Are Motorcycle Suspension Upgrades Worth it? Hear From an Expert!

Love what you hear? Please FOLLOW and leave a review!

If you would like to ride the extra mile, you can help support the show by -

Buy Me a Coffee

Today's guest is Mike Alex of Suspension Technologies, a Florida-based company specializing in custom motorcycle suspension, primarily for Harley, Indian, and trike motorcycles. The discussion highlights the often-overlooked importance of suspension for an enhanced riding experience, explaining how properly tuned suspension can significantly improve comfort, handling, and safety. Alex shares his journey from drag racing to becoming a suspension engineer for motorcycles, emphasizing that optimal suspension is tailored to the individual rider's preferences and riding style. The conversation also covers the durability and rebuildability of Suspension Technologies' products, their lifetime warranty, and the dangers of improper bike lowering, while stressing the company's commitment to USA manufacturing and customer satisfaction through their unique "try it before you buy it" approach at events.

Look for Suspension Technologies at your next motorcycle rally. They will be at Sturgis! Make sure you tell them that you heard the interview with Mike Alex on FÉROCE!

You can find out more information about Suspension Technologies HERE:

suspensiontechnologies.com

Instagram: @suspensiontechnologies

Facebook: Suspension Technologies

YouTube: @SuspensionTechnologiesUSA2000

Transcript

Mike Alex of Suspension Technologies

Annick: Hello, my beautiful Motorheads. Welcome to FÉROCE, where we inspire you to live fiercely. I'm your host, Annick Magac.

There's a topic in motorcycling that most people think they know what they're talking about or know what they're experiencing or know what they're looking for. But it's one of those elusive topics that I think in reality, a lot of people don't really understand, and that is suspension. Today we have Mike Alex of Suspension Technologies.

They are a Florida based USA manufacturing company that makes custom suspension for primarily Harley's, Indians and trikes.

Today we talk about what to look for in suspension, what's important and how it can improve your bike, and more importantly, how it can improve your experience riding. It's one of those things that, you know, it's not particularly sexy because you don't necessarily see the suspension, whether that's your rear shock or your front forks, like a lot of the components are hidden.

So it's not necessarily where people wanna spend their money, but it's something that's incredibly important to making sure that you have a good ride. Today we go into detail and Mike shares his knowledge about suspension and why you should upgrade.

 * INTRO *

Annick: Mike, how did you get into the world of suspension? 

Mike Alex: To be honest with you, um, I, I started way back when I used to drag race and I raced against a lot of guys that could buy big money. Engine programs and things like that, and I had to learn to go fast and make the car work different ways. So I started working on suspensions.

I read Hot Rod Magazine and a bunch of stuff, and I started working on suspensions. But for the motorcycle side of it, I did a lot of work. I was a race car engineer, and I did a lot of work in the NASCAR world and in drag racing. And I was working at one of the teams, um, one day I had bought a Road King and I rode it that weekend.

And then on a Monday I was working with one of the teams and I was complaining about how terrible it rode. And one of the guys that I worked with, um, great guy, big old southern boy down in North Carolina, he and a real southern voice, you know, says, um, Miiiike what do you do for a living? I said, well, I, I make suspension and shocks for race cars.

Well, he said, well, why don't you make a set for your motorcycle and shut blankety blank up? And I went, oh, that's not a bad idea. And the rest is history. I've been building shocks for bikes ever since. 

Annick: Really,

Mike Alex: so did you just started Well, it, it, so I. I built a set for my bike and probably about a month later, went on a ride. Um, we were in North Carolina and we had the weekend off, and, me and a bunch of guys went on a motorcycle ride and one of the guys that rode with us had hurt his back several months prior.

we'd been out, you know, we, we probably had four or 500 miles behind us and we were, you know, on our way back. Home and we still had a couple hours to ride and it was killing him. So he asked if he and I had the biggest bike outta the group at that time. And so he asked if he could ride my bike because it was a road king and it would be more plush than the Dyna he was riding.

