Suspension Insight | Race Tech's Paul Thede | TransWorld Motocross

Simple suspension advice and bike physics with Race Tech's Paul Thede.

[Foleyathome]

This is the best no nonsense advice I've seen regarding preload, spring rate, clickers and especially rebound DAMPING (+slows down rebound and -speeds it up). It's taken me 20 years to figure out what you've said in a few mins. LOL. Going out on a limb here but general rule of thumb, run as little damping as you can depending on terrain and how fast you are.

[pentecost]

I give race tech 2 thumbs up. Having race tech in my kx500 has probably saved me from taking expensive ambulance rides to the hospital. It is well worth the money and it would be the first investment for any new or old bike.

[ryangarred]

Great vid, need more like this. Guy is a boss

[RichardsCranium]

OMG the rebound comments by paul are so freaking true! I have the same problem with my riding buddies maxed out on there rebound that they are packing through the whoops and want me to valve more rebound in.

[yellowveedub]

Paul Thede thank you for doing what you do. I buy all my valving from race tech

[ncautolink]

I’ve had it installed in my Street Glide front forks. Worked vey well. Night and day difference compared to stock forks. But, I think I want try Legends in my new street glide next time.

[stefanpuffer]

Get this man's book and read it. Even if you don't end up doing the work yourself you'll at least have an understanding and will better know what type of setup you want to go with.

[jaydenritchie]

when you say a car it doesnt matter, usually a car driver may not feel it like a rider but the ability to get on the power or brakes is noticed by the driver and the spectators notice the one car be able to leave the corner faster than the other, tractive effort is the result of suspension

[SLP-ebwp]

Off road suspension gets to be worse than a rubix cube when you factor in: spring rates, oil level, oil viscosity, shim stacks, rider weight, rider technique, clicker settings, where the fork sits in the tube, offset in the clamps, all things handlebars, how far back your rear axle is, then consider the amount of time it takes to change these things, placebo effect, whether your physical fitness has changed over the period of time you have made changes and made notes, and also how your engine is tuned and delivers its power... Each one of these points is a whole nother chapter on its own and in the case of dampening valving, thats another book. Mechanical engineering and hydraulic knowledge required. GOOD LUCK!!

[wrenchone]

no doubt good video if I only knew half what he does

[chriscarnevale]

I want to put stiffer springs and re-valve my front forks on a 96YZ 250 but I cannot seem to figure out how to get the inner damping rod apart to access the valves any help would be greatly appreciate it

[clyde]

Paul did your racing start in hawaii, i think i remember your name

[danspiro]

Does anyone know if his book covers 1980s mx bikes??? Saw it online

[charlesabrownjr.]

When running the faster one wants to run the harder and faster your feet need to hit the ground.
👍 Revisiting brain food.

[hornet]

I looked at your website and I came away confused.

[franciscoshi]

Something that has always bothered me is that the valving response seems to me to be back to front to what is needed.
So the faster the wheel needs to move the more the shims need to bend. this means it needs more force. So faster movement = stiffer.
So hitting a root at high speed would make the force higher which is what seems to happen. But we want it to be softer not stiffer.
When you hit the brakes the movement is slow which means less force so softer but we want stiffer. So it seems to me the response is back to front. We want soft at high speed and stiff at low speed. This would make square edges soft (what we want) and braking stiff (what we want).
It seems if we want low dive we have to accept harsh on square edges. If we don't want to deflect on square edges we have to accept diving under brakes.

[SOLDOZER]

Race Tech sucks. They tried to sell me stock springs for my bike, not springs for my weight. They then asked how much I weigh, how I ride, etc and said they have "perfect" springs for me. When they arrived....stock springs. Ugh...anything for a quick sale. Someone must be trying to meet a quota.