Until two years ago, this 33-year-old New Yorker was a
successful designer based in Manhattan. Maxwell was good at his job, but
also dissatisfied with it – his heart just wasn’t in it.
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With a little
encouragement from his father, Maxwell decided to ditch his
well-remunerated career for a less lucrative, potentially more precarious
profession – but a job that he was nonetheless extremely passionate about:
Hand-building exquisitely beautiful, custom motorcycles.
Maxwell loved making motorbikes in his spare time, a passion he began
cultivating years earlier when an off-road motorbike accident left him
recuperating on his couch for three months.
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During that
recovery period, he tinkered with a beach cruiser bicycle by adding an engine
to it before graduating to crafting whole motorbikes. Today, such is the
beauty of Maxwell’s motorbike building that his creations can legitimately
be described as ‘motorised art’.
In the two years since establishing the Hazan Motorworks atelier in Brooklyn
and then moving to Los Angeles, Maxwell has never looked back. “I took a pay cut to do
something I love,” he says.
And at the MB&F M.A.D.Gallery, we are lucky Maxwell chose to go pro as
a maker of hand-built bikes because we have the pleasure of exhibiting his
two latest creations: the Royal Enfield and Harley Davidson Ironhead.
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Both bikes are
one-of-a-kind and both have been built by hand, entirely from scratch, with
Maxwell fabricating everything himself except the engines, which are the
starting point for each bike.
“Building from
scratch allows me to build without compromising the design,” he
says. “Every piece
goes exactly where and how you want it. You can create something really
unique and clean.”
While both the Royal Enfield and Harley Davidson Ironhead are indeed distinguished by
their clean design lines, they are both also characterised by subtle
frosted effects, hints of patina and retro styling as well as lush,
hand-carved wooden seats.
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Maxwell refinished
the sumptuous seat of the Enfield – inspired by the design of vintage
Italian speedboats – no fewer than three times to compensate for the
expansion and contraction of the wood.
This perfectionism extends to the Harley. It took Maxwell four attempts to
sculpt the Harley’s fuel tank until he felt its proportions were just
right. But it was worth the effort. With its silvered finish and tapered
form, the gorgeous tank resembles a glorious leaping salmon.
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Seeing Maxwell Hazan’s beautiful bikes up close, on one hand,
you’ll want to jump aboard and roar away; but on the other, you’ll just want
to stand and gaze in admiration. A career change has seldom looked so good!
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