I said, absolutely. And he's like, man, I don't know what you did to this bike, but make my bike do this. So I built shocks for his bike and then I ended up building shocks for his brother's bike. And then I ended up building shocks for another friend and next thing you know, yes, I started a business and I was just kind of doing it because I was still working at, uh, at GM racing.

I was still working in the, with the race teams. So I kind of did that on the side and then I just grew it as time went by and continue to grow it. So yeah, it was, it was by accident.

Annick: Well, it seems pretty cool

Mike Alex: Well, it seems pretty cool that you've been into racing your whole career, and then you

Annick: the

Mike Alex: segue into the suspension 

Annick: your company suspension

Mike Alex: company's suspension technologies mostly focuses on Harley's? Um, yes. Mostly Harley's. We've got some stuff now for the Indians.

Annick: Okay.

Mike Alex: Um, okay. I do some stuff for the early [00:04:00] Hondas. we're going to really promote or get into the new Indians. you know, we're increase our product line there. I'm actually hoping to get into some other, like maybe the Can-Am spiders and um, some of the other platforms out there.

Um, sport bikes. I love sport bikes, don't get me wrong. And I'm impressed with the way sport bike guys. Ride the way, you know, it's, it's impressive. That's just not kind of our forte, if you will. There's, um, mm-hmm. You know, Ohlins does a great job with sport bikes. We kind of got off into the cruiser world and that's kind of where we're gonna stay.

Um, but we're gonna, you know, grow to, in some other platforms, but more of the cruiser and the Boulevard stuff. So

Annick: got on

Mike Alex: before we got on here, we talked a little 

Annick: suspension in

Mike Alex: Suspension in general. 'cause I think that there's a lot of, uh, misinformation about why you'd 

Annick: or

Mike Alex: your suspension or why it's so 

Annick: Most people

think they know

Mike Alex: think they know

Annick: it all works,

Mike Alex: true how it all works. 

Annick: but

Mike Alex: Yep.

Annick: think

Mike Alex: I don't think that it's actually 

Annick: So maybe you can

Mike Alex: So maybe you can Well, you're, you're spot on. Um, so. First of all, you know what's kind of cool about motorcycles and and motorcycle people is we all like different things.

We're all different people, so you know what you like to ride. And what I like to ride are way two different things, but we buy the same bike. So we'll just use a a a Road Glide for example. You know, you buy a road glide, I buy a road glide. What you expect out of it and what I expect out of it are two different things.

So, um, the manufacturers try to be all. to everyone, but, but they just can't. And so, uh, people will read these different things and, oh, the bike does this, and the bike does that. They necessarily might not be feeling that, you know, it might be, uh, planted in their, their head by what they read, but it's not what they're feeling.

So a good suspension, um, dialed in for the owner. Will allow the owner to feel so many different things that they didn't feel before. And that can enhance the riding experience. Hey, it can also make it worse too. You know, if I dial a bike in for you that I would like, you're gonna go, man, that's, this is no good.

Um, so the individuality of it. Is to get people to ride what they like, but also works very well for them, you know? And then once they're comfortable they can, you know, push the bike more or, or enjoy the ride more or the handling and things like that. So there's a, a way more to it than, oh hey, this is just a, a good looking shock.

Annick: And you're doing both

Mike Alex: And you're doing both the rear and also shocks and Yes, we do fork cartridges. Um, in our fork cartridges we have, The, the piston, which is, um, deflective disc valving. We have a floating piston. Um, we have a base valve. Uh, the nitrogen gas, gas and oil never touches each other in my product. Um, you know, they, they, some of these companies, they pushing 'emulsion shock.

They're mixing gas and oil together. Gas and oil doesn't mix well. so we separate it. And then with our front cartridges, we have compression and rebound evenly in both sides. Um, some companies out there do compression in one side, rebound in the other. That's fine. Um, we prefer to do it compression and rebound in both sides.

and then the way we balance the base valve to the piston assembly, that allows us to use low nitrogen gas pressure versus a higher gas pressure. and again, it. Allows the the springs to do its job, it allows the valving to do its job without fighting a gas spring on top of a linear spring. And it just gives you a better experience all the way around in the cartridge.

