An Inventor's Life: The Story of a Teenage Inventor Who Changed Motorcycle by Don Richardson

AN INVENTOR'S LIFE...The true story of an 1970s American teenager who invented the game-changing rear suspension system that shook up the motorcycle industry and all the years of litigation that followed in his success. Don Richardson is a self-educated mechanical prodigy who grew up tinkering in the 60s muscle car era. His main focus in high school was making sure he had the fastest car around; to fuel those ambitious, he worked as a Ferrari mechanic and then as a chief race car mechanic by his late teen years. While not the best at motocross, he sought out the best ways to improve his odds. It lead to him creating the first linkage suspension for the rear wheel of a motorcycle at the age of nineteen. Called the "Full Floater" by the company who used it, Don's invention eventually rose to becoming a near necessity in motocross and off road racing. It spurred many other patents. Without credit to him, Don had no choice but to fight tooth and nail to retain what he could on it.