MXA INTERVIEW: JEREMY WILKEY ON THE BEGINNINGS OF MX-TECH SUSPENSION

Yesterday at 03:00 PM

BY JIM KIMBALL

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITHIN THE INDUSTRY? I grew up in a small town called Flickerville, which is only a few miles from where we are based now in Bradley, Illinois. We weren’t far from the larger towns, but Flickerville itself was really quiet with just one school. My dad served in the Air Force, and after finishing his time in the military, he returned to college and earned an engineering degree. My family has always been involved in agriculture in some way, so he naturally stepped into that field after he graduated. But, we did a lot of different things and had access to a lot of resources. For example, we had a machine shop, and growing up, I spent a lot of time there while my dad worked on various projects. I learned a lot of the basics and even got hands-on experience with machine work.

WHAT SPARKED YOUR DESIRE TO START RACING? One year, when I was around 7 or 8, we got snowed in, and I spent the entire day glued to the TV watching the Wild World of Sports. I was completely captivated by motorsports. Growing up, my family was athletic, and we played all kinds of sports, but motorsports and motorcycle racing weren’t something they knew much about. That didn’t stop me, though. I took any farm job I could find, just to save up some money for a dirt bike. Luckily, a neighbor down the street had an old 1977 Honda XR75 sitting in his barn, and being a farm kid, I somehow knew it was there. I convinced him to sell it to me, and from that point on, my passion for racing took off.

“I TOOK ANY FARM JOB I COULD FIND, JUST TO SAVE UP SOME MONEY FOR A DIRT BIKE. LUCKILY, A NEIGHBOR DOWN THE STREET HAD AN OLD 1977 HONDA XR75 SITTING IN HIS BARN. I CONVINCED HIM TO SELL IT TO ME, AND FROM THAT POINT ON, MY PASSION FOR RACING TOOK OFF.”

HOW WAS RACING FOR YOU? I started racing and really enjoyed it, but I always had this internal struggle. I’m a pretty analytical person, and I realized that can work against you in racing. I would overthink things instead of just going for it, which you need to do to reach that next level. When it came down to “pinning it,” I just couldn’t shut off that part of my brain, and that’s something you have to be able to do to become a top-tier racer.

During my time racing, I learned a lot about bike setup and how it could drastically improve comfort and performance while riding. I spent a lot of time fine-tuning my bike, and that’s what eventually led me into the suspension world. As I started to realize that my racing career wasn’t going to go very far, I found that I could use what I’d learned to help others improve their setup and potentially help them reach that higher level.

WHO HELPED YOU GROW AS A RIDER AND TUNER? I developed a friendship with the Pentons through family friends and the Leimbach family. Pat Leimbach was actually Jack Penton’s sister, and the Penton brothers were really successful in racing. To put it simply, my mom knew Pat through their work in literature, as my mom was a successful author. When they met, it just so happened that both families had kids who raced, which created a pretty cool opportunity for us to connect.

I had access to a lot of smart, educated people in the industry, which was a huge advantage. They had a connection to Kawasaki, and that was key for me in learning about machine development. For a while, Pat’s son, Dane, was managing High Point, which gave me the chance to grow at a well-established track and soak up as much knowledge as possible. Through Dane, I was able to make some important connections that helped me take my career to the next level. So much of our industry comes from developing those connections and having those paths. All of that led to a greater understanding on my part.

The MX-Tech Suspension crew is small but mighty, manufacturing A-kit suspension right here in the USA.

HOW DID YOU MOVE FROM THERE TO AN ACTUAL BUSINESS? Luckily, I always got good grades in school, so my parents were willing to support me in my racing, but they made it clear I had to go to college, too. When I started college, I still had a passion for building and working on motorcycles, and it was my brother who pointed out that I could turn that into a real business. With his encouragement, I started MX-Tech Suspension when I was a freshman, around 19 years old. I often say that starting from humble beginnings is what really allowed the business to take off. If I had the pressure of starting later in life, I might not have made it. 

While still living with my parents, they gave me the support and freedom to carve my own path. My dad, being an engineer, was especially encouraging. He always had ideas, and after seeing some of the designs I had sketched out, he told me, “Hey, you could make parts for the suspension business.” At that time, which was 1992, not many companies were doing it, so there was definitely an open market to get something going.

SO WHEN DID YOU START DEVELOPING YOUR OWN PRODUCTS? Just a couple of years later, around 1994, I transitioned from just suspension tuning to actually building my own shims and products for suspension. Thanks to those early connections, I was able to request quotes and learn about pricing, which were all crucial steps in growing the business. From the beginning, I had an eye for improving products, and I was making suspension parts tailored specifically to what I needed. A big opportunity came when I got the chance to go to Europe and work with Mark Hammond, who was a Noleen importer over there. I worked at the British and Irish Grand Prix, and got to see firsthand what a high-level suspension shop was really like. That experience opened my eyes to what it takes to run a successful shop.