And the same, the shock for that matter as well.

Annick: How often would somebody

Mike Alex: How often would somebody need to Well, um, that's a great question. That is a great question. Um, our product, the way we've engineered it and designed it and set it up, you should never have to rebuild it. Okay. It is completely rebuildable. Um, there are people out there that will push it.

so at a hundred thousand miles we will rebuild it. we will rebuild it no matter what. We have a true lifetime warranty, but we'll get into that later. There's other products out there. Very, very good products. I'm, I'm not saying anything bad about these product. They need to re be rebuilt alone every 10,000 miles or every 20,000 miles.

It just depends on the type of oil they use, the additives in the oil, the type of bushings, the seals, all that. we've gone to great lengths to use. Uh, real high-end bushings, um, Teflon impregnated bushings. The, the rod material that we use, the seals, the oil, it makes a big difference. And so, you know, we've set it to where you can put it on your bike.

You can, you know, set your first to second adjustments and you should never have to touch it again. if it were to fail, then of course it's completely rebuildable. and we. We have customers that after about four or five years will say, Hey, I'm gonna send 'em back. Just check 'em out. Absolutely no problem.

And we send 'em back to them. Um, so it just depends on what product you have out there and what you're doing with it.

Annick: Which actually

Mike Alex: Which actually leads me to the next question, because you initially talked about 

Annick: then your friend who had the

Mike Alex: but then your friend who had the lower 

Annick: so how does

Mike Alex: so how does 

Annick: what

Mike Alex: Exactly what they need? So if you are going to be real aggressive, if you are a real aggressive rider, you possibly do track days or you want to do the tail of the dragon and, and, you know, get your picture every weekend up there, then you, you look at what suits your needs. Um, you know, back in the day the, the double adjustable and triple adjustable shocks.

The average rider didn't spend the kind of money for that. Now they came on sport bikes, but the average Harley rider didn't spend that money. now they do in some areas because of the bagger racing league. there are some younger riders out there that are gonna do track days. Um, so then that helps you look at what you're going to do with your bike.

You know, there's, there's old guys like me out there. You know what we wanna put on a set of shocks? We wanna have initial setup and we're never gonna touch 'em again. so it depends on what you're trying to do or what you plan on doing. a lot of guys that came off of sport bikes, they want to go to a shock that is more aggressive versus a boulevard or a Cadillac ride, if you will.

Um, mm-hmm. So. We're seeing and what's really cool, I love watching the younger generation come into our sport, because their whole mindset is different. And a lot of them did come off sport bikes. So, you know, they want that more sport shock. They want that shock with the, uh, stiffer valving and the stiffer, uh, springs and things like that to push the bike even harder than what I would or the average rider would.

Annick: You also mentioned the

Mike Alex: You also mentioned the racing portion of it. So are this, is this drag racing or because of the bag

Annick: that

Mike Alex: series that they We, well, there's, you bring their Road Glide onto So I do, some shocks for some drag racers. Uh, we've done some stuff for team and performance.

It's worked out great. Um, we've done a lot of stuff for his customers. The guys out of All American Cycle do a lot of drag racing. We do a lot of things for them. Um, so we do a lot of drag racing. We do a lot of stuff for the guys that are on the, um, like the track day. You know, they take the Dynas and they're doing the track days with them.

Some of the guys are even using the, um, street glides to do track days. So we do that as well. the drag racing is probably. 10%. The, the track day stuff for us is probably 15%. Everything else is the guy that's the cruiser, you know, he just wants to have a great ride.

Still wants good handling, but he wants to have a nice, good controlled ride, wants to be able to feel what the bike's doing so he can react in the situation. But he's got his feet up on the peg, he's drinking his coffee, you know, he's more kicked back versus the guy, my son, prime example, you know, he's gonna set a track record getting to and from work on his motorcycle.

But, but he's, you know, 30 years old that's, he's, he's a, he came off of sport bikes and now he's, you know, into go fast, Harley's. So

Annick: I love it.

