HI I'M BRIAN

​​I landed my first bike shop job when I was 17 here in Santa Barbara. After working my way up to service manager over a few years, I knew I wanted more. I've always had a drive in me that seemingly can't be slowed down. On a whim I moved to Santa Fe, NM and got a job at a major bicycle parts distributor, BTI. At the time I was doing sales and purchasing and thought it was my dream job, finally working for the company I used to spend hours skimming through their catalogue. After months being there, the manager of the suspension service department realized I knew my stuff and started training me to become a tech.

 

I was happy at BTI, but in 2011 a tragedy ripped me from reality and landed me back in Santa Barbara, my hometown. The bike shop I used to work for hired me as the store manager of their smaller location. After managing the shop for a few years I once again became restless.

 

The winds of change and opportunity blew me into Fort Collins, CO, where I got a job working as a tech at a large, high end shop. I worked there for a little under a year when I saw a job posting for a company I had idolized for many years, PUSH Industries. If you're on this site, chances are you've heard of PUSH. They are not only one of the leading suspension tuning centers in the world, they even manufacture their own rear shock. Needless to say, I got the job at PUSH and working there took the foundation of suspension knowledge I already had and built upon it tremendously. 

 

Fast forward about a year later, I'm chugging along happily at PUSH, riding bikes in Colorado and working with suspension every day. Life was good. One day, out of the blue, I get a call from the owners of BTI, turns out the manager of their suspension service department (the guy I had started training under years ago) had left for another job. They wanted to know if I'd be interested in the position, managing the Factory Service Department. It was all I could do to hold back my excitement and out of professionalism squeak out  a "let me get back to you".

 

A few weeks later I'm in a moving truck, headed back towards Santa Fe. I spent the next few years managing the Factory Service Center and learned an incredible amount. At the time we were one of only a handful of SRAM warranty and service centers for bike shops in the entire US. We also serviced Cane Creek, Magura, DT Swiss, Manitou, X Fusion, and were in the process of bringing in Fox. The department grew under my lead and we were doing well. That insatiable need for more still burned inside me though, a drive and determination almost incomprehensible. 

 

I left BTI and landed back at the original bike shop I worked at in Santa Barbara, full circle. After working my way back up the ranks over a few years, I eventually became the service manager of two locations and part of a phenomenal GM team. It took a global pandemic and weeks of isolation to make me realize I wanted to go into business myself. I had a strong desire to build something of my own. While I love wrenching on bikes of all sorts, suspension has always been my passion. It takes a different level of precision, problem solving, and ingenuity. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

 

Lonewolf Suspension was born.

 

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