Company History

Max Power and Rick Peterson Motorsports have merged to become MaxPower-RPMs. This merger combined Max Power’s ATV Racing and Cylinder Re-plating experience with Rick Peterson’s engine design knowledge and Motocross industry background. Here is a brief history of each company.

Max Power

Max Power opened the doors in Madison Wisconsin in 1997. Originally intending to plate cylinders for the many small engine manufacturers located in Wisconsin, Max Power specialized in plating cylinders. The ability plate and re-plate cylinders naturally developed into building Big Bore kits for Motocross bikes and eventually ATV’s.  

Rick Peterson Motorsports (RPM’s)

Rick Peterson began building Big Bore and Stroker Jet Skis in the mid 80’s. In 1994, he built the first YZ167. Cycle News tested it and liked it so much they put it on the cover. The kits began out-selling the Big Bore Jet Skis, so Rick began building them full time.

RPM’s bought Nikasil-USA in 1997 and Rick’s staff of 12 began plating cylinders in-house, as well as stroking and balancing cranks, porting cylinders and testing all promising performance parts on the dyno and the track.

In 2002, Rick built the first YZ302F. Dirt Bike called it “a great Vet Machine. Truly impressive. TWMX rated the YZ302F a “10” and called it, “The funnest Bike of all time.” Rick agreed, and was hooked on the Big Bore 250F’s. Soon 4-stroke sales eclipsed 2-stroke kit sales.

In 2004, Rick built the first ICE CUBE cylinders. This was no small feat. It required the purchase of over $100,000.00 of CNC equipment and many late nights! The ICE CUBE was a work of art. (Ok, maybe not the first one!) It is billet aluminum with a nikasil plated liner that allowed Rick to build Big Bore Kits that were cool looking and durable too.

At this time Rick was talking to Max Power about moving the 2-stroke line to Wisconsin so he could focus on his new passion, the ICE CUBE Cylinder.