Mike Alex: I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

Annick: You know, I think

Mike Alex: You 

Annick: people don't

Mike Alex: Y people don't really maybe understand how good be.

Annick: they've experienced

Mike Alex: true. They experience this.

Annick: there any way

Mike Alex: So is there any way that people can try your product if they don't without Um, yes and no. So to answer that question, if you, one of the things that we say, it says it's in our literature. If you buy my product and you put it on your bike. And in the first 15 days, it either is not doing what you want us to do or you're not a hundred percent satisfied with it and you've tried to adjust it.

Make work. I'll give you your money back and we'll still be friends. That's not a problem we have in certain situations. Um, I'm gonna use Laconia. You and I met Laconia. I have had people come to me and say, well, you know, I, I, I've heard of your stuff or I've never heard of your stuff, but I'd really like to try it.

I'm like, okay, look, here's this, gimme your credit card information. We're gonna set your bike up. Go down the road, take off, have fun. Okay. Um, if you don't come back within 24 hours, I'm charging your credit card. Um, if you come back and tell me how wonderful it is or how terrible it is, whatever the case may be, we'll go from there.

I've never had anybody come back and say, take these off. I've never had anybody not come back, period. They've always come back and said, they, they love it. The majority of our customers, they, they wanna put 'em on and then they're gonna go riding and they're gonna, They wanna spend one day seeing the vendors, whether it's us, the seat guys, the handlebar guys, and then they want to go enjoy the event.

So typically we just tell 'em, you know, we'll put this on your bike. If you're not a hundred percent satisfied, bring it back. We'll put your bike back to stock, give your money back, and we'll still be friends. And I've never had to do that, but I'll be happy to. So

Annick: stand by

Mike Alex: I like that you stand 

Annick: it's made in the.

Mike Alex: and it's made Yes, it's all made right here in Florida. Um, we're very proud of the fact that it's all made in the United States of America. Um, that is extremely important to us. keeping our neighbors and friends employed, keeping the product here in the United States. You know, part of the United States economy is important to us.

Um, so we're very proud of that fact. and we do stand behind it. You know, our stuff has a lifetime warranty. I just got off the phone from a gentleman, uh, he bought our product seven years ago and he's a prime example. He says It still feels great, but you know what, it's been seven years. Can you look it over?

Sure. And if there's an issue, we just simply replace it, um, or rebuild it. It's that simple. 

Annick: You had mentioned

Mike Alex: You had mentioned something in 

Annick: was that

Mike Alex: which was that one of the misnomers was that you can't, or

Annick: say you can't

Mike Alex: not to say you can't 

Annick: but that it'll

Mike Alex: it'll

Annick: affect

Mike Alex: adversely affect the bike. And you, you said that that's actually not You're correct. That is not always true. Okay. So, um, you can lower there, there's a correct way to do this. you can lower your bike. Um, for example, I'm gonna use a Street Glide for example. You can lower the rear of a street Glide one inch. You can lower the front one inch safely and comfortably.

And actually, if you think about it, when you, when you lower that bike, an inch in the front, inch in the rear, you're at stock trail and right, you're just an inch lower. So you've lowered the bike evenly, but you can lower the back of that bike one inch safely and comfortably and not lower the front.

what you can't do is you can't lower it two or three inches. Okay. 'cause you run into all kinds of issues there. You can't lower the front of a bike over the center line of the bike. So the front, you know, and that's a sport. Bikes are front down versus, you know, the mm-hmm. There's more, um. Uh, weight on the front of the sport bikes.

The sport bikes steer quicker. Uh, they respond quicker. Harleys are not engineered to do that. The, the, the Harley touring bikes, I'm not saying that, uh, pan America or things like that, but you know, the Street Glide and Road Glide, but you can safely lower them. you just can't lower them too much. You know, I, I, I get guys, I wanna lower the front and my bike three inches.

No, you don't. First of all, you're gonna bang the fender into the eyebrow and that custom paint's gonna look like hell. Second of all, it's gonna steer so quick. You're gonna get in trouble before you ever leave your driveway, and it's gonna ride like crap. So there's three things why you don't want to go too much.

