Legendary motorcycle chassis engineer and founder of Maxton Suspension Ron Williams has died

Accomplished motorcycle racing chassis builder and founder of Cheshire-based Maxton Suspension, Ron Williams has passed away.

Publicly announced on Monday, November 25, a statement released on Maxton’s social media read: “It is with a heavy heart, that we have to announce, that our founder and father Ron Williams passed away on Saturday evening.

“He was a pioneer of our industry; all of us at Maxton are all grateful he gave us the opportunity to learn from him.”

Williams founded Maxton in 1971 – selling his car in order to fund the business. Initially it was known as Max for short, with the ton referring to 100mph.

During his career, he helped develop a number of high-performance racing frames – starting with his first Matchless G50, before moving on to Yamaha TZ two-strokes, and even Mick Grant’s Kawasaki KR750 triple – which he modified within the TT paddock to help secure the 1975 Senior race victory.

“They’d raised the bike to get it to steer and I suspected the engine was now too low at the back, so the chain run wasn’t correct – it wasn’t symmetrical,” Williams told MCN during an interview in 2020. “I unbrazed the lugs that hold the engine at the back of the frame and repositioned it.

“Obviously I didn’t have a jig, so I just used the engine to line it up,” he recalled. “Mick took the bike and won the Senior. It was a fairytale.”

In 1981, he was also invited to Japan to inspect the Honda’s NR500 oval pistoned GP bike and was set the task of making a more conventional frame – working alongside Honda engineers including Takeo Fukui, who went on to become the CEO and president of Honda worldwide.

The modern Maxton business is now famed for its quality aftermarket suspension components, available across racing and road-biased machinery.

All at MCN’s thoughts are with Ron’s family at this difficult time.