobile agents. If in doubt drop CCM a line and the team there can direct you accordingly. And while intervals may be shorter than more mainstream bikes at 4,000 miles/annually after the initial 500-mile check a CCM isn’t a bike for racking up big mileages anyway, so this is unlikely to be a big issue. Services also include things like a personalised bike set-up to help you get the most out of your Maverick.

If you’re looking for TFT screens, configurable rider modes and cornering ABS/traction control you’re best off going elsewhere, the Maverick taking minimalism to extremes and information limited to a basic but perfectly functional circular digital display. If you appreciate artisan mechanical engineering over electronics you’ll see where the money is going, though. The more so as you progress up the model range from the Core to Premium, Infinite and Ultimate versions and their increasing amounts of CNC machined components, carbon fibre trimmings and more. Still not satisfied? Time to delve into the many and various personalisation options of colour-matched frames, different anodised finishes on fork legs and yokes, various seat materials, custom tank designs and more. If you’re going all-in you can even spend another couple of grand on fancy Ohlins forks, a twin front brake set-up and more, though by this stage you’ll be well on the way to a £20K pricetag…

Forget any sense of functional necessity and instead enjoy the fact a bike like the CCM Maverick is a pure toy, and an indulgent one at that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, either. The extreme nature and single-minded approach means it’s going to be a bike for Sunday best and not daily commuting, but if life dictates your riding opportunities are fleeting and to be squeezed in between other commitments you may as well make them as intense and memorable as possible, right? And on that score the Maverick more than delivers with its ability to put a grin on your face and turn heads, its celebration of CCM’s small but significant part in British motorcycling culture brimming with feelgood factor that lingers long after you’ve hit the kill switch at the end of the ride.