OUR SUSPENSION journey

Chaseworks Suspension Specialists formally opened in 2018.  If you’ve met Steve you’ll know that he’s really passionate about the sport and mechanical engineering.  Steve has always been into motorbikes, in his younger days he dabbled in VMX, MX club rounds, Vet MX Champs and Supermotard.

His engineering career started of in the Royal Navy spending seven years in marine engineering, he then moved into dairy farm infrastructure and heavy equipment maintenance, in recent years he’s provided a range of contract engineering services to the local saw mill.  His strong engineering background and understanding of hydraulics, fluid dynamics and mechanics enables him to bring a broad range of principles and experience to suspension engineering.

“As a parent, mechanic, engineer and off-road motorcycle enthusiast I was always wanting the best performance from the motorcycle, the suspension first and then the motor.  Over the years we tried difference suspension tuners and never got the results that we were looking for.  At the races I’d see riders get hurt when tracks got rough because their bikes were not setup well.  When you’re involved in this sport the need to do the best for your rider and to get results can take you down an expensive road, it can be a deep hole!

What we’ve found through years of experience is that the suspension that comes with your bike is actually really good – it just needs some fine tuning and that’s not a big expense.  Sure. you can bling your bike out with top of the range aftermarket components if you want to and we can help you source those parts – but do you really need them?  And would you not be better spending those top dollars on getting to more races?

We were always trying to improve our suspension but knew it could be better.

In 2009 we attended a Ryan Hughes training school in Southern California. At the track I happened to meet (by chance or great luck) kiwi expat Graeme Brough.  Graeme was setting up a riders suspension and I was really impressed that he was doing it all out of the back of his van.  We got talking and I learned about his impressive career in the suspension industry, his experience and knowledge was vast.  Graeme is a suspension engineer and has worked at HRC USA from 2006 – 2009, with Kawasaki Motor Corp from 1999 to 2006 and with FMF Racing from 1995 to 1999, he’s helped riders like Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart win championships.  His industry CV is impeccable and I knew that I’d found the person that could teach and mentor me to get great results from our suspension.

Coming from a long engineering background, years spent trying to do my best with the boys suspension combined with a hunger to bring this advanced knowledge back to NZ motocross I decided to get really serious about making Chaseworks a reality.  Thankfully Graeme took me under his wing and we spent a week training with him in California.  His ongoing mentoring, training and testing with us here in NZ has given Chaseworks the skills and know-how to deliver suspension settings that are world class.

Graeme continues to mentor us providing world class advice and support if needed.  We’re extremely grateful to have bumped into him in CA – he’s really helped us get to the level we are at today and I can’t thank him enough“ – Steve

 

Chaseworks has grown significantly over the last few years.  Wyatt now works full-time in the business and his input from a pro-riders experience and perspective is invaluable.  We put our growth down to having happy customers, delivering quality workmanship, advice and support in a friendly, timely and professional way.

We welcome the opportunity to speak to you about your suspension needs, so email or call and if you see us at the track say hi!