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Did you ever think it was possible that Tomac simply just put down a faster lap after seeing he was getting smoked by Herlings? Is that not a possibility?
See the problem is you keep looking for an answer as to why a guy had a good lap, or why a rider had a bad weekend. The majority of the time it's just because the rider wasn't feeling it and had a bad weekend. Or a rider just simply put down a better lap then he did previously. That had nothing to do with settings no matter how many times a rider blames his settings.
Changing push rods, clamps, sprockets etc would be considered substantial changes done back in the pits. Clickers are not substantial changes.
Glad you almost made it to the top. Please tell us more how you can save 2-3 seconds per lap when guys are searching to shave a tenth off.
I was never a top rider, local hero that almost turned pro but injuries set me back. Growing up I never really paid attention to setup...didnt understand it enough. Now looking back on it, I sure wish I had, but hindsight is always 20/20.
I remember one day in Socal I was riding @ cahuilla creek and for the life of me, cold not rail this outside berm! I would hit the thing and the bike kept standing up and the bike would unsettle and I had no flow through it. Sitting in my van the dude next to me striked up a conversation. I mentioned to him the trouble I was having in that one corner, and he said that maybe I should adjust some clickers. I thought to myself that it was just me and I sucked, and I needed to work on my corners, but to humor him, I did what he mentioned. I softened up the compression by 2 clicks in the front end, went back out and HOLLLLLYYYYY SHIIIIIIT!!!!!! Dude I could rail that berm with the best of them. It was an awakening moment for me! Couldnt believe I had wasted so many years just assuming that it was my skill that sucked, and that bike setup would have no impact on my performance. Man was I wrong. Skip to ahead 7 years, and I got into road racing and worked for a European dealer as a tech. There I learned a heck of a lot about bike setup and how important it is in road racing. looking back to my MX years I can now see how important it really was, and is, to have a bike that amplifies your confidence!!!!!
Tomac shaved off 2.7 sec, after stopping in 3 times adjusting fork clickers and getting it done on final lap in practice.
I guess next time he should just save the time dropping into the pit and "go faster"...
I know myself, set the static sag 2-3mm wrong and that is 5sec a lap because bike behaves as shit and that you can feel when you try to up the speed.
So on a 2min 15sec lap time, affecting 2-3sec per lap is not a problem. That is 1/10 sec per corner because the bike is to low or to high in front, or stick in the ruts to much. 1 click on the CONE Valve or ohlins forks turn into a few mm of ride height.
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An hour of free practice on a Friday afternoon instead of everyone sitting with their thumbs up their arses might help.
Yeah. No. Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki, Dunlop tires hooking up great, Fox, Scott, Bell.....
Signed Aaron Plessinger
Regardless, it's a bad excuse.
At the same time, I can see why our riders struggle to get comfortable outdoors. With 2 weeks before hangtown and about 2 weeks off during the season, the average US rider rides about 16 weeks of the year on "motocross" tracks. Assuming they take 2 weeks off before testing for monster cup, that leaves the rest of the year, or about 34 weeks, where their main focus is supercross.
They ride literally twice as much supercross as motocross, and maybe the correct setup for either is much more different than they want to admit. But then they run into the issue where making such drastic changes to the bike, even if ultimately it would have a faster potential, feels so foreign to them with such little amount of time to adjust, that they can go faster on a stiffer bike they are more comfortable on than a softer bike with a higher potential but that makes them uncomfortable.
I only expect this to get worse before it gets better with more and more focus going towards supercross (22 race series anyone?)
Just an example: after Ironman, Nicholls said his first few rounds were good, then he had a few bad ones because of his bike set-up. Maybe I'm clueless but why didn't they go back to what was comfortable earlier? Does it really take a few races to find a good set-up, even after you already had a good one? I don't buy it. (no hate on the guy on anything just an example that came to mind)
Dudes on the same factory bike, year after year, with unlimited budget and unlimited sources still can't get comfortable on the bike? Just bizarre. Head cases, all of them.
I'm not saying bike setup isn't important, of course it is. Struggling with bike setup all year doesn't make sense at the professional level. Either the teams aren't doing their job or the rider is just struggling with conditions and someone was better than them. Which seems more likely?
Their setups wont be a mile off. Im sure sag & springs are all set to rider weight. They would have done a ton of testing for set ups. You will never be able to set a bike up for every section of a track. Riders like Herlings know how to read terrain, it's a world class technique.
I expect many riders rider better after a few clicks but that doesnt prove it was the clicks, we can all work things things out, get more confident, better line developed etc
Through my racing years I set up & got on with it for the season.
And if you actually think that's why Tomac started winning I think you need to take your own advice and drink more water and less alcohol.
They talked about this so many times, you can not find tracks in US that are beaten down to the level it reaches for a race. Neither do you get the same pace (read speed) during practice. In Europe you have less problem finding rough tracks to practice on.
How many times have you arrived at Pala, Milestone or Cauhilla and the track has been left as is for 2-3 practice days?
On Supercross the issue is that no one wants to take the risks it comes with and practice on a non-prepped supercross track.
So i fully understand they cant get that last bit out of the bike until they are in it.
Someone like Nicols however, should have no excuse. He had all season to ride Ferrandis bike to compare, and chose to do it before the last race of the year.
Pit Row
Not sure if he said that about the tires or his bike but he literally said that in two consecutive sentences
I have two 2014 KX 450s, built exactly the same (same bars/suspension/pipe/gearing/etc.), one I like and prefer to ride, the other feels foreign to me as soon as I get on the track and takes several laps to get used to. Makes no sense that one feels better than the other.
Also sometimes doing all of those frame modifications and works parts can actually be a detriment. (Kenny going back to stock clamps?) The amount of engineering and R&D dollars the production development team spends dwarfs what the race teams can spend and engineer for a few one off frames and bikes.
Setup does not mean that much...
Post a reply to: 'Struggling with bike setup all weekend' can no longer be a valid excuse.