Welcome to the new CJ Suspension Blog.
This blog will be an easily accessible resource for our customers and followers to gain information about us, our products and services that we offer to the domestic and international mountain bike market. Articles we think you’ll like; Knowledge we want to provide.
We will be updating this platform regularly with our own personal product reviews, tutorials on how to use our products, bike checks, updates on how our in-house workshop is operating, and just anything that relates to us that we think you will like to read.
We definitely are NOT any kind of literature heroes but we do know what we are talking about when it comes to mountain bike performance, so if you can look past any spelling mistakes and incorrect grammar you will be sure to take away sum kewl in4mation (see…?).
Let’s start off with introducing ourselves so you can understand where this business has built from and who’s hands you are trusting your suspension with when you send it through our doors.
CAM JOHNSON : CJ : BUSINESS OWNER
It says it all in the name - Cam Johnson Suspension. This business has been Cam’s brain child since 2015. As an independent business owner, Cam set out to offer top shelf suspension servicing and performance upgrades all from the comfort of his home in Alexandra, NZ. Fast forward to present time and he’s achieved exactly that, plus more! Still an independent business owner, he now has a full time employee (as well as himself) in the workshop — now based in Queenstown.
Cams’ knowledge is worth a lot. He’s been building it, hands on, watching and learning at a totally practical level. He’s super inquisitive when it comes to suspension and what actually works. If you were to open up that brain of his you wouldn’t be able to fit all that knowledge back in, it’s packed so tight. And if his suspension knowledge, service and tuning doesn’t impress you enough then his skills on the trail will back it all up. The man knows how to rip. That’s why it all clicks like it does. Mountain bikes, Motos’, skis, you name it!
Cam started to work in the suspension industry while still attending High School, when he had a job for the New Zealand FOX Suspension distributor during school holidays. Eventually he took on full-time work with them once he finished school at the ripe age of 17… and the rest is history!
Rising up through the junior categories and into Elite level Downhill racing, Cam owned the hills of the deep south and held his own on the National Circuit. A few trips around the world with his bike and mates gained himself priceless experiences and the kind of appreciation for a sport that fuels the passion for a lifelong career in its industry. Let’s not forget his Crankworx Whip Off victory in Les 2 Alpes, France 2013. Mad Dog!
Six years in to owning and operating CJ Suspension he’s only just getting started. He now sources and distributes his own suspension service kits for a majority of makes and models of suspension, as well as backing the best performance upgrades money can buy.
The worldwide mountain bike industry is growing at a rapid pace and CJ Suspension is ready for it all!
KURT MCDONALD : WORKSHOP SUSPENSION TECHNICIAN
The newest member of the CJ Suspension team, Kurt has developed his skills in the NZ bike industry over the past 13 years. Starting off as one of those kids who would go into his local bike shop every day and hassle the mechanics about what they were doing, to landing his first job as an after school lad pumping up tires and dusting shelves at his local bike shop in Havelock North, NZ. His passion for bike mechanics was pretty obvious from early on. Once high school was over, he packed up and dragged himself to Queenstown to pursue a career in the bike industry and ultimately chase his dreams of becoming a World Cup DH team mechanic.
One of the first people he was lucky enough to meet in Queenstown was Ed Masters, who became his door to the world cup scene. Eddie hired Kurt as a team mechanic for the Bergamont Factory Team in 2015, before moving on to the Pivot Factory Racing Team in 2018… and the rest is history! Again!
With 5 international race seasons together, this rider / mechanic combo have been able to achieve an Enduro World Series (EWS) win, an ICU World Cup DH top 10, and many many podiums over all disciplines and race formats around the world; and have been lucky enough to work with the best brands in the industry.
Kurt’s experience working with Eddie and factory race teams has built skills he could have only dreamed of as a kid, not just at the work stand but also riding a bike. After a few Crankworx Whip Offs, and also swinging a leg at racing a DH World Cup while still mechanic’ing for Eddie on the same weekend, you probably get the idea that after all the years of him watching and riding with the top boys, he has also tuned his riding skills a little bit too!
COVID19 threw a spanner in the works for Kurt’s World Cup career and after some heavy decisions he decided to take a pass on any travels this year, with hopes he will return to the circuit next season. This left room for new opportunity, and taking a new job with CJ made a lot of sense!
His new position in the CJ Suspension workshop is the finishing piece to his already packed C.V., and the finishing point for him to be able to make every-single-piece of a bicycle feel the best it ever has. He can make your bike feel dialed. No, really!
Summer 21/22
CJ Suspension will get you ready for the up-coming summer of mountain biking. Now is your perfect time to get the rig dialed in. Skyline bike park in Queenstown opens next month for their 8 month gondola assisted mountain bike season, and they have spent lots of time and resources over the past few months rebuilding the whole hill. The start of this season is one not to be missed, and why not compliment those fresh trails with a buttery bike! And as for the rest of the country, we can sort you out too. Get your bouncers on a courier to us and we can get them fresh for the summer ahead. Are you interested in our performance upgrades? Then give CJ a call and he can talk you through the options that suit you, your bike and your suspension, the best.
Beautiful.
Call: 027 239 3072
Photo credit from top to bottom.
- James Allan Photography
- Callum Wood
- Bert Waldron
- Sven Martin
- Paris Gore
- Boris Beyer
- Cam MacKenzie
- Bernard Kerr
- Zach Faulkner
- Duncan Philpott
- Boris Beyer
