07/06/2017
Don Richardson grew up in the Southern California suburbs of Los Angeles before there were video games and computers. His form of entertainment was modifying motorcycles and muscle cars, which was common during the era.
Much to his surprise his first invention, an unorthodox motorcycle suspension, was rejected. He was mocked and ridiculed by the established motorcycle industry. Believing beyond any doubt the suspension would eventually revolutionize the way we ride motorcycles, he persisted. Within a few years, the new system was beating the factory teams' best motorcycles on the track. The Industry was not laughing anymore and the race was on to see who would equip the invention first on the manufacturers' motorcycles, or be stuck with obsolete vehicles.
Giving a teenager the credit for the innovation did not work out for the industry giants, so new inventors were presented to make the companies to appear more self-sufficient in their ability to innovate. When he would not comply when asked to accept pocket change compensation for patent rights, he was sued for a million dollars and scorched earth litigation ensued.
Following the litigation period, he was able to follow his passion, trying to revolutionize the shock absorber industry with a new 'Smart Shock'. The first accomplishment was equipping the Citroen Paris to Dakar Rally Race cars that were getting beaten badly by Mitsubishi. Citroen upgraded with the new shocks and then dominated the Dakar series. General Motors soon followed wanting to build the new design for their production vehicles.
Everything was going according to plan till the sharks showed up…
