Is it me??

[76561198301017172]

I have now been racing with this and many other bike sims, as I get used to them I make them harder with the settings and AI.
I have this one as pro and now the AI as the hardest. I thought I was good until I checked with racers online. I am several seconds out constantly, it seems even at the begining of a race the other riders pull away from me, do I need to spend more time refining the bike set up, I always use stock set up. Help..... I need to speed up.

[Jee Willikers]

No, don't use stock setup. As with real bikes, you have to upgrade parts and change settings. I suggest you watch youtube vids to understand suspension and gearing set ups on real sports bikes. I can't tell you what settings to use because everyone is a diff gamer(rider). You'll have to set up the bike to how you play the game. Do a lot of Time Trials also, and use ghost to help you.

[76561198301017172]

Wow, thanks for that, when I've changed things in previous games there didn't seem to be much of a difference, but I will defo give this a try.

[KG_03]

I had the same problem when started to play online in Ride 2. First of all, never compare your times with third person perspecive camera players if you play onboard cams. Tail cam gives better look into turn you can brake later have perfect line and accelerate earlier. As long as Milestone treat onboard players like sad necessity , you will never know what kind of player you are riding against. But its not an excuse for not trying to improve.

As GeeWizz said. Do not use stock set up, especially gear ratios. On some track you will need more acceleration and on some higher top speed. Experiment and look which corners you ride on which gear and where you would need some more acceleration or longer gear - changing gears also costs a time. And remember that biggest acceleration is not always better as rear tire starts to loose its grip and the traction control castrates engine power so in the end you will loose time. Power slides are fun but not effective - just like wheelies.

Also do not play this game as it was real life motorcycle. Even if these are motogp bikes where they can brake deeply into corner and tyres give enormous grip, some elements of the game physics are unreal in real life... but unfortunately they work in the game environment - for example hard braking in full lean. When you are braking hard b4 the corner use both brakes, move weight backward and downshift overreving the engine - its the best way to stop the bike and other players know that. Learn the tracks and find the perfect line for each curve. Often it is better to brake hard and have lower corner entry speed but exit fast. When you come too fast to the corner, turn the bike too early in many cases you will miss the apex and exit corner with lower speeds.

And the last thing...even if you think you are fast there will be always someone faster, so train, learn tracks, find different corner lines, the outcome is worth the effort but its not like doing 20-30 laps and you will be good.

[76561198301017172]

Nice, thanks for the info KG I was worried you would say something like that, dabbling with the bike settings is a mystery to me, as I haven't got the knowledge. I know the tracks and when I have done my best lap, with every corner taken what I think is perfect ie taking everything to the limit, I'm still way off. I know what ever I do I will always find better riders, but their times are mental. I have started looking at you tube vids regarding suspension setup, but so far haven't found much to help. I know it's a big thing, my daytona 955i was crap at leaning over, it went so far, then felt if you went further you were in the lap of the gods. I sold it to a guy who does track days he had all the suspension sorted and he said it handles like a dream. I will start to play with the settings and see how I get on.

[KG_03]

Well those insane laptimes are made by pp l who play with tail cams, and know the bugs of the games and where they can afford to exceet track boundries...sonetines they even cheat as there is a trainer that allows instant acceleration 🙁but its like 1%of players so marginal.
If you need a help with setting the suspensio set up add me to friends and I'll explain you everything once Im online.

[76561198301017172]

Nice one KG much appreiciated. It won't allow me to add friends yet, steam says I have to spend $5 in store so have to sort that out first.

[KG_03]

Ah ok. I should think of writing a tutorial about setting the suspension. All my knowledge is just theory and all I know in this subject Ive read in motorcycle books. Also (unfortunately) the games do not simulate the suspension setup as it should be so not all real life tips work for in the game. Anyway...small word of introduction:

Suspension next to tires is the most important thing in motorcycle. It allows the tire to stay in contact with tarmac. Irregularities of the track, each rider movement influences the suspension. So suspension setup will affect how bike will behave on track irregularities but also how it will handle on turns, acceleration and braking. When you turn the motorcycle the outbound force compresses the suspension.

In general you can never "eat cake and have cake", so in all cases it is a matter of balance between percise bike handling and agile behaviour (like in case of a stiff suspension) and smooth riding on track irregularities and smooth turning (softer suspension) but the most important thing/goal is to set the suspension this way to make tires stay in contact with track.

