Elizabeth Furnace on Saturday? That was me.
On the subject of setup, yeah I think the Maverick bikes are really touchy when it comes to setup. When first released, they were less so.
The 7.1 and 7.2 ML-7 revisions had coil-sprung and air-assisted rear shocks. That shock worked well over a wide, say 15 psi, variation in air pressure.
The most recent models come with air-sprung shocks that are much more touchy. If I'm not within 5 psi of optimal, my bike feels wrong. The problem being that the optimal setting changes based on independent variables such as fork setup and my fully-laden weight. On the plus side, the 7.3 damper reacts better than earlier models to small trail irregularities.
As for shifting, when the Maverick was first released, it worked quite well with the last generation XTR, which had a 46 tooth big ring. The original spec E-type derailleur simply does not work predictably with 44 tooth rings.
For a while, the Maverick guys modified XTR E-types to work with compact rings, but their solution was a temporary hack.
So, then they created a front derailleur mount to work in conjunction with a braze-on Shimano road triple derailleur. From what I understand, that works well with compact rings... I don't know, because I still run my XTR 46 tooth setup.
In Moab last spring, coming down Porcupine Rim, I did throw my chain about twenty times. That was super-frustrating, but I'm not sure that any bike without a chainguide would have held on any better.
Finally, and I've said this many times before, IMO it's hard to go wrong with any of today's high-end bikes. You have to ride them, though, to know which suits you best.
Some things I think are really nice about Maverick frames:
- They can take serious abuse without breaking
- They're relatively light
- They have neutral handling