I feel very fortunate to have located such an interesting board with what seems like a lot of really great people. Hopefully in time I'll be able to give back as well.
Anyway, a bit on myself: I live in NE Ohio, am 33, married, have a 2 year old boy, and have been riding and wrenching for oh, about 14 years now. I currently work as a technical writer but prior to that was an applications engineer for a robotic work-cell company. (Odd transition, I know.... )
While I've tinkered with suspension in the past, it's always bugged me that I didn't really have the grasp of the dynamics behind the scenes so to speak. I knew that adjustment X should yield a given result, but why? This desire to learn more has historically been squashed by more practical concerns, but I'm slowly changing that.
I've dedicated more time and expense to the purchase of training and tools to help me fill in the blanks. I'm trying to pick up little rebuild jobs here and there to get some experience and any other way I can. It's a tough sort of thing to get my hands around, so I've just stopped talking about someday learning about suspension, I'm finally doing it.
Next week I'll be in Columbus, Ohio for Tony Foale's Handling and Dynamics Seminar, and then in Novemeber, I'll be out in Corona, CA to see what Race-Tech's seminars are all about. My basement is now filled with speciality tools and parts my riding buddies have never even heard of, and my wife is fairly sure I've gone off the deep end.
I'm just happy I'm finally pursuing something that really interests me. I feel like I'm rotting away in my cubicle every day, but man, I do enjoy tearing apart shocks and forks. The fact that there's just so much to figure out I guess is the main draw for me. Yet you have to start somewhere....
So that's that. I hope you all won't find my questions too stupid or my ramblings too tiresome.
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