YOU DID A BIT OF DISTRIBUTION FOR WP SUSPENSION AS WELL. HOW DID THAT RELATIONSHIP BEGIN? As time went on, internet chat rooms became a thing, and I started gaining a bit of recognition through them. I didn’t really stand out until I did a Yamaha test with Motocross Action, which was what really put me on the map. I had some basic franchise deals with a few suspension guys, but when I connected with Motocross Action for the shootout, Jody was very straightforward with me. He told me I was welcome to join the test, but the review would be honest, and if my product didn’t perform, they’d say so. Fortunately, we delivered a solid, usable product, and that gave a huge boost to the business.

Around that time, I also saw potential in WP, an Austrian brand that I believed was going to grow significantly. The manager of WP, who had ties to the White Brothers when they were WP importers, saw potential in us and gave me the opportunity to become a WP distributor. That opened up a lot of new doors and pushed the business forward even more.

MX-Tech’s KTM 450SXF Factory Edition was outfitted with their Blackjack forks and National shock for Josh Mosiman to race at the Red Bud 450 National.

YOU ALSO DID SOME WORK FOR ROAD RACING TEAMS. WHAT DROVE THAT? When KTM ended its U.S. distribution and brought everything in-house in 2007, we saw a quick decline in that part of the business. But then I got a call from Mitch Hansen, who was running the RCA program for road racing, and they wanted me on board. It was an exciting opportunity. We went to Daytona, and Mitch had a lot of ideas for what he wanted the bike to do. By that time, MX-Tech had grown quite a bit, so I was eager to help. I had some experience with road racing, but this was a whole new level.

At Daytona, Mitch and I laid out a plan, but when a group of Europeans came over, they had completely different expectations for the bike. It didn’t align with anything we had been working on. I had to make a critical decision—stick with our plan or go with what the Europeans were asking for. Mitch told me the Austrians were the ones paying the bills, and since I’d done a lot of work for them in the past, I made the decision to pivot. That was the moment I shifted focus, deciding to work solely as MX-Tech and fully commit to building the business in our own way.

“I HAD TIME TO REALIZE THAT WE NEEDED TO IMPROVE BOTTOMING CONTROL. WE NEEDED A BETTER BALANCE BETWEEN LOW- AND HIGH-SPEED BOTTOMING.THAT’S WHEN I CAME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR THE HUCK VALVE AND MADE IT HAPPEN.”

WHEN DID MX-TECH HIRE ITS FIRST EMPLOYEE? To go back a bit, and I always joke about this, but as a full-time college student working towards my doctorate, which took me seven years to complete, I needed all the help I could get. Around 1994, I hired my first employee. It was a big step for me, balancing school and the business, but having that extra help made a huge difference.

Right now, we have 14 employees, although that number has  fluctuated over the years. At one point, we even had a West Coast office with a team out there. I’ve learned that the franchise model just doesn’t work well in the motorcycle business. Initially, the West Coast office did great, but the challenge was that I couldn’t be in two places at once. When the economy started to struggle, it really impacted our Phoenix office. Phoenix was a great location. There were plenty of tracks for testing, and it wasn’t too far from California, so we could easily work with Motocross Action. But, that office was more retail-focused, whereas here where more about development and distribution. As the economy worsened, we had to let go of the West Coast space.

MX-Tech is located in Bradley, Illinois, just two hours from Red Bud.

WHEN YOU SAY “RETAIL,” WAS THAT PEOPLE BRINGING SUSPENSION TO YOU? Yes, that side of the business was more focused on maintenance and services—things like re-valves and fork seals, basically the tuning side of things rather than the distribution we handle here. So, when the economy cooled down, it hit that part of the business pretty hard. My brother was actually a partner in that operation, and he put in a great effort, especially because of our relationship. But, in the end, we had to wind that operation down. It just wasn’t sustainable in that economic climate, which concluded around the year 2013 or 2014 when that was all said and done.

As for MX-Tech’s headquarters, we were all in here in Illinois. We occupied a building that my parents had sold me, but as we went through zoning changes, we realized that we would be forced to move. So, we decided to look into another building, which is where we are today. We had to do some major remodeling, but ultimately it was the best decision for us in the long run.

Xavier (left) and Anthony (right) are two of three brothers who work at MX-Tech. They’re the engineering wizards in charge of making all the cool parts.

