ATV Four-Play, DC and JB suspension video

[thequadfather+2]

This is just a video edit of some of the suspension in action in Pell City. ATV Four-Play, DC and JB are all out in full force. I am sure several quads were running SMS stuff but I didnt know who they were. This thread isnt meant to identify the best but is a simple display of how the kids riding style fit their suspension. Alot has been made of suspension over the last few weeks so I thought I would add some video of the kids and their ridding style.

All the kids running these suspensions were fast but I did notice a few things different about some of them.

The ATV Four-Play/Fox suspension had a bunch of travel and Hunter looked real comfortable. He pulled on the front keeping the nose up and rode back on the seat with his arms extended which helped keep his front end out of the ground.

The DC stuff was on several quads including Logan Dusenberry, Cole Shake and Tyler Mack (I believe). I noticed Cole and Tyler pulled the nose way up and their quads were often on the back tires most of the time. Logan rode his quad more level than anyone, the nose was never really up or down. His upper body rarely moved at all. He looked relaxed and used his legs more.

Kodi Ward sporting the JB stuff was battling it out with Tyler peters and another fast Cobra shifter and looked to be in more of a smooth rythym and at one time I though he was sitting down. He just had a fast smooth pace from begining to end. Tyler Peters was hanging off the back of his Cobra and looked crazy fast but Kodi was in more of a rythym and rode the same pace through the whoops as Tyler.

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[Logan #34's Dad]

Nice video. I tell you what, the Atv-Four Play stuff looks real nice. I'd say it MAY be a little soft - IMO.
The SMS front end acts a lot like Atv-Four Play's.
Keep in mind, I run DC with ELKA.

[thequadfather+2]

OK, I couldnt remember if you ran Elka's or Motowoz. I like our Elka's but we just dont have enough travel right now. I will be putting Jordan on the ATV Four-Play/motowoz combo, as soon as I get the money, because I dont think I could keep the Fox's dialed in correctly.

Tom could probably chime in but I bet Hunter likes it softer than most. I will probably end up going a little soft with Jordan initially. Brandon Tittle is going to help me set him up, his boys ran Motowoz on cobra's for several years and he's pretty good with suspension.

[raidernut]

Originally posted by Logan #34's Dad
Nice video. I tell you what, the Atv-Four Play stuff looks real nice. I'd say it MAY be a little soft - IMO.
The SMS front end acts a lot like Atv-Four Play's.
Keep in mind, I run DC with ELKA.

Too soft, in my opinion no. Over the last near decade of being involved in atv's, one of the most important things i have learned is: If your suspension is optimally set-up it will bottom out, or come close to bottoming on the largest hit on any given track. You make it as soft as you can, and just keep from bottoming out. Long travel has no use, if you dont use the travel. The atvfourplay bike in the video may look soft, because it has more, and is using more travel. The problem becomes when you have a set up without a lot of travel, then you are forced to set it up stiffer. Our two bikes for example both have fox long travel shocks, but on our fourplay suspended bike the valving and compression adjustments are way softer. For example if you have two identical bikes with identical riders, and one set-up has say 7" of travel, and the other say 8", then you can set the suspension up softer on the one with more travel, and not bottom out. Maybe Tom can explain it better, but that is the general idea.

[T@AFP]

Bruce, you are the "master video guy", awesome work. First the Soft Bars now this. You da Man.

Anyways, In my experience the reason I set a bike up is how the rider rides. A smooth, consistent rider who downs sides jumps, has good rhythm usually can get away with a softer, smoother plush ride.
A rider who "bombs jumps" over shoots downsides,"flat lands" man handles the bikes normally need a harsher valving configuration to compensate for that. This is NOT A BAD THING.
A good example is a Pro valving is usually a softer ride than a C rider. You would thinks it's the opposite but it's not. They are smoother.
Each rider is different. Not right or wrong.

My kid is 60#'s and not too physical. The rider to bike ratio is way off with him. He can't man handle the bikes so we worked on being smooth. Give and take.

I use to think it was based a a riders weight. But the more I watched the more I realized it's more about finesse.

This is just my opinion. There are way smarter guys out there than me. I'm just a suspension guy from the Buckeye State.

Thanks,
Tom

[thequadfather+2]

Thanks Tom. I couldnt see any other part of the track so I thought I might as well film the whoops. I have one more video left from Pell City That I am going to put on the DRR forum later, nothing special just some odd shots and helmet cam stuff. 90 mod, pro am, a quad in the pond, someone checking out my son's cylinder before practice....that was funny.

I know we only use standard travel right now but I wanted to make sure we were getting the full distance out of the shocks. I used a dry erase marker and put a black line from top to bottom on the plunger. After a few laps of hard ridding i looked at the mark and it was half gone on the front and completely gone on the rear. I stiffened up the rear just a touch and softened the front. repeated the process several times until he left about 1/8 inch marks on each shock. That way I was sure he wasnt bottoming out and was getting as much travel as possible. Now I try to mark it each time he hits the track, that way if the track is different he may need some adjustment.

Of course rebound is a different story and I will require a bunch of help there.

[Ride1Rob]

Good info guys... I'm new to trying to dial in suspension and soaking this info in. Using yalls knowledge Jam has a more plush ride than he did a month ago and it shows in his aggressiveness. Thanx fellas and keep it coming ;) .

[dcarter]

well i agree with every one that suspension wins races. with cole's and tylers bike they look like they are low to the ground, but if you notice when they go over a jump the moto woz shocks really fall out. they have a lot of travel on the shocks this allows jim to get the valving really close so that you can use all of the shock travel and still keep the bike low for cornering. while the jb stuff looks good the bike seems to have a stall when it hits the ground. If you look at tylers bike he hit the ground and was really pulling hard, at least that is what it looked like to me. cole's drr runs a 14 and1/2 shock just like tylers apex. running this longer shock allows for better tuning so you can use all of the travel. if you noticed will harness in the 70 class he was running elka's and they worked real well at pell city. a lot of suspension is in set up and riding style. all the products are good on the market,these kids are lucky to have so many choices out there today. dc

[T@AFP]

I found this video from back in the day. Wow have things changed over the years......
Most if not all the kids in this video are all shifting and us mini dads are taking a deep breath of relief.

It's cool to look back at it all though.

[thequadfather+2]

Dang Tom your right- that's seems like ten years ago. Still using my original Softbars. Never even been serviced or rebuilt