top of page

Pro riders spend a lot of time testing their suspension, while most riders don't pay attention to it, or are scared of it. This culture needs to change. For good.

The actual culture in Motocross racing is that lap times can be lowered by spinning laps on a track. But this is totally wrong. You can lower your lap times way faster by setting up your suspension correctly. 

 

Why do professional racers, even the likes of Eli Tomac or Ken Roczen, perform poorly in some races where they start in the lead pack, and  start slowing down by lap 8 and from there on lose several positions?

Let us tell you. Always, leaving  health conditions aside, it is suspension. Motocross is not like road racing on asphalt. The track deteriorates and changes constantly. So, the next time you hear someone like Ricky Charmichael say that Roczen, or Tomac, or whoever, "maybe they are not comfortable," you must know that the discomfort is because of the track deteriorating and the suspension settings making the racer's ride miserable once the track reaches a certain level of deterioration. In other words, your bike's suspension settings dictate your comfort level when you ride, and a bad setting is the primary cause for having ARM PUMP. That's why when racers have a bad performance, they always regret not being able to find the right setup for their bike. Does it sound familiar to you now?

Just like you, at Clickers MX App we are captivated by this hardcore sport called Motocross. We have ridden and raced motocross for a long time now, but it wasn't until the pandemic that, listening to Podcasts from famous retired racers like Ryan Hughes, professional test riders like Kris Keefer, and watching youtube videos from VitalMX or Rocky Mountain ATV, that we started noticing the importance of having the right settings every time you go out riding motocross. Not only to go faster, but also to have more fun on your bike and ride it in the safest way possible. ​

And, as you can imagine, our first thoughts were of those riders who outraced us riding effortless and flawless. Surely they had their suspension dialed in both motos!

And then, one fine day we took a pen, a notebook, and we headed to the closest motocross track. But when we started trying new settings, we immediately realized that it was complete madness! To being with, the marks on the fork for the rebound adjuster made us believe that "+ rebound" meant "more rebound", as most would think. However, upon further investigation, it turned out to be quite the opposite. We were shocked to learn that, in our Amateur days, we were slowing down our rebound by turning the adjuster towards that "+ REB" direction! Also, depending on the suspension's brand, terms like "Hard" and "Soft" are used for rebound. We were scratching our heads wondering the meaning of a soft or a hard rebound. Slow or fast rebound made a whole more sense to us!

But that was just the beggining of our journey. We soon realized how difficult it was to keep solid notes of all the different settings we were trying. Whenever we lost track of the clicks we were counting, we had to reset the adjuster and start from scratch all over again. Other times, we would not find the notebook. Others, the pen would not work. Not to mention that a notebook can be lost or stolen from you by your competitors (joking haha - well, humm?).

If our pursuit wasn't hard enough already, the fact that if we wanted to add more (+) rebound we had to turn the adjuster in one direction, BUT if we wanted to add more (+) compression we had to do it in the complete opposite direction, did not make things any easier.

 

All in all, the conclusion was unanimous: no wonder why everybody is afraid of experimenting with suspension!

And so, the idea of creating a smartphone app to help riders adjust their suspension came easy. And not only to help riders to adjust their bike's suspension at a given time or place, but also to re-use their best settings whenever needed, with ease and without risking getting the direction of the adjusting wrong. And, since we help each other as brothers in everything we do, it occurred to us that it would be great if the settings could be shared: and that's when we started realizing that if riders talk suspension in terms of "clicks", they would not be able to share settings if one of them used a different suspension with a differente adjusting range.

So, let's talk suspension!​ And what is the simplest way to do it? using percentages. Tell your friends who race motocross what high-speed compression you have for a base setting, and use a percentage. For example, 75% compression. They will understand perfectly where you are at. But, if you tell them that you are seven (7) quarters ir or out, it is most likely that you will not be understood.

Clickers App MX helps riders around the world improve their riding, and ride safer; but it is up to each one to embrace it. The wrong settings can cause you to lose control of your motorcycle and injure yourself. If the bike doesn't do what you want, rethink the situation:

 

Is it really you failing, or are your settings not on point? If you're really serious about motocross, adjust your suspension every time you go out riding. 

bottom of page