[Closed] Where are the British aftermarket suspension guys?

[s]mojo[/s], jtech, TFT, [s]loco[/s]?

EFA

^^^^^ is that not enough choice

There's plenty of choice

Im more than happy to get a novyparts splug

Just wondered why there's no UK companies making something similar, there's 3 french ones I know of!

Mojo/chris is working on stuff apparently. Now they are seperate from the fox place

Looking to upgrade my Yaris

[img] [/img]

^^^^ 😆

Don't mock the Yaris

Remember channel4s Dogging Tales ?

[img] [/img]

This guy had one #livingthedream

Good question.

I know a small UK firm will shortly be launching a luftkappe alternative but you'd think it's something we'd have more of already.

J-tech makes some stuff I think.He used to make an entire damper assembly for boxxers.
I suspect Mojo Rising will have one or two things soon.

I suppose without Pace, we no longer have fork manufacturers either really.

Yeah but we have pretty much ALL the independent mudguard companies 😉

Do Sprung do custom work? Not sure if they modify and machine stuff themselves or just fit
Prepare stuff from other brands.

Tom KP

[url]= https://www.carid.com/kw-suspensions/v3-inox-line-coilover-lowering-kit.html?make=Toyota&model=Yaris [/url]

7 grand for shocks , might be stainless like but ........

Because it's very limited market. UK labour is expensive (less so now), UK sourcing of raw materials is expensive, (more so now) etc etc.

The question really is why [i]would[/i] there be a UK company doing it?

france, gremany, america seem to have no problems

I thought we were mtb crazy & great industrious innovators or something

They also have a motor vehicle industry.

As i say, why would you do it in the UK?

Mojo certainly used to do this - I still have one of their original own brand coil shocks in the garage. It's got more adjusters everywhere on it*.

Perhaps Chris is planning on going back to that side of things, we can always hope.

*I may be slightly over exaggerating there but it was very advanced for its age.

all the aluminium and titanium comes from the UK via various aerospace sources ,aluminium is via germany titanium via sweden

As i say, why would you do it in the UK?

IME some do it for the love and exposure and your awesome pat on the back some make a living at it but your not going to be minted and once your so ****ed off with it that you wondered why when earning 2 grand a week drawing pictures is much easier for someone else. some things we make an absolute loss on but are pretty cool

I thought we were [s]mtb [/s]crazy

correct

It's an already flooded market so what would we be bringing to the party? Suspension is not exactly a dark art, so the guys already in the market are pretty much already cutting edge with no real chink in the market. So unless you're going to offer similar products a lot cheaper (we can't do anything cheap in the uk) or something superior (not really possible the current chaps already do it as best as it can be done) then what are you offering? It would cost you a whole chunk of cash to buy your way into the market so extremely unlikely to survive.

And in this market anyone who comes to the party gets shouted down with BS about 'What's wrong with he current stuff' and "that's all we need, more new standards', or 'bloody marketing men trying to push something on us we don't need or want'. We don't come across as the most open minded and accepting bunch so why would anyone risk their mortgage and a roof over their families head trying to sell new products and tech to luddites?

Because the vast majority of riders are perfectly happy with the performance of standard forks? So any remaining market interest is a niche of a niche and not financially viable.

What do you expect this upgrade to do to your Yari? Would many other riders even notice the improvement if you did a blind comparison?

As i say, why would you do it in the UK?

IME some do it for the love and exposure and your awesome pat on the back. some things we make an absolute loss on but are pretty cool

True enough there are a few one man band types, and I'm sure you'd find them if you knew where to look/ask, commercially though that tends not to be viable, one off stuff is very difficult to do at an acceptable price point.

Also i should say, I can't see any reason you [i]wouldn't[/i] do it in the UK, I can however see plenty of possible difficulties and more to the point I can't see any specific benefit to being UK based, so no reason why there should be someone doing it here, given the UK market is maybe (complete guess) high 10s low 100s of units a year.

What do you expect this upgrade to do to your Yari?

I had a luftkappe in my pike (both 160mm) and it had just the right balance of plush, without diving too much, even with a luftkappe I can't get the Yari sitting up enough without it getting too harsh and I've not done any racing or super fast stuff on it yet either.

Yeah but we have pretty much ALL the independent mudguard companies

😆

Nitron needs to join the game

Because it's very limited market. UK labour is expensive (less so now), UK sourcing of raw materials is expensive, (more so now) etc etc.

The question really is why would there be a UK company doing it?

On the other hand, the kind of work we're talking about is not very labour intensive, uses small amounts of material and requires very specific technical knowledge - which independent UK suspension tuners do have.

And the market is [b]not[/b] saturated, as someone else claimed, if you want a Luftkappe you have to pay about £70 (possibly plus fitting) to TF at the mo. I'm not aware of any alternative currently available but I wouldn't be surprised if more than the one tuning company I know about is working on them.

isnt this what chris porter / mojo mk2 will likely be? i`m pretty sure he alluded to something along this line in his interview following the split from fox.

Best bet would be JTech TBH, although with small amount build runs & the time designing & testing to sell not many it's not that financially beneficial to do & no one is making a fortune to start with..

I love the idea of a uk based company making suspension upgrades liek the Luftkappe. Its a great little bit of kit and i desperately want another for my new forks but always wince at the £70 especially as they are bought over from Canada so the cost could be cheaper int he uk.

Ti Springs counts as a UK aftermarket suspension upgrade company, not that it helps you.

I think part of the reason is that very few people seem to 'tinker' any more in Britain...

I see this all the time in one of my other hobbies which is reef aquarium keeping. There the lighting is very expensive (easily £1K+ for LEDs on a reasonable size tank).

Often over in the States and in Europe people will tinker with their lighting to improve performance in some way; they do their own soldering, modify heatsinks, change lenses etc. People have posted tear-down guides and so on.

People then follow the guides and ask where they can get these improved bits, and sometimes it turns out they've actually made them in their shed from acrylic, or they know a bloke with a 3d printer or whatever. Over time it by word of mouth it gets popular and becomes a business selling these little bits.

Yet over here, if i speak to another hobbyist about doing anything like this they look at me like I'm Albert Einstein's smarter brother just because I've undone four torx screws and had a look inside. I don't get it.

retro83 - Member
I think part of the reason is that very few people seem to 'tinker' any more in Britain...

I dunno if that's true, I work for a company that builds fixed rigs for TV shows, pretty much everything that leaves the door is tinkered with to the Nth degree! The 3D printer doesn't stop some weeks!

What's that shock that's based on tank suspension? Pretty sure that's UK based, even if it's still work in progress.

scruff - Member
What's that shock that's based on tank suspension? Pretty sure that's UK based, even if it's still work in progress.

https://www.instagram.com/allenmillyard/

Jedi level fettler!