Jeremy Wilkey
Owner, MX-Tech
- Jan 28, 2000
- 1,453
- 0
Ricky Charmical,
Little big man, Champion, Unoffical (to some) king of the MX world, hardest worker, or troll, whatever you call him this man is posesed with unbelivable amounts of speed, and shear desire to crush the competion. Obvously he has created much debate on other fronts we've all conjectetured over his gooffy bike set-ups but with what I've been learning, I've begun to get a new take on what might become as common place as jumping like Mc..
Rember when Mc rode 250 SX for Honda.. My god those first few years where increadble.. He looked like no other rider, rode.. I rember a good buddy of Mine Jason Jones telling me how we had better learn to ride like MC because we where about to be old school.. Well Jason you where right.. Now everyone ecept me riders low over jumps... Geez Gary Bailey did a good job, beacuse I can't stay low.. Now you can't tell MC from anyone when he rides, and most 65 riders can inside whip to stay low..
So what am I really getting at.. I can already here Jones telling me better start backing er into corners or we are gonna get smoked... I'm sure Rich Rohrich knew it all along.. Well Jason never told em that but its starting to make sence.. (However Rich does all the time :) )
Ricky smokes everyone in the corners.. Sure he leaves it on everywhere but where he realy makes time is in turns. Whats strange about Ricky though is he is not a classical turner.. He does not steerinto and steer out of a corner with elbows up carving a pretty arc, but rather drives in bracks for a second and then reves his CR till its aboujt to pop and then dumps the clutch.. ITs not pretty, its almost geek like..... But what he acomplishes is quite amazing if you look at it all togther. When he dumps the clutch he breaks the rear lose and pitches the bike into the rut, this creates a state of partial slip which actually helps him amximaize traction... (Slight slip is good.)
When a rider Corners he must apply coopious amounts of power to create enough traction to overcome Centrifigual force by creating load on the wheels. To maintain the Center of Gravity the rider must lean the bike. The bike creates a slip angle that is the result of all the forces. The slip angle is actually Rickies line throught the corner.. The problem is in Dirt we are limted to how far we can lean, when we drift we can actually lean less creat more traction, and lower the center of Gravity all at the same time. Whats amazing is that Ricky has figured out how to do this on a track with ruts... while riding the ruts....
Now lets look at his bikes.... When we drop the back of the bike down we change the CoG and we also make the bike eaiser to create a more sustainable slide. Ricky obvously needs a lower bike, but I beilve that he has found a way to make his bike not only workable but turn his weekness into a strenght...
Lets look a few items of specualtion on my part.. Showa often ran statically prelaoded topout springs in the past.. I've never seen this feature on a KYB Shock.. The top out spring slows the reaction of the wheel at the top of the stroke and has been used in RR as a "anti-highside device" I don't think Ricky has rode any less scwirly this year, but I've seen him highside alot less... My bet is Charmical is using a Top out spring much like the 03 WP shock that actaulay works (unlike the production 02 Showa).
One other Key point is that with so much sag I was wonedering how they even keep a spring on his shock.. The top out spring would exsplain it..
Well anyway here are my first sigifcant ramblings about Chassis stuff.. My thoughts will get more clear as I grapple and define these things mroe over time.. Much like the regular old suspension Forum...
BTW.. Jones Thanks for lessons, its hard to believe you rode the First SX for me, and now 7 years later I have to start your bike For you! Jones is coming back to the sport he had t leave .....
(WOW Jones that was a bad picture off you... I'll find a better one..)(Photo being removed.)
Little big man, Champion, Unoffical (to some) king of the MX world, hardest worker, or troll, whatever you call him this man is posesed with unbelivable amounts of speed, and shear desire to crush the competion. Obvously he has created much debate on other fronts we've all conjectetured over his gooffy bike set-ups but with what I've been learning, I've begun to get a new take on what might become as common place as jumping like Mc..
Rember when Mc rode 250 SX for Honda.. My god those first few years where increadble.. He looked like no other rider, rode.. I rember a good buddy of Mine Jason Jones telling me how we had better learn to ride like MC because we where about to be old school.. Well Jason you where right.. Now everyone ecept me riders low over jumps... Geez Gary Bailey did a good job, beacuse I can't stay low.. Now you can't tell MC from anyone when he rides, and most 65 riders can inside whip to stay low..
So what am I really getting at.. I can already here Jones telling me better start backing er into corners or we are gonna get smoked... I'm sure Rich Rohrich knew it all along.. Well Jason never told em that but its starting to make sence.. (However Rich does all the time :) )
Ricky smokes everyone in the corners.. Sure he leaves it on everywhere but where he realy makes time is in turns. Whats strange about Ricky though is he is not a classical turner.. He does not steerinto and steer out of a corner with elbows up carving a pretty arc, but rather drives in bracks for a second and then reves his CR till its aboujt to pop and then dumps the clutch.. ITs not pretty, its almost geek like..... But what he acomplishes is quite amazing if you look at it all togther. When he dumps the clutch he breaks the rear lose and pitches the bike into the rut, this creates a state of partial slip which actually helps him amximaize traction... (Slight slip is good.)
When a rider Corners he must apply coopious amounts of power to create enough traction to overcome Centrifigual force by creating load on the wheels. To maintain the Center of Gravity the rider must lean the bike. The bike creates a slip angle that is the result of all the forces. The slip angle is actually Rickies line throught the corner.. The problem is in Dirt we are limted to how far we can lean, when we drift we can actually lean less creat more traction, and lower the center of Gravity all at the same time. Whats amazing is that Ricky has figured out how to do this on a track with ruts... while riding the ruts....
Now lets look at his bikes.... When we drop the back of the bike down we change the CoG and we also make the bike eaiser to create a more sustainable slide. Ricky obvously needs a lower bike, but I beilve that he has found a way to make his bike not only workable but turn his weekness into a strenght...
Lets look a few items of specualtion on my part.. Showa often ran statically prelaoded topout springs in the past.. I've never seen this feature on a KYB Shock.. The top out spring slows the reaction of the wheel at the top of the stroke and has been used in RR as a "anti-highside device" I don't think Ricky has rode any less scwirly this year, but I've seen him highside alot less... My bet is Charmical is using a Top out spring much like the 03 WP shock that actaulay works (unlike the production 02 Showa).
One other Key point is that with so much sag I was wonedering how they even keep a spring on his shock.. The top out spring would exsplain it..
Well anyway here are my first sigifcant ramblings about Chassis stuff.. My thoughts will get more clear as I grapple and define these things mroe over time.. Much like the regular old suspension Forum...
BTW.. Jones Thanks for lessons, its hard to believe you rode the First SX for me, and now 7 years later I have to start your bike For you! Jones is coming back to the sport he had t leave .....
(WOW Jones that was a bad picture off you... I'll find a better one..)(Photo being removed.)
