The roots of TracTive Suspension can be found long before its actual establishment at WP Suspension in The Netherlands. In 1977, WP Suspension was founded by Wim Peters. Peters is an enthusiastic racer and, as a mechanical engineer, was always working on his motorbike`s suspension.

He sustained a heavy fall in 1975, and had to spend more than a year recuperating. This gave him plenty of time to work out his vision of suspension on off-road motors. He developed his own suspension and even designed his own spiral springs from special spring steel. These bare-metal springs had to be provided with a layer of lacquer. For this, Wim Peters looked to a close-by company that lacquered hospital beds. They could arrange the lacquering for a friendly price, but only had the colour white in stock. WP Suspension’s well-known white colour originated here.

Peters’ suspension worked so spectacularly well that his fellow-crossers soon wanted a similar suspension on their motorbikes. On this popularity the company “White Power Suspension” was founded in 1977, named for the shocks’ characteristic white colour on the springs.

WP Suspension was off to a flying start, as Dutch racers were celebrating huge successes in these years. Men like Gerrit Wolsink (“The Flying Dentist”), Kees van der Ven, Dave Strijbos and John van den Berk hauled in one title after another with WP Suspension on their bikes.