Youth Racing - Expert

Starter

Get a good start! One of the skills most overlooked while practicing is starting. Yet, it is one of the most important things to learn. Remember, this is the only time in the race you can pass every other rider on the track at once! Getting a great start also keeps you out of trouble in the first few turns when everyone is packed in as a group. This can easily cause collisions and bike/rider damage. As we have seen, there are many different race formats, so the starting procedure will vary.

Practice each type of start from the series you are racing every time you go to the track. It helps if you practice next to another rider, if possible, to get a better feel for a real start and see what works and what doesn’t. Keep your eye on the start flag! Lots of kids have a short attention span and start looking around on the starting line and can miss the start flag so make sure they are paying attention. Again, practicing starts helps with this. Slide forward on the seat and stay there while racing down the entire start straight area. This keeps more weight on the front wheel when taking off, so you are less likely to wheelie. It also gives more traction to the rear wheel to give it more drive. Don’t overshoot the first turn! Make sure you can slow down in time to make the turn.

Many riders have gotten a great start only to stay on the throttle too long and blow past the first turn while everyone else rides right on by. Or worse yet, they can’t stop and hit other riders, causing them to go down and create injuries.

Rider Position

Stand up! You’ll notice some of the fastest racers stand up most of the time, even during turns. There are great reasons for this. The location of your weight on the motorcycle is your center of gravity. The lower your center of gravity, the easier it is to alter when trying to balance. If you’re sitting on the seat, the weight on the seat determines your center of gravity. When your center of gravity is higher, it makes it more difficult to adjust your movements. Also, if you are sitting when the bike hits a rock or bump, the bike moves your body around with it.

If you are standing, you are changing the center of gravity down lower to your foot pegs and your knees can now act as part of your suspension too. This keeps your body in the proper position which give you better control. This is an unnatural position because your brain tells you to sit down when you start riding over rough ground so you can put your feet down to catch yourself. Sitting isn’t always a bad idea when things start to get to far out of control and you may need to put your feet down, but in general standing up is a better riding position. Your legs are the largest muscles you have so it makes sense to try to use them to maneuver the bike. Try to ride in the “attack position” while racing. This involves keeping your elbows up, knees slightly bent, and hips locked by arching your back slightly, usually giving you the optimum position for speed and control.

It will take some time to develop this technique, so you need to have some patience. Sometimes it takes months or even years of hearing this for kids to finally start understanding and applying it. Try to train your kiddo to stand and lean forward just a little so their head is directly above the bars. This also helps save energy and help keeps your arms from getting tired. To find their neutral zone, place the bike on a stand and have them stand in their normal riding position and then slowly release their grip on the bars. They should stay in the same neutral position. If they fall backwards, they are leaning too far back. If they fall forward, they are leaning too far forward. Of course, when jumping, stopping, turning etc., you will move around a bit more on the bike, but the closer you can stay to the neutral position, the easier it is to ride and stay more in control.

Sit Down! One exception to standing is when you need to turn. Learning how to turn efficiently and quickly is key to winning races. Think about how many corners are in a lap and how much faster you could go if you shaved just 1 second off each corner. It adds up very quickly! Once you see a turn coming up, prepare to turn by sitting and sliding forward on the bike. This transfers more of the weight to the front tire which give you more traction while turning. It also lightens the rear wheel if you want to skid a little with the rear brake to help turn the bike. You may also want to lift your leg and stick it out to the inside of the turn depending on the direction of the turn.

This adds weight to the front tire giving it more traction and by keeping your toe slightly tucked in, it keeps your foot from catching a rock or rut. It also helps if you start to tip into the turn as you can put your foot down to keep from falling. While doing this you also want to transfer some weight to the other foot and put pressure on the outside peg. This helps give traction to the rear wheel, as well as gives you a little more control of the bike if it is a rough turn. If possible, you want to hit the brakes right before the apex of the turn and not when you are in the apex of the turn.

Then, get on the gas during the apex and stay on the gas as you exit. Keep in mind long sweeping turns are sometimes still easier to ride standing up, especially if they are rough. Practice turns by riding in a figure 8 pattern, to learn right and left turns equally. Right turns are a little harder to learn as it is harder to use the rear brake when your right foot is sticking out for the turn so it’s a good idea to practice those a little more often.

Jumping

Jumps can be really intimidating to kids as well. Start them out on smaller jumps and let them build their confidence before attacking the larger ones. Most of the time, it is better to stand up while jumping as you don’t want the rear of the bike to bounce up and catapult you! Lean back a little bit and give the handlebars a small tug to keep the front end from diving. There is a more advanced technique called “seat bouncing”.

This is used for jumps when it is harder to make the distance needed to the landing ramp. You sit down while on the face of the jump in order to preload the suspension and give you more rebound as you stand up near the top of the jump. Again, this is an advanced technique and shouldn’t be tried until you have quite a bit of experience. Don’t push your kids to hit jumps they are not ready for. They will probably attempt bigger jumps when they feel comfortable and when their riding ability has advanced enough.

Suspension

Suspension is one of the most important things to set up correctly. It’s important to note a lot of smaller minibikes, trail bikes, and lower cost budget bikes, don’t have adjustable suspension. So, these tips may not apply if that’s what your bike has. As the models get larger, especially race models, they may come with better suspension components; so, it’s good to know which models have good suspension.

