Welcome back! It's been a while since an Out of the Hangar has been published. I don't want to put out rushed or forced write ups, and I was struggling with some severe writers block over the past months. Nothing I came up with really had a genuine feeling behind it. So I held off until I had a good story to write with awesome photos to help show it. I knew I wanted to do a "behind the scenes" look, but at what? After some more thinking and brainstorming I had an idea: find a local shop, ask if I can come in to take photos while they work, and write an article about the whole thing.
A quick google search led me to a shop right around the corner from where I live in Vista, CA. I reached out to Mike with my idea, and he welcomed me in!
Enter Crow Performance Suspension.
What we came up with was a two day shoot. Day one I covered the teardown of the KTM pictured below. Dan was quick with it!
The photo above was the first one of the day. I was instantly drawn to the lightbulb and the yellow glow it cast on the drill press. Framing the bike with the drill press brought together the orange plastics with the warmth of the light, offsetting the silhouette of the drill press and gray of the concrete.
From here we dove right in.
Piece by piece came off until the bike was stripped bare. Dan then wheeled it outside for a wash down, getting into all the nooks and crannies. A little soap here, a little scrub there, and it already looked brand new.
After the wash, we rolled back into the garage to continue on. Small bits and pieces were replaced with a practiced hand. Levers and pedals were a couple of the items swapped out at this stage. The basics covered, it was time to turn attention to Crow Performance Suspension's bread and butter:
the suspension.
A little lefty loosy here, a pull over there, and everything was off the bike. Front forks were freed from the frame one after another. On to the rear spring and shock assembly. Before too much time had passed, all three were safe and sound on the rack, ready to be rebuilt. Once we got the this point, shoot day one had come to a close. Before I left, Mike, Dan, and I discussed the next day I would come by the shop. Having captured the disassembly of the bike itself, the next goal was to photograph the suspension being taken apart. I don't know about you guys, but I've never seen forks or rears taken apart. To say I was looking forward to it would have been an understatement.
Day two arrives. With the camera bag packed I head over to the Crow Performance Suspension garage. Dan had already started in on the days work, but had left a set of forks and a rear spring set to the side for me to photograph. After getting a quick run down of how the flow would go, we got after it.
The shoot went quick. Dan had lost none of the efficiency I had seen on the previous shoot day. It was incredibly fun, and in some ways more dynamic than before. I wanted to get tight in on details, show the action as tools spun, and bring the human factor to what happened in the shop.
My favorite part about mechanical things is how straight forward they can be. My least favorite is when they get stubborn. For the most part everything was smooth sailing. There was a time though, where an initial attempt at a removal caused Dan to give a look, the one that says "Ok, listen here you little s*** I wasn't asking." A quick assessment and change of technique and it was off to the races.
Polishing, dumping old fluid, setting the dampening, and looking for any knicks or grooves in the chrome came next. Careful attention to detail was applied to each piece as it was looked over.
We wrapped up the second shoot day with what I would call a success. I had a story to write about, some photos to show it, and Crow Performance Suspension got the photos to use as they needed. Both Mike and Dan are great dudes, and it was a total blast being a fly on the wall in the garage. To close out this issue of Out of the Hangar, I asked Mike a couple questions so you could get to know him a bit better in his own words:
Tristan: Going all the way back, what first got you into dirt bikes?
Mike: I would say BMX got me into dirt bikes. I always wanted an engine but couldn't afford it
Tristan: Why did you decide to dive into suspension rebuilds? And how did you go down the route of becoming a Race Tech authorized shop?
Mike: When I started, the plan was to build engines. When the economy took a crap in 2007 my buddy sold his shock company to Race Tech and hired me as a machinist. Then I started building shocks, eventually brought in some friends I knew from previous jobs. We changed the way Race Tech operated. My dad passed away in 2010 and I had to be closer to my mom. I talked to the owner of RT, Paul Thede about quitting and moving home, he told me to start my own Race Tech Center in San Diego and let me keep my job doing Technical Support which I still do every day along with running my shop.Â
Tristan: When did you and Dan meet, and how did you decide to work together?
Mike: I met Dan doing tech support for RT, he was installing an RT kit that was missing a shim. When I asked his address, he was right down the street, so I told him to come over to grab one.  That was over 3 years ago, he's learned a ton since then.
Tristan: Is there a moment or time that stands out to you as the highlight of running Crow Performance Suspension?
Mike: It's hard to pick one. I think the highlight is our awesome customer base, we get to help some of the most interesting racers and riders. We have grown our company through word of mouth, people telling their friends how awesome their bike works, you never know who will come through next.