The Suspension Lab is a custom-built suspension workshop on White Street in Rotorua, dedicated to one thing: making bikes better. A Vorsprung Elite Partner Tuning Centre, the agent for PUSH Industries and its exclusive New Zealand dealer and service centre, and a dealer for EXT Suspension, the Lab pairs precision engineering with 15 years' hands-on suspension experience.
Owner and mechanic Jono Church spent 18 years as a full-time bike mechanic and the past 12 specialising purely in suspension — including time as Marzocchi's Service Manager for New Zealand and a 2012 stint with the MS Mondraker Race Team, setting up and testing the race bikes of Brook MacDonald and Markus Pekoll.
Everything on the bench is backed by data. A shock dynamometer and data acquisition equipment test and evaluate how components actually behave, dampers are vacuum bled wherever possible for consistent performance, and factory seal kits are used in 99% of cases. The workshop is certified to service Fox, RockShox, EXT, Cane Creek, Marzocchi, MRP and DVO, offering basic and full fork and shock services alongside custom set-up, damper tunes and upgrades matched to each rider.
Workshop services are by booking only — deliver your parts to the White Street workshop or mail them in from anywhere in New Zealand. Open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Tucked down an alley off White Street in Rotorua, The Suspension Lab is exactly what its name promises: a purpose-built workshop where mountain bike suspension is stripped, measured, tuned and rebuilt with scientific rigour. The motto is **making bikes better**, and the philosophy is even simpler — do it once and do it right.
The Lab is a **Vorsprung Elite Partner Tuning Centre**, the agent for **PUSH Industries** and its exclusive New Zealand dealer and service centre, and a dealer for **EXT Suspension**. Jono is trained and certified to service **Fox, RockShox, EXT, Cane Creek, Marzocchi, MRP and DVO**, with access to the correct tooling and genuine parts for every brand that lands on the bench.
Owner and mechanic Jono Church grew up riding Christchurch's Bottle Lake trails and over 24 years has ridden everything from downhill and cross-country to trials, BMX and cyclocross, with a soft spot for dirt jumps at Bowenvale and steep, technical tracks like Kataore. He has been a full-time bike mechanic for 18 years, but it was a move to Rotorua, working for Wide Open Distributors, that cemented his passion for suspension. He quickly became the Marzocchi Service Manager for New Zealand, and in 2012 the MS Mondraker Race Team flew him to Queenstown to set up and test Brook MacDonald and Markus Pekoll's race bikes.
The past 12 years have been devoted specifically to suspension servicing and optimisation — work that neatly combines Jono's favourite maths and physics subjects: vibration analysis, fluid dynamics, friction, calculus and material properties.
What sets the Lab apart is measurement. A shock dynamometer and data acquisition equipment accurately test how suspension components actually behave, because — as the workshop puts it — **if you're not measuring, you're guessing**. Your settings are recorded before work begins, parts are cleaned in a parts washer or ultrasonic cleaner, dampers are vacuum bled wherever possible for the most consistent damping, and factory seal kits are used in 99% of cases. Gains are quantified with data rather than promised with adjectives.
Jono's appetite for data doesn't stop at the dyno. He has partnered with Dr Mat Miller of MtbPhd/BrakeAce to study how braking interacts with suspension, discussed MTB suspension tuning on the Performance Advantage podcast, and is developing data logging systems with arrays of accelerometers to quantify comfort and stability — while writing his own analysis techniques in Python.
Services span basic fork services — a complete clean and degrease of the lower legs, damper and sliding surface checks, bushings tested, burnished or resized, and fresh lube on seals and bushes — through to full fork rebuilds with new dust wipers, fresh damper oil and vacuum bleeding, with your adjusters returned to their original settings. Shocks can have an air can service or a full rebuild. Beyond servicing, the Lab provides custom set-up, damper tunes and upgrades matched to each rider's needs, applying the same in-depth knowledge trusted by elite downhill, enduro and cross-country racers so riders of any level get down the hill with confidence and less fatigue.
Boutique upgrades are a speciality too: as PUSH Industries' exclusive NZ dealer and service centre, the Lab supplies and services PUSH shocks including the Elevensix-S and SV8, alongside Vorsprung tuning.
Workshop services are by booking only — reserve a slot through the website, then deliver your parts to the White Street workshop or mail them in from anywhere in New Zealand. Email is the preferred contact (it's hard to reach the phone with oily hands), and technical enquiries should include rider weight, riding style, and your bike or suspension model and year.
You'll find the shop about three buildings south of Ciabatta bakery, down the alley between Conning Signs and 50fifty, with a park for unit 4 opposite the front door. Hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, closed weekends and public holidays. The website also lists Skyline set-up days and a beta coil spring calculator for dialling in spring rates.