yz450 (race tech) success?

[falshh]

I have read a lot of controversy over the race tech suspention and the midvalve etc and a lot of people dont like what race tech suggestions are.

I am not real educated in suspention and just purchased gold valves and was going to follow the race tech recommendations exactly, this is based on my weight riding style etc and race tech gives what shim stack need to be built right down to the recommended clicker setpoint.

Has anybody bought the set installed per the recommendations and been happy ?????

IM starting to get nervous obout installing them especially after reading a thread about not converting mid valve to check valve as race tech says to do??

[00YZ426FMRCD]

I am not real educated in suspention

Says it all... Just having fun

[NOMADAK]

I had the full on race tech suspension done on a 02 YZ250. springs, valves and service.

It was expensive, especially with shipping.

It also worked, very well. It was in fact the best suspension I had ever ridden to that point, much better than stock. I am a big guy at 6'1 240lbs. Most stock large displacement bikes are set up for 170-200lbs riders. Their set up put me much closer to the ball park. I rode this bike to 3 championships this season. 1 state title and 2 city titles.

I made the mistake of riding a buddy's 05 YZ250 last season. Stock it was much better than my bike was modded.

I also rode a 05 CRF250 for several laps and was blown away by how plush that suspension felt stock, even compared with the 05 yamaha. This particular bike had a full season of MX racing on it without any suspension servicing (oil changes). It was light years better suspension than mine.

This is pretty much the case these days. Each sucessive year, the suspension is moving great leaps and bounds. Last years supension with all the bells and whistles will not hold a candle to the following years stock. I am sure there are exceptions to this but it is the general rule.

All reports I've read on the new 06 Yamaha's(kayaba) say their suspension has now surpassed the Showa (Honda, Suzuki and now Kawasaki's)stuff.

I just spent some time down in Southern California, doing some off season training for MX. I stopped by Schmidt performance. www.schmidtperformance.com .

They are a local suspension expert situated in between a bunch of tracks frequented by some of the best riders in the country. I believe the owner (Dave Schmidt)used to work for Noleen. I was referred to them by Kurt Hendrickson www.khmxschool.com , a local mx trainer.

They do alot of custom work. Race tech's heaviest weight spring is a 4.9 KG spring. That's it, the largest that they sell. With race tech, you are a number. very little follow-up service. According to Schmidt's charts, it was still too light of a spring for me!

Schmidt has their springs custom cut to order. You call them up from the track with problems, they give you solutions, settings, right over the phone. Nice (though small) shop with low overhead. Friendly and very knowledgable.

Race Tech is a volume/numbers shop. They do good stuff but.....I'm looking for a little more.

[Satch0922]

here is were you need to go.

http://www.mx-tech.com

[DaveJ]

I have read a lot of controversy over the race tech suspention and the midvalve etc and a lot of people dont like what race tech suggestions are.

I am not real educated in suspention and just purchased gold valves and was going to follow the race tech recommendations exactly, this is based on my weight riding style etc and race tech gives what shim stack need to be built right down to the recommended clicker setpoint.

Has anybody bought the set installed per the recommendations and been happy ?????

IM starting to get nervous obout installing them especially after reading a thread about not converting mid valve to check valve as race tech says to do??

falshh,

I'll post something for you over on the suspension thread.

[Fastest1]

Paul Thede and Race Tech make some great stuff. I used it Roadracing and it was good stuff. As mentioned earlier, newer models will have improved internals. Just like computers, get it home and unpackage it, it is outdated. Lots of suspension tuners disable mid valves. I wouldnt know why though ( I didnt have to on my RR'er). Dont be afraid, just do it. In the long run you will understand your suspension better. The instructions should get a much improved result over what you presently have.

[falshh]

I am going to leave the mid valve and the cylinder seal think alone and just do the valve and see what happens, thanks for the imput

[Fastest1]

Sounds wise and you can always do a little more later. My understanding of disabling the midvalve is that it puts all of the fluid control upon the gold valve. Dont know if it is good or bad however if the shim tables are for the midvalve to be disabled would it have an affect on the way to shim if not disabling it. They were spot on in their tables for the RR'er, performed just as stated. It was awhile back and I am not sure of what all I did in that one. I do remember losing a part, substituting a very similar part (though not identical) reassembling everything and then finding the part upon sweeping the final time and getting to do it over again. Fun! Good Luck

[krasd]

That is what I just did with the gold valve kit,I just installed the bottom valves which have made major improvements over stock for example before I would set my compression at 5 clicks out, now I run it at 12 to 13 clicks out. I wonder now how much better would be with the mid valve done?

[Fastest1]

I would trust them (RT) on it too. I think they know their stuff well. The quality and information/instructions were top notch and the customer service I received made me feel good. I just think that the disabling of the midvalve must have a purpose. Grayracer seems to know quite a bit about the individual circuits of the suspension, maybe he will chime in.

[falshh]

I depends on the type of riding you do I read in the instructions it STRONGLY RECCOMENDS converting the mid valve to a check valve and installing the cylinder seal and I called race tech support and he said if I do mainly motocross, defenatly do not change the mid valve and do not do the cylinder seal thing. he said guys who do arena cross and trail riders do the convertion but most people dont convert it and that was fine with them.

I dont know if they are backpeddling from there original recommendations or what but this is how I am going to do it.Also now I dont need any speciallized tools and the job is tons easier to do.