When you hear the name Factory Connection, most people automatically think of moto - partly because of the highly publicized connection with the GEICO Powersports Honda SX/MX team but also because Factory Connection has been around the industry for a long time. Factory Connection has actually been coming to GNCC's for quite a few years now, but it wasn't until this season that the popular suspension company made the commitment to attend all thirteen rounds of the series. In doing so, FC has gained a trust from the GNCC Racing community to be the company who provides suspension support on race weekends and nearly has Pro Row under wraps on the bike side, as that's all they work on. Also as a GNCC Series Sponsor, Factory Connection gets the perks of a prime time parking location, centered around all the hustle and bustle of Vendor and Pro Row. This past weekend at the Amsoil Ironman, Factory Connection was busy as ever, not only fixing leaky seals for Sunday's racers, but also servicing bikes for people in the Indianapolis area. Meet Dave Miles, the man behind Factory Connection's east coast efforts, and the newest edition to the GNCC Racing family.
GNCC Racing: Hey Dave. Have you unwound from the crazy weekend of Ironman?
Dave Miles: Oh yeah, working on recovering from the weekend and then I went hiking in the mountains yesterday. (laughs) We had a good weekend at Ironman; it was definitely a lot of work though!
Photo By: Shan Moore
Factory Connection is on the podium every weekend in GNCC
Well, I am the lead fork technician at our east coast shop and my other job is to do the GNCC series. So when I'm not working on forks in the shop, I travel to all the GNCCs and work trackside at those. I go to some of the amateur motocross events, like Loretta Lynn's and Branson, and then I go to MTF and test with the kids there. So I spend a good amount of time on the road.
Where is the shop based out?
It's based out of southern New Hampshire, in a town called Barrington. We were originally from Rochester and then about four years ago we moved into a real nice building here in Barrington. We're kind of a warehouse for the other shops in Oklahoma and California, so our shop is huge.
How long have you been with Factory Connection?
Since 2007, so almost five years now.
And how long have you guys been coming to GNCC?
We've been coming to GNCC since like 1999-2000 but we were only doing select events at first. Once Unadilla was added, we came to all those events because they were so close and we had been coming to Loretta's for a while. This is our first year doing the whole series and so far it's been great. We're a series sponsor and we also do trackside support for the bike riders.
Tell us about FC's trackside support program.
We offer FREE services at every race and that includes sag setting and technical advice - so you can come up to us with RG3 or Pro Circuit suspension and we will help you out no questions asked. If you have leaky seals or need routine maintenance, that's what we're there to do at the track. We also bring everything we need to do full re-valves - so you can take a bone stock bike and re-spring it and change the valves and it will work for what you're doing with it. We can usually do that in a couple hours, depending on what we have going on at the track with other customers. Basically, we offer everything we do at the shop at the track.
Are you guys at every round?
Yeah we are at every round this year. It's good being there because we can basically put out fires before they start. If someone shows up at the track and they're not happy with their bike and we're not there, they'll go to someone else - but if we're there, we can help them make it right before the race.
Do you offer support for riders who aren't racing the event?
Yeah, definitely. We try to prioritize though, that way we can take care of riders who are racing Sunday first. Some people live in the area and just come to the race and end up going home to bring us their suspension. The people who are racing on Sunday, we'll try to do them all on Saturday night and then anybody who's not racing or dropped off a practice bike, we do that on Sunday during the races so we get everyone who's racing done in time.
So any time you're trackside support, anyone can bring their stuff?
Photo By: Shan Moore
Dave says KR likes his suspension on the softer side
Who are your main sponsored riders this year?
We do all the suspension for AmPro Yamaha, FMF/KTM, WMR KTM and the JG Off-road GEICO team, so we have quite a bit to do when we get to the GNCCs. We tested with KTM in March in Ohio and they came down to Florida before the first round to do some resting. It's an on-going thing, the tracks change so much obviously, like we start with ten plus miles of sand whoops and palmettos and then we have Snowshoe, which is over ten miles of gnarly rock and stuff so we definitely change settings with a lot of the guys. We're always testing, all year around but especially this time of the year since all the new models are coming out.
Factory Connection has always been a motocross/supercross suspension company is there a certain kind of setting you guys like to run in GNCC?
Yes and No. There is so much variety in the GNCC settings - you have people like Mike Lafferty who likes his suspension basically almost as stiff as people ride SX, and some riders like Kailub Russell that like their stuff really, really soft. But your average guy, we typically put in a medium setting because it's not super stiff or super soft. A lot of people think that they ride GNCC so they ride woods, but there's a huge difference between GNCC and a local hare scramble. We have a setting we call "New England woods setting" because NE woods are really, really rocky, so we go a lot softer for that than we would for a guy racing GNCC because the speeds are a lot higher and the obstacles are little bit bigger. Sometimes you even have jumps so basically, your average GNCC setting is the same type of setting as a motocross rider, maybe even lighter. We have a guarantee that if you don't like your setting that we do, we'll guarantee that we'll re-do it until you like it. You can't guess right every single time; we will do it until we have it right. We've gone so far as doing it two to three times for someone and they still don't like it so we'll actually go to them and make it right.
That being said, what do you think the future of Factory Connection suspension is in off-road racing?
Photo By: Shan Moore
Mike Lafferty likes his stuff on the stiff side, according to DM
Can we find you at the Loretta Lynn's double-header in a couple weeks?
Yep! We fly out Wednesday and we'll pick up the truck and be there by Thursday morning. As soon we're set up on Thursday, people are welcome to head over with their suspension. Actually, the earlier the better so we can get a better idea of working time. We're looking forward to the double header! We're bringing an extra person with us to Loretta's just in case there's a lot of carnage during the races on Friday. See you guys at the races!
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