Tomac

I thought the Kato steel frame was supposedly better on hard, loose, slick surfaces?

Not many tracks like that in US SX

He didnt look as good tonight but he doesn’t need to be peaking right now. He’ll have to slowly build throughout the season as he learns the bike. 

Didn’t look as good as two weeks ago but what do you expect on a new bike in varying conditions? 
Exactly why running these off season races is a good move. They’ll be learning more than on a test track.

He needed a race like this after everything went super smooth in Canada imo. Better for him to struggle like this now and get to working on it than after A2 or something. 

I was under the impression that the SoCal test tracks presented similar dry, dusty conditions?

Sounds like more of his addiction to the scoop tire bit him yesterday.

There was a lap there in the 2nd moto where it looked like he had a flat tire. He did a 360 in a turn before a lane, then he slid again, and then again. It was silly.

Come on Eli,... be flexible with tire choice and be prepared for racing without the scoop from time to time eh? Our guy Lewis hit up Ian on the post race interview about this.

Sandberm656: "Sounds like more of his addiction to the scoop tire bit him yesterday".

I heard one of the commentators say he was on a Scoop(y doopy c/r Georgia Lindsay) during the event, and seeing how hard pack it was, I thought: 'surely not'.

The track surface  reminded me of events (many) years ago, that I would semi jokingly suggest a soft compound Flat Track 19" tyre would be well suited to. 

I'd like to see at least a few US SXs each year have dirt / prep like that - the 'Dog on Lino' thing can really bring throttle control to the fore, and the lack of peg deep ruts , everybloodywhere, would be a good thing to see again.

Should of been a 2-2-4 night for a podium.

That second moto was ridiculous, I dunno what he was doing the last 2 laps.

Never confident in the whoops either, each run through was sketchy. 
6 weeks to sort it out…

You could see halfway through the whoops that rear tyre letting go, he should have been running an old school Dunlop MX71 or dare I say a Bridgestone M22, modern riders just aren't familiar with tracks that aren't ripped deep.

scoop is all for the starts. Eli needs all the advantage he can on the gate. 

Yeah he said he likes the way the scoop knobs fold over on the grate and give him more drive/traction. I think he said it on pulp last year, maybe SML

I agree with this. I think this will motivate him even more to be ready for A1.

Thumbs up for the M22 reference.  It feels like 1986 again.

Put a kyb shock on it.

Craig said Tomac was on the scoop. He also said he had planned to run it too but when he walked the track he switched to the standard tire. 

When I heard Eli was on the scoop, it made sense some of the mistakes I saw. The sliding out in a turn, under jumping, missing a easy rhythm, it all lines up (scoop just spinning on that hard pack) add in his hammering of the throttle in those conditions, it was a recipe for a loss. I did wonder why he didn't make a change, as I would suppose he noticed moto 1 it wasn't working out, but then my thought was, maybe he didn't care about the result and wanted to see what he can learn on it for when he uses it in a race with similar conditions. The more he and the team can learn on using that tire in the worst conditions, the both of them can adjust so he can use that tire always. 

Remember the 2 images below from years ago? Tomac vs Roczen rear tires after a race. Now, imagine that on dry hardpack with the scoop Tomac runs 100% of the time today. Not gonna be a great time...

Vitals interview with Ian just said they didn't have any other tires? I guess no Dunlop truck in the pits lol

Interview with Ian is good. Sounded like there wasn’t another option on tires for them, and perhaps limited in some suspension tweaking they thought would have helped. 

Saw this video of the second 450 race…sure seemed like tomacs rear end was being unpredictable whether that be tire or shock

Tomac Clip

Track was dusty like the second motos of Saddleback back in the day. Why risk an off season race which means very little in the big picture. CC looked the best ever. Should be an exciting A1. 

or was Tomac was riding Prados slow bike with the janky shock...

The hard part is finding the right setting that works in all areas. Each bike has a window to deliver within and each rider has a unique setup. It was more than just a tire and some clickers.  The bike didn’t want to turn hardly at all. Plus factor in the whoops where it was not pretty and you have multiple sectors to tackle. Good track to bring out the weaknesses before the big show. 

From previous discussions on “da scoop”, the ride height is different. I don’t believe they compensate with ride height/shock preload/sag, they change the shock. Ian said they didn’t have many options, but I find it hard to believe they didn’t have a backup shock at least. Perhaps their race support setup for these fly-away off season races is only sufficient for break/fix type problems and minor adjustments. 

That’s what these off-season races are for - to fine tune set up. I like what Ian said about the whoops, that the goal was to not be in the situation again. Eli looked pretty good. It looked like bike set up more than anything.

I was there and once i saw this photo it made sense why Tomac was struggling