My quest for a perfect Alta Redshift motocross suspension (Part2)


Philip

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Lake Havasu City, AZ
This is the continuation of My quest for a perfect Alta Redshift motocross suspension (Part 1).

A couple of years ago, I test rode a 2017 CRF450 that has a suspension revalved by a factory Showa tuner. I have been chasing the feeling of that suspension ever since. Today, I ended up buying this bike, but this is a separate story. What I learned though is that there is almost always a better suspension out there.

This summer, I asked the owner of that CRF450 if he could give me the name and phone number of his suspension tuner. He said that he had a new tuner now and an even better suspension. I said, okay, hook me up. He told me it's Bob Bell from Precision Concepts Racing.

Bob is a great guy. I talked to him on the phone and, like all awesome tuners, he told me about all the pro and amateur races that run his suspension, etc. I asked if he could revalve my WP suspension to work just like the Showa CRF450 that I rode, and he said yes, of course. So I mailed my spare (stock) suspension set to him.

When I got my suspension back, I rode it in my backyard, and it felt very promising. But then I took it to a motocross track and it felt underdamped in both compression and rebound. It was bottoming on jump landings and bouncing back from berms. Turns out Bob thought that I wanted the plushness, which I did, but what I really needed was an improved bottoming resistance. So back to California that suspension flew.

Got the v.2.0 iteration back sometime in October. Rains and vacations, I got a chance to ride it only once on a loamy and beat up choppy track with some jumps. The v.2.0 was a complete opposite of v.1.0. A ton of low-speed and high-speed compression and rebound damping. I thought there was too much of it. I backed out 8 clicks on rebound and 4 clicks on compression, and only then was able to ride it. Still, I thought something was wrong with it, it was not working well, and I didn't like it.

Fast forwarding, I arrived in Arizona a week ago and had my first practice day yesterday. I drained the battery on my one bike, the one with my trusted KTM World suspension, and thought I would call it a day. I dreaded riding the Precision Concepts suspension, thought I would rather mail it back for another revalve rather than ride it again. But the other bike was dead, and I still wanted to ride, so I took it out on the Arizona track exactly like it was set up back in Michigan.

Low and behold, the same suspension felt AMAZING in Arizona on a smoother hardpack track with a lot of jumps and no braking bumps. So much control, steering precision and confidence! I was blown away!

I was able to stand more, brake later into turns, accelerate sooner, overshoot jumps, and occasionally slam into the faces of some whoops that I miss-timed with no ill consequences. I felt like a fast and confident A-rider, it was a step progression!

So, I think I have come to a point where I cannot have one perfect suspension for all tracks. I now have the Precision Concepts v.2.0 suspension for hardpack and supercross, and the KTM World suspension for everything else.

Now I just need to find a setup that works on sand tracks, ughhh...

No special suspension pictures this time, but here are the fork leg stickers that came separately, not yet installed. They are going on the bike soon!

IMG_20191208_2140288~2.jpg
 

leeo45

Geezer in denial
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576
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Lake Hartwell, SC
Precision Concepts did the suspension on my KTM640 rally bike quite a few years ago. It is brilliant in the high speed desert. It has also saved my neck a few times when I've come upon a wash or a ditch at the last second going way too fast for that particular situation. They used to do the suspensions for a number of the top Baja 1000 teams and may still do that work.

I am not a MX rider but I know that a suspension set up for the desert isn't much good for single track in the woods. A good tuner will talk with you about your primary use(s) and riding environment(s) and will set things up accordingly. This is in addition to knowing your size, weight, and skill level. In my experience if you want a suspension that works everywhere, it will be a compromise everywhere.
 

wwmotors

Well-known member
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458
Location
Bavaria Germany
I have a MXR since 105 hours. The standard WP Aer 48 stands too high and too stiff in my opinion. So i changed back to a hybrid spring system (2 springs working togehther) in the left and different dampingvalves on the right side. This was all done by Mototech (Germany). He also calculated the additional weight of the ALTA compared to carburator bikes. I must say, this is the best i ever rode. Soft enough for all the small problems in the track, but enough reserves for the big jumps. The ALTA MX suspension is was too soft. Here I would change the complete 4CS fork, because tuning does not lead to a good result!
 

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