Um, but if you do it correctly in the right amount, you can do it all day long. so, and, and also too, you know, a lot of guys will buy these. Aftermarket things that, you know, they, some companies call them relocation brackets. Some company companies call them lowering blocks. And what they in essence do is they take the shock absorber.

Here's a shock body. You know, in the perfect world, a shock could be straight up and down, but a, a shotgun on a bike is like this right now. Well, when you put those relocation brackets or lowering blocks, you lay that shock down even farther. So the farther you lay it down, the harder it is to compress. I can't believe I don't have a shock on my desk.

Um, yeah, really? You would think I would have one. The harder it is to compress.

Annick: You're

Mike Alex: So you're talking about a right? A lowering link? Uh, okay.

Annick: wanna just because you're

Mike Alex: I wanna just because you're using different language, which is great,

Annick: wanna

Mike Alex: I also Yeah. Well, so sport bike, um, sport bikes and some of the, like the, uh, Honda VTX and some of the other bikes, they use a lowering link that's a whole different, um, some of those in that world work out very well because what it does, it just, it just drops the shock.

Down versus lay it down farther in the Harley world, it angles it too far. And then the shock doesn't want to compress, the shock doesn't want to do its job and the shock will not be efficient at all. So there is a correct way to do it. You can do it safely, you just can't do it. You know too much and there is the right way to do it.

Annick: So are you saying that

Mike Alex: So are you saying that you could, through 

Annick: by the rear shock and the

Mike Alex: By the rear shock and the front forks that you could actually lower it down without Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So you can put, um, you know, and here's a prime example. So the new Harleys all come with 13 inch, the new Street glide, road glide, they come with 13 inch shocks on it.

And that was, um, in 22. So that started in 23. I don't know if it's all year or mid-year. I'd have to look. But in 22, that same bike came with a 12 inch rear shot. So if you put that 12 inch shock from Harley or from me on that bike, you just lowered it one inch. You took the 13 off, put the 12 on it, you lowered it one inch safe way, great way to do it.

If you go out there and you buy a 10 inch shock from someone and you lower that bike that far, you're gonna have all kinds of problems. You're gonna, you know the tire's gonna hit the fender, but you can put, you know, an 11 inch on that bike and you can lower the front accordingly and get the ergonomics correct and the bike will ride and handle.

Just great

Annick: So

that was a you, that was a very specific 

that has this particular

Mike Alex: has this particular problem. If somebody know

Annick: have a

Mike Alex: that they have a 13 inch versus inch,

Annick: get themselves

Mike Alex: they could get themselves into trouble by by putting the wrong on.

Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. And, and they can do that. Have you seen any other Yeah, well we've seen, you know, I, again, I'm gonna use, 83, 84 5 dyna low riders. Okay. Guys will put a lowering shock or a lowering bracket and they'll, they'll lower the Dyna too far. Then when it hits a bump, the brake caliper hits the fender

Annick: Ooh.

Mike Alex: okay.

And it, if you got a beautiful paint job that's, that's gone, you got a nice dent in the fender, it dimples it outwards. Okay? So we, we've seen all kinds of weird stuff, believe me. I've seen guys lower the front end with a zzz wheel, just cut the springs or heat 'em up with a torch. You know, if you're, if the bike is a, a show bike and you're not gonna ride it, okay, you know, you're going for a certain look.

But if you're gonna ride that bike and put miles on it, you know you want to do this correctly. But yeah, we've seen, to answer your question, I've seen bikes all, all bike, and I've seen it done with Hondas. I've seen it done with Kawasaki. I've seen. All kinds of weird stuff out there where they, they've lowered it and I'm like, uh, how did you even get it to this point?

How did you write it here? So we've seen some really bizarre stuff, believe me.

Annick: And where can people see

Mike Alex: And where can so you can go to our website, Suspension Technologies, USA, um, you can see us at, you know, we do Laconia every year. we start off our year. It, it's interesting the way we do it here in Florida.

so there's a small show in January. Um, it's Gibb Town Bike Fest, and it's a great show, but it's just a small weekend local show. Although what's kind of cool about that time of year in Florida is you got a lot of snowbirds here. Well, they're looking for something to do, so they come to the local bike shows or that show.