WHEN DID YOU EXPAND THE MANUFACTURING AND COME UP WITH YOUR OWN DROP-IN KIT? We tackled some complicated assemblies from the start, but the idea to develop our own drop-in kit came after I broke my arm at the bottom of Mount Saint Helen at Glen Helen from bottoming out the forks on my Honda. I didn’t even crash; my wrist just broke from bottoming the forks. It was late in the season, so while I was home healing, I had time to realize that we needed to improve bottoming control. We needed a better balance between low- and high-speed bottoming. That’s when I came up with the idea for the Huck valve and made it happen. That led us to always make these products, but then when an OEM would change one dimension on a part, and then suddenly we have to re-engineer all of our stuff—about 20 part numbers became obsolete. So, we started building everything in-house, including the Huck valve, which became maybe our most successful product.

The Huck valve is actually independent of all your other valving; that way, we can literally optimize all of your other fork valving without worrying about how it will affect bottoming control. This is how we build something that’s more versatile. Then you dive in deeper and see how different volume affects different areas of the fork to create a unique feeling. This is why we have multiple cartridges. We’re not trying to confuse the market or even have different price tiers; we’re really trying to fit application with our product. Being the “little guy,” we can do that because we don’t have to meet the economies of scale that other suspension manufacturers have to. Those type of products are what really fit into my long-term plan of manufacturing my own suspension.

“WE’RE A SMALL COMPANY FULL OF MOTIVATED RIDERS WHO LOVE TO MAKE THE BEST SUSPENSION POSSIBLE. WE’VE OUTGROWN OUR CURRENT BUILDING AND ARE CURRENTLY ACQUIRING THE NEIGHBORING BUILDING. NEXT TIME YOU COME TO VISIT OUR SHOP, WE’LL BE TWICE AS BIG!”

WHEN DID YOU SHIFT FROM SERVICING SUSPENSION TO MANUFACTURING YOUR OWN SUSPENSION? The production of our National shock started in 2018, and at that time, we still were trying to do it all (build our own suspension and service/build OEM suspension for customers). We had to take a step back and realize that a lot of our employees have families and were working 60 to 70 hours a week. Everyone was at their absolute limit. From a customer standpoint, we wanted to focus on what we wanted to do as a company. Honestly, there are more than enough people who can re-valve OEM suspension. We decided to double down on building our own suspension, which led to the Blackjack complete forks, the National shock and our drop-in cartridge kits.

We no longer accept OEM suspension for tuning or servicing. We don’t want to work within the OEM parameters anymore; we want to build the best suspension components possible and tune them for our customers. When it comes to materials, programming and setup, we spend months fine-tuning even the most minor details to make what we believe is the best suspension. From a big-business perspective, it doesn’t pencil out, but because we are a smaller company, we can focus on those things that set us apart from the crowd. 

This Haas five-axis CNC machine is one of MX-Tech’s workhorses, machining their fine-tuned suspension components.

WHY WAS THE NATIONAL SHOCK CREATED? As someone who focused on tuning shocks, I wanted to find features that would make the job easier. We developed a product called the internal-shock Huck valve, which works similarly to the bottoming control in the fork, but adapted for the shock. However, installing a Huck valve in an OEM Japanese shock is a nightmare. On top of that, we were constantly adjusting the shock, but I was limited by the fact that I couldn’t control most of the product’s components. So, we realized that if we were really serious about adding the hardware we needed, it made more sense to develop our own shock. That’s what motivated us to go down that path.

WHAT DOES THE MID-VALVE ADJUSTER IN THE NATIONAL SHOCK DO? The simplest way to explain it is that it’s a proportionate valve adjuster. Normally, with a shock, the low-speed compression is just a bypass through the whole system. As the shock rod moves through the body, it creates pressure from that volume. The low-speed compression is essentially how much of that pressure you let bypass.

For high speed, it’s a preloaded shim stack that uses a spring pushing on a plate, which in turn pushes on the shim stack. The mid-speed has a sub-compression valve, and you can regulate the volume or pressure that goes to that shim stack. By increasing or decreasing that pressure, we can shift more force to either the low-speed or high-speed compression. This lets you extend the range of those adjusters or soften the curve at which the high-speed adjuster starts to take effect.

These are MX-Tech’s National shock body caps that they machine in-house in Illinois.

LOOKING FORWARD, WHAT KEEPS MX-TECH GOING? Always the goal here is to make products smarter with higher performance attributes; lighter, stronger, more material-efficient—everything we can do to make a better product. Three years ago we hired multiple engineers to work full-time and develop our own high-performance parts in-house. We’re a small company full of motivated riders who love to make the best suspension possible. We’ve outgrown our current building and are currently acquiring the neighboring building. Next time you come to visit our shop, we’ll be twice as big!

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