M-Sport builds exports on low Au$

Motor cycle suspension developer M-Sport Design is building export sales on the back of the value of the Australian dollar, now well below its long-term average of US72 cents.

The Melbourne company has just prepared its latest shipment of locally designed and manufactured Slamtail Suspension kits for retrofitting to M8 Mono-Shock Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Director Ken Rutherford told @AuMnaufacturing that half of his latest order of assemblies destined for distributors in Japan and Europe (pictured) were now ready for air shipment from his Tullamarine factory.

“The Australian market is absolutely flat.

“But you don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to realise that with the dollar going down the future is overseas and export.”

Rutherford, who cut his teeth designing F1 cars in the UK, developed the hydraulic lifting mechanism for Harleys, an advance on air-operated competitors, which raise and lower the iconic motor cycles.

The kits incorporate Brisbane-made tapered coil springs and offer a level of sophistication unheard of with competitors.

“It is a very sophisticated product going to what is an unsophisticated market.”

Rutherfoprd’s next aims are to tackle the conservative US market, and consider branching the technology out to the supercar market – the design of which cries out for air lifting mechanism because of low-slung bodywork.

Pictures: M-Sport Design