So there's a lot of people there from New York, Massachusetts, uh, Michigan, Ohio, because they're snowbirds. and then we do Daytona, which is the first real big show for us, Daytona Bike Week. and we do some smaller ones in between. Then we do Laconia. Um, now we're getting ready to go to Sturgis. Uh, today I've been running around like a crazy man, getting everything done for Sturgis.

We're getting the trailer loaded, inventory, getting everything caught up. Uh, so we also do, um, we're gonna do the bourbon bike rally in September. Uh, in years past, we've also done, um, Milwaukee. So the show circuit, you know, moves around a little bit for us, but we do most of the big ones. Um, and then after Sturgis, like I said, we'll do, um, Kentucky and then we'll do di uh, like tober fast.

Now, what's cool about Biketoberfest is they started the weekend before. They have Trike Tober Fest. So they do basically a trike weekend, and then they do biketoberfest. We go for the whole thing. and we have a blast. Uh, 'cause we're the only one in the industry that has designed and engineered a shock for the trikes.

a lot of guys take a shock that's kind of for another bike and they adapt it to the trike, if you will, but we engineered, trike specific. It's got the right springs, it's got the right valving, it's got the right bushings, all that stuff. Um, so Trike Fest is a lot of fun.

Annick: It seems like the

Mike Alex: It seems like the trike industry has been yes. The baby boomers, um, you know, you got a lot of guys. I, I, myself, I just bought a RG three. Um, I still have my other bikes, but I, I bought a trike, for a number of reasons. But, you know, as I don't wanna quit riding, I, I never wanna quit riding. So, you know, there's times where, I should be on a trike and so.

It, it works out great. There's other times I'm on my limited. Um, but as we get older, a lot of us are stubborn and we want us to be out there doing it so that the trike industry has helped. We've got a lot of military veterans, lot of great guys coming back from the military. They've got leg issues. Trike is ideal.

You know, I think when Harley, and I don't know this for a fact, but my brain wants to tell me. Harley was looking at our servicemen going, Hey, these guys are gonna want to keep riding and we're gonna make it so they can. And so they just ramped up the trike business, which I think was awesome. 

Annick: I ask everybody this, so how many motorcycles do

Mike Alex: I ask Um, currently I have Limited Road Glide and RG three Trike. Um, oh, and Dyna, I just acquired that last week. So, um, it's currently four. There's been times when I've had many more. Uh, and there's times when I've only had one. But right now that's what I have,

Annick: All

Mike Alex: so. 

Annick: Is there anything that

Mike Alex: Is there anything that you are about,

Annick: that you're, you're like, I

Mike Alex: like that you're, you're like, I have to make a Um, I'm, I'm excited. We're, we're coming out with some new stuff down the road for the inverted front ends. I'm really excited about that. I'm excited about some of the stuff that we're actually gonna do, um, for the Indians. Um, I, I'm, I'm, this business in general excites me. I love this business. I love the people.

So every day is, is a new adventure for me. Um, so it all, uh, always makes me smile every day, but I, I guess I'd have to say for that, the, the new inverted stuff probably is what I'm most excited about right now. I've heard some through the grapevine, some new stuff that Harley possibly has coming, and I'm looking into, I was sitting here earlier today scratching some stuff on a paper, so as I pay attention to what's coming down the line, I'm looking at, you know, some pretty cool stuff down the road that I think will be nice.

Maybe active suspension or stuff,

Annick: Ooh,

Mike Alex: so,

Annick: that's

Mike Alex: Ooh, 

Annick: I, I wanna note that

Mike Alex: I, I wanna note we met.

Annick: through a mutual

Mike Alex: We met through a mutual 

Annick: Your booth

Mike Alex: Your booth slash 

Annick: was really impressive and

Mike Alex: was really impressive and nice because you were so approachable and answering questions from people, and likewise the guys that were 

Annick: So I think that,

Mike Alex: So I think that, you know, one of the things that if people are interested in your product, they should 

Annick: your rv.

