Bryson Martin

The NSMB Podcast: Obsessed with Mountain Biking

Bryson Martin has been involved in the industry for longer than most of you would imagine. From racing in the 80s to starting his own suspension manufacturing company, DVO, he’s seen the evolution of our sport from its early beginnings. We're excited to present the first NSMB Podcast ever recorded, we just had a little delay in publishing it. AJ and Bryson dive in and talk about elevated chainstays, drilling out suspension parts in the garage, how the Bomber name came about and, of course, the birth of DVO. Bryson also shares some snippets for exciting products that will be coming in the future.

HIGHLIGHTS

Wearing Suits & the merge into bikes for a living
Bryson: Before I got my master's degree I got a normal job, where I had to wear a suit…
AJ: No way…
Bryson: it was awful!

Starting with Marzocchi
Bryson: I ran into a guy from Marzocchi who was straight from Italy—you could tell he was Italian, you know, wearing one of those suits and walking around a bike show. I was like; “Hey, I raced Marzocchi on my motorcycles for years.” and stuff. I said: “What are you doing here?” He said, “oh, we’re thinking about entering the mountain bike market.” I’m like: “I’m your guy! I can handle it.” Laughing.

So… yeah we stayed in contact and six months later I flew to Italy and I said; “Hey I’ve got an idea. I’m going to make a mountain bike fork. I can handle the US structure, I want to be part owner and I’ll build it.” I was talking to Adriano Marzocchi, one of the cousins, and I said: “How big is your motorcycle division?” And he said you know, ‘X’ amount of millions of lira. Then I go “alright, in ten years I’ll make it bigger than motorcycle.” He laughed and goes; “You’re so stupid, haha, you Americans. I like your…” something in Italian which equates to your arrogance, you know. Then he goes; “Let’s do business.” And that’s how it started…

On Starting DVO Suspension
Bryson: We always looked at, in the past, air spring technology. We felt like, we wanted to use different air spring technologies… There are certain performance advantages to doing an air spring differently. Through the economics of manufacturing back then (at Marzocchi) we weren’t able to even investigate it. But we know that it represented a problem. That’s why we have the OTT System (with DVO)… I remember it clear as day, like the first day we sat down, we’re like, alright, let’s design a new air spring. These are the problems that we’ve seen in the past, how are we going to address them, manufacturer it, make it as light as possible, easy to adjust, you know, etc.

Something New?
AJ: Inverted single crown forks…

Bryson: I'm, that's, those are awesome. I love ‘em. I’m working on one, I’ll be honest with you… I’m working on one and… It’s a little bit… Well honestly, I was the first to come out with an inverted fork. At Marzocchi, I did the RAC fork. That’s called Reversed Advanced Composite. So I developed that. It was an inverted, carbon upper structure. I did it with Easton in Mexico. We just, we didn’t… It was way before its time. We didn’t have the manufacturing capabilities that we have now.
I’m working on one. The thing is, it needs to be light. Inverted you can’t hit these weight targets that a lot of people… So for me, its kind of a side project, in a sense, but… Inverted is awesome. It’s the only way to go.