Maxim Ropes? How are they?

Looking at buying a 70m 9.9mm glider dry rope. I can get it for $175 brand new.  Does anyone have any experience with this particular rope?  It's a signature series bi pattern with Honnolds name associated with it.  It just seems like a really good deal.  If not, what about maxim ropes in general? Any information/experiences with or about Maxim ropes would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

They are expensive but durable and generally very well handling. It's hard to swallow the price sometimes. 

I mostly buy thinner ropes with out bipattern or dry treatment to save money and have not had many maxim ropes because you can't find many that are not set treated. 

It's what I use for my roped soloing setup, on about my 10th one...

If you do go with the blue 9.9 Honnold, it's still a good rope (my GF owned one), just a little heavy for what I typically like ( I mostly climb on 8.9 - 9.4). It still handles really well though.

They're reputedly very durable, but they have a higher than average impact force. Seem like a great sport project rope. 

The Airliner is my favorite rope of all time.

A climbing partner of mine bought a 10.2 Maxim rope a few years back. What we both noticed about it is that it is really stiff. It reminds me of typical gym top ropes in that it is not particularly easy to make knots in. At one point during a climb I noticed my well dressed and tensioned double fisherman backup knot after the figure eight follow through on my harness completely unravel itself. I also noticed well dressed and tensioned double fisherman stopper knots for rappels almost come undone. We decided that for this rope it needed triple fisherman knots. I'm not impressed with this rope. Neither of us particularly cares for it. 

I don't know if all of their ropes are like this. My piece of advice is to not buy these without being able to feel and compare how supple they are compared to other brands. 

I used the 9.9 Honnold Glider bi-pattern for a while. It starts off stiff and smooth with good handling. After I put it through its' paces the sheath softened up and it became extremely slow to feed and in general very poor to handle. It's also heavy at 66g/m, and at that weight I wish it were more durable. 

Systematic wrote:

I used the 9.9 Honnold Glider bi-pattern for a while. It starts off stiff and smooth with good handling. After I put it through its' paces the sheath softened up and it became extremely slow to feed and in general very poor to handle. It's also heavy at 66g/m, and at that weight I wish it were more durable. 

All of the Glider 9.9's come with a twill-weave sheath and are stiffer than most ropes.  I like that because I use them for lead rope soloing and the combination of slightly stiffer than normal and a smooth sheath are an ideal pairing with the Edelrid Eddy I use. As I said above, been through about ten of them and, while a little softer at the end of a season, it's not markedly so from my experience.

Used to get Mammut ropes almost exclusively, now Maxim pretty much exclusively! Have not had that particular cord, but was impressed with some other models. 

I mean Honnold obviously doesn't trust it.

Patrick Mason wrote:

I mean Honnold obviously doesn't trust it.

Does he trust any ropes?

I had a 10.2mm one and LOVED the way it handled.  It turned 10 last year and I retired it, though.  Great rope with a soft catch.

had a 9.1 airliner as a redpointing rope. ended up working it really hard and it's held up better than any rope I've had, despite being skinny and dragged through all manner of dirt and grit. Lasted significantly longer than any other rope i've had and kept a smooth sheath

Sheath on my maxim glider gym rope melted through somehow in less than 6 months of use twice a week. Will never buy their ropes again. I've been very happy with my Beal Yuji and Blue Water Lightning Pro Double Dry. 

Just bought yet another 9.9 Glider yesterday...

I've only owned one of their ropes. I bought: https://www.rei.com/product/869679/maxim-alex-honnold-signature-bi-pattern-glider-99mm-x-70m-dry-rope

I took it climbing outside twice. It got a random sheath tear that exposed the core on the 2nd trip. I cannot figure out exactly how it tore as anchors were well extended. I wouldn't buy maxim ropes again. I think they have a problem with their braid. 

Dunno, as I said, just bought my eleventh one and have never had a single complaint with any of them - and I don't coddle them in any way.

I have owned two of the 9.9 gliders and now have a 9.5 Maxim. I love everything about these ropes except the sheath durability and for that reason will not buy another one, at least for a few years of exploring other brands again. The super tight weave of the sheath gives these ropes their incredible handling of easier clips due to increased stiffness, and fast handling due to the increased slickness/decreased friction. Unfortunately the tight sheath, in my opinion, also results in much more frequent and greater sheath damage than ropes with 'normal' sheaths. Think of the difficulty in cutting a rope that is limp versus cutting it while holding it in tension. 

I have used other Maxim ropes that I liked, but I had a Maxim Glider 9.9 and I absolutely hated it. It was SO stiff and hard to belay with, especially from above in guide mode. Pulling slack through grigri kind of sucked too. I sold it after using it a few times. It might have broken in if I used it more, but honestly, I've used lots of other ropes and that was the worst. 

Yeah the 9.9 Gliders are stiff due to the twill sheath weave which is quite a bit finer, tighter and smoother than most rope sheath weaves. In many respects it handles a lot like a Mammut SuperSafe 10.2. But those qualities are what I need for pairing with my Edelrid Eddy for roped soloing - might look at other ropes for climbing with partners. None of the ten that i've owned ever got much in the way of sheath damage to speak of except one that was a couple of years old and somewhat abused.