Mike Alex: Your I dunno. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what we call it now, the truck. Is it better? Yeah. Yes. Our, our mobile, our mobile, uh,

Annick: unit.

Mike Alex: design unit and workshop. Yes. Yeah. We, we, we pride ourselves.

I take great pride in the fact that yes, I am approachable all of my guys are approachable. They're great. We're, all of us are very passionate. About the industry and this part of the industry. You know, Steve Greenstein has been with me, uh, for many years. he has been in this industry forever. You know, he has run, run Harley shops, been the GM for Harley dealerships.

He has been around this forever. One of my guys that doesn't go on the road anymore, um, he's been with me since 2012, and he's only worked in the Harley industry. Um, and he's, you know, he's been working on Harley since he was 12 years old. my younger guys that are with me all come from the dealership world.

They love it. They're good. And that's why they, I couldn't do this without the crew that I have. I have an amazing crew. Um, they're super, super great and they, they make life wonderful, but we're all very approachable. And even, you know, and I say this all the time, I tell people, even if you have a question, let's say you have a set of, um, JR on your bike.

Very good product, very good product, and you have a question and you're happen to be at Sturgis of Laconia, come ask me. I have been in this industry forever. Um, there's not a set of shocks out there I don't think I've taken apart, rebuilt, and put out. We have a shock dynos. We, all of our stuff runs on. We have a, a crank dyno, we have an electromagnetic dyno.

All of our stuff gets Dino tested. Um, so I've played with everything out there. And again, when you work in the, the industry and you work in racing, you, it's not all one manufacturer. So you learn all these different things. so I tell people, if you have a question about your product, just ask me. I'll be happy to, I can't tell you how many times I will set up someone else's.

A guy will buy a set of shocks from a dealership and they're not set up right. And he comes, I, I hate these. Take 'em off and put your stuff on. Whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. You just spent a buttload of money for these. Let me adjust them, see if you like them then, and then we'll go from there. And 90% of the time they come back and go, this is awesome.

Great. Thank you. You know, and I'm like, have a great day. It's all good. 

Annick: We are, we're all part of the

Mike Alex: we're, we're all part of the same motorcycle Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So it's a lot of fun.

Annick: Well, Mike, thank you

Mike Alex: Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining me today. Is there anything else you want to share with Um, no. I, I, I, everybody I wanna share en enjoy your motorcycle, tune it to you.

um, it used to be back in the day, everybody, motor, big motor, big motor, they didn't pay any attention to brakes or suspension. Now a lot of people pay attention to suspension. It makes a huge difference in, in my opinion, and this is very biased, I wanna say that right now the suspension is the first thing you should do, then the motor, however I get it.

Um, but I just wanna say to have fun and enjoy the ride. Um, will you be at Sturgis this year?

Annick: Unfortunately

Mike Alex: not. Okay. I wish. 'cause I've never actually been, and I've gotten two invites to go. 

Annick: I'm, I think I have to

Mike Alex: um, I think I have to definitely go Do you, so, like I said, we met in, in, uh, Laconia. Will you be doing Vito Fest by any chance or any of the like, uh, bike week, next year, Daytona, anything like that?

I, 

Annick: be, I'm not

Mike Alex: I might be, I'm not sure yet. Okay. And I also might be Okay. Cool. Vintage days. I don't know if 

Annick: but, uh,

Mike Alex: Good. Awesome. Well, really what I wanna do is try a motorcycle before and 

Annick: I'm putting that out there.

Mike Alex: so I'm putting that out there. We're going to, we'll figure that point.

Yeah, you uh, and I, there's somebody, I just contact me, but long story short, you get a bike and we will do before and after. Absolutely. Hands down. So we'll make that happen. Okay, no problem.

Annick: Thank you so much,

Mike Alex: Thank you so much, Thank you. It's my pleasure.

Annick: Excellent. And to

Mike Alex: Excellent. And to everybody else, ride Bye now.

​* OUTRO *