[THE DEBRIEF] WHEN IS IT TIME TO ADDRESS SETUP, PART TWO

Assess, build, and adjust

Improving on-track performance, whether it is defined as enhanced precision, a quicker lap time, or simply maximizing personal enjoyment, comes down to the dynamic interplay between you and your vehicle. Setup is a crucial element of this equation, but it only makes a difference once you’ve achieved basic fundamental competency.

Focusing on setup too early in the learning process wastes effort and time, and can become a crutch that conceals skill deficiencies. It is all too easy to get swept up in a rollercoaster of incremental adjustments. Does an additional turn of spring preload or one more click of compression damping really matter if you’re still braking 200 feet too early?

In the FIRST of this two-part series, I addressed the correct approach to diagnosing whether the improvement(s) you are seeking is a matter of developing your technique or working on your vehicle. In this second installment, I am focusing once again on guidelines to assess your performance and build a feedback loop as you start adjusting your riding and/or setup.

Time to download

Once you have experimented with different approaches to diagnose the problem and have concluded that the issue is related to your technique or to your vehicle, it is time to build a systematic evaluation process to avoid the inevitable rabbit hole of infinite chassis and geometry adjustments.