SPPRINGS are the medium that allows compression and rebound. So the harder spring will be harder to compress but also will rebound quicker. Stiffer springs will give the bike more percise handling, faster responsiveness in quick direction changes (like in chicanes) because suspension will get less compression due the outbound force when turning. The negative effect of stiff spring is that once it is compressed jt moves back to its position quicker than softer spring. So if you want to avoid bike swinging or jumping you will have to give some more rebound compression. Alsoat uneven tracks like Catalunya You will suffer more on track irregularities. The wheels might jump in the air because the spring will be to stiff and it wont compress the irregularity. Loosing the tire grip means crash.
On the other hand you can put in softer spring have agood amortisation of the bumps and irregularities but the outbound forces will make the bike lazy in turns, swinging during acceleration and braking. It is helpful when the track has fast corners when you need smooth turning and not really percise (like Phikip Island)

BIKE HEIGHT. The higher bike the less unstable is, lower bike is more stable because the weight is lower to the ground. Lower bikes have less turning radius. When you feel that bike is starting the turn too slow is understeering or need too much time to lean, you can lower the front - it will rise the fork angle and while approaching to corner the motorcycle will turn easier/faster. Or when you feel that at corner entry the bike is too agressive rise the front or lower the rear height but it can make the bike prone to wheelies.

COMPRESSION DAMPING. The springs are just springs, they compress but have low ability to suppress compression force. Thats what compression damping do. Setting it you decide how fast the suspension will compress/how much of the compression force will be supressed. In case of soft springs too litte compression will make the front wheel jump in the air on the bump because the spring wont put enough pressure on the front wheel to stick it to the ground. Too hard comoression will work like too hard spring amd also will me the bike lift into air after each bump. You need to find a combination between spring stiffness and comperssion damping.

REBOUND DAMPING. When the spring (suspension) comes back to its initial position (or the suspension meets the hole in the surface) , depending on the spring stiffness the time needed to decompress is different. Hard springs decompress faster, soft springs decomoress slower. And bu damping you can regulate that time of decomoression. When the wheels meet a bump or a hole and the suspension decompresses this must be fast because the tire cant loose contact with surface. So on uneven track fact decomoression is important. But unfortuantely the counter effect is that the bike may swing, or agressive in dolirection changes causeing the bike unpercise or overreactive.

RAKE and TRAIL. Racing bikes contruction that allow to change the angle between track and the fork (rake) and how far the front wheel axle is from the axis of the fork (wheel trail). Rksong both values rise the wheelbase of the motorcycle. The bigger wheelbase make the bike more stable on high speeds but the bike is lazy. Lower wheelbase has the opposite effect. The rake has also effect on how fastthe motorcycle will turn. When you lower the rake value then the fork is more upward and the bike is reacting faster (good for many fast direction changes like Mugello) but also it has smaller wheel base co can be less stable. Rising the rake has opposite effect. TRAIL work simiar to a wheels in a shipping trolley where those little wheels are put aside to turning axis so they can turn into the direction where the trolley is pulled. It works simikar in motorcycle. The further the wheel axle is fron fork rotation axis it will faster return to its direct position allowing the motorcycle a faster return to upward position...again very useful in fast direction changes but must be compensated by rake to avoid too big wheel base and lazy turning.

Sorry if I wrote it too simple. For sure you know all of this or at least most of it...anyway I hope something was useful. If you have questions or I wrote something unclear let me know. Sorry for spelling I wrote it on mobile phone.

[76561198301017172]

Wow!! nice lot of info there KG. Plenty to play around with. My problem with all of these settings like on my real bike is there is too many variables. On a real bike, tyres, track temp, etc all play a part in the ideal bike set up, being this is a computer game, surely these settings depend on what the programmers have modelled into the sim. Another thought that popped into my head is, if I'm the racer, why hasn't my mechanic set the bike up for each circuit, and if he has there surely only needs a fine tweak here and there??

[KG_03]

Thats why I do not touch the suspension in my Motorcycle. Once I was at the course and experienced rider set my suspension for road use because by default my Street Triple had too stiff suspension. Few ppl told me that there is no significant difference between setup in the game, but I do not agree with it.