Meet the Experts

Kevin Booth, President & Janitor
For over 20 years, Kevin has worked in the bicycle industry.  He started out leading mountain bike tours in Colorado, then moved to Arizona to race and to manage a bike shop.  In 1999, he went to work for Trek as the Eastern Demo Representative. For five years he traveled non-stop, working with hundreds of bike shops and riders through the region.  A key part of the job was leading clinics to bike shops on suspension repair and maintenance. Fox, Manitou, Rock Shox were all on the agenda.
 
After Trek, Kevin went on to start Litespeed's first nationwide demo program, the Dream Bike Tour in 2003. Kevin has talked to thousands of riders over the years and learned firsthand about what they expected from their suspension systems.  Now he puts that experience and insight to use every day at Suspension Experts.
 
As President & Janitor, Kevin oversees all aspects of business at S·Ex.  He likes to keep his hands dirty repairing forks and servicing shocks, but he also focuses on customer service, industry trends, new product development, and cleaning the toilet.  When he's not at the shop, he's out riding either his Maverick ML8 with a DUC 32 fork or Maverick Matic with a SC 32 fork - both, of course, have the custom Headlock™ sealheads and IFP he designed.
 
Mike Rischitelli, Technician in Charge
Mike's been slipping in oil since he was in diapers.  He grew up as the Assistant Mechanic in his dad's diesel truck shop.  He's worked on everything from RC cars before he could drive, to off-road jeeps.  He got his two wheeled start riding BMX bikes when he was 14 and got his first mountain bike, a Specialized Hard Rock, back in 1991. 
 
Mike and his wife moved from West Virginia to Asheville in 2001 so he could be closer to the trails of Pisgah National Forest.  He's a trained photographer and still works freelance when he's not riding bikes.  Mike rides a Turner 5 Spot and is a fan of coil springs, so he's got a Vanilla 140 fork and a Fox DHX coil rear shock.  In Western North Carolina, he likes technical trails like Squirrel Gap and Pilot Rock.    
 
Than White, Technician at Large
Than and Kevin go way back.  They met in 1999 when Kevin was on the road as the Trek Demo Rep and Than was the Service Manager at East Coasters in Blacksburg, Virginia.  But Than's love for bikes goes back even further.  Than got his start riding BMX bikes in second grade, then moved on to mountain bikes in high school.  When he couldn't keep his bike running the way he wanted, he went to work at his local bike shop, Piney Flats Bicycle in Tennessee. 
 
Than started at East Coasters in college and worked there for seven years.  When he and his wife moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, Than went on the road with Shimano with the Mulit-Service Program as a race mechanic.  He also worked as the Shimano Tech Rep for two years.
 
Than's mechanical expertise led him to Italy in 2005 for the Mountain Bike World Championships as a member of the US National Team, providing mechanical support for racers. He returned to World's several times and will be off to help the US National team again in September 2009 in Canberra, Australia.  Than also works at Liberty Bikes in Asheville as a Mechanic.  His bike of choice these days is a custom Titus Racer X Exo-Grid, with a Fox RP23 on the rear and a Fox F29 on the front. 

Shelley Booth, Business Manager
Also known as the Voice of Reason in the shop.  Shelley co-founded the business with her husband Kevin in 2005 and joined the team full time in 2008.  In addition to trying to keep the boys in line, her job is to manage the administration side of the business - from bookkeeping and billing, to marketing and advertising and more. 
 
During her career in the non-profit world she's worked in war zones and refugee camps and managed a childhood obesity prevention program.  So she jumped at the chance to focus on her own business for a change of pace.  While Kevin's passion is bikes, Shelley is passionate about creating and running a great business.  It's not all work though.  When she's not chasing her two kids or three chickens around the backyard, she likes to ride her Gary Fisher hard tail at Bent Creek. 

New at the shop are custom made bushing and seal presses.  We weren't happy with the tools available, so we designed our own. Since we are one of the few suspension shops in the country that actually offers service on the Fox 36 and 40, we've got some of our own ideas about how these tools should work.  They were made for us by a machine shop in the Charlotte area that also does some work for Hendrick Motorsports (NASCAR) and the U.S. Bobsled team.