That’s one reason an 85cc bike is more expensive than a 50cc bike. Keep in mind these suspension tips are a “rule of thumb” and meant to be a starting point but not necessarily the way you will need to set up their suspension for the way they ride and the terrain they will be riding on. In most types of racing, a beginner will notice less benefits from better suspension components than a more advanced rider. If your rider is new and in the correct weight range for the suspension specifications, chances are they will be just fine with stock suspension components.

Once the suspension starts holding back the rider, that’s when you may want to consider modifying it. There are companies on this site who specialize in suspension like (link to our suspension sponsor Full Factory Offroad) and we highly recommend speaking with them before spending lots of money on unnecessary parts or ruining expensive suspension components. There are also many instructional videos you can view located on our youth videos (link to our youth video page), but this article is a brief overview of your suspension and how it functions. Some bikes do not have all the adjustments listed here, so refer to your owner’s manual on what you can adjust before proceeding.

Figuring out your correct spring rate is one of the most overlooked suspension settings. Starting with the correct front and rear springs is key. The springs should coincide with the weight of the bike, and the riders weight, including riding gear. Typically the manufacturer will set up the bikes for an average sized rider. Check this first in your manual to see if the stock springs are correct. If not, you will need to order and have different springs installed according to the correct weight before adjusting the settings. Some of the new models come with “air forks”. These adjust the spring rate using air. Instead of changing springs, you can simply adjust the air pressure for your weight or the riding conditions, such as a motocross track vs. rocky trail.

Keep in mind, working on suspension usually requires special tools and you will need to invest in a few things if attempting to work on your suspension components as they are expensive to replace if damaged! If you have no experience with suspension work or are not mechanically inclined, we recommend that you refer to a suspension tuner such as (link to our suspension sponsor Full Factory Offroad) for help.

Start with checking your forks. Assuming you now have the correct springs, you may also adjust your fork height by loosening the triple clamps, and twisting the forks slightly and sliding them up or down to make the bike more balanced and comfortable. Place the bike on a stand if possible and only adjust one fork at a time so they don’t both slide out together. Don’t be fooled! You can make a HUGE difference in the handling/turning by moving the forks just a few millimeters up or down. This will require some time riding with them at different settings and see what works best. When tightening the triple clamp bolts,

Don’t forget to use a torque wrench and refer to the manual for the torque specifications on the triple clamp bolts! Typically the upper clamps are tighter than the lower clamps bolts so check the specs on both. By overtightening the triple clamps, especially the lower ones, you can cause the forks to bind up on the inside, causing damage and making your suspension operate improperly!

You should also check your rear shock pre-load. It is easier to have a few people standing by to help with this procedure. Sit the bike on a stand with the rear wheel completely off the ground and measure (in millimeters) the longest distance from the middle of the rear axle to a point straight above it on the rear fender; then write it down. This is your starting measurement. Take the bike off the stand and have someone hold and balance the bike by standing over the front fender and holding the handlbars. Have the rider get on and bounce the bike a few times before sitting down. Then have someone else measure using the same points on the bike and subtract this number from your first measurement.

If the number is in the correct range according to your manual or a suspension chart, your spring pre-load should be set up correctly for your weight. If it is wrong, you may need to adjust your spring preload on the rear shock. Loosen the lock ring on the rear shock and spin the adjustment ring for the spring up or down depending on how much more or less tension you need on the spring. You may need to remove the shock to do this. Then check the race sag again and see if you need to make any more adjustments.

If your measurement is beyond the limits of the spring, you may need a replacement of the right size for your weight. Once you have both ends set up with the proper spring rates, the bike should feel balanced when jumping or riding over technical terrain.

The next step is to check the suspension adjusters (“clickers”) on your bike. Typically, there are adjustments on the top and/or bottom of the forks and rear shock. The manufacturer may have a chart in the manual; this tells you what each one is and where to set them as a starting point for the terrain you will be riding. If not, a good rule of thumb is to set them all to the middle setting and start adjusting from there.

The compression adjuster corrects the speed the shock or fork will compress. Usually, by turning the compression clicker in (clockwise), it makes the shock or fork compress at a slower rate. By turning the compression clicker out (counterclockwise) it lets the fork or shock compress at a faster rate.

As an example, if you are riding motocross where there are jumps with harder landings, you may want to adjust the compression to a slower setting (i.e., turn clockwise) so the suspension won’t fully compress past its limits when you land.

In contrast, if you are riding on rocks or rough trails, you may want to adjust the compression to a faster setting (i.e turn counterclockwise) so you feel less jarring. Your rebound clickers work the same way, except they control the speed which the suspension rebounds. If you want the bike to “settle”, you should turn the clickers clockwise which slows the rebound. If you need the suspension to have more rebound, you will want to turn the adjusters counterclockwise. Some bikes have two compression adjustments on the shock, allowing for high-speed and low-speed settings.

This isn’t in reference to how fast you are going but how fast your shock is moving in and out. Landing off of a large jump would make the shock travel through the stroke fast when landing (high-speed) and riding through gradual uphills and downhills will make the shock travel through the stroke slower (low speed). Think of these settings as oil flowing through a hole inside the fork/shock.

Turning the adjusters clockwise will make the hole smaller, thus slowing the speed of the flow of oil through the hole, which, in turn, slows the suspension from compressing or rebounding. Turning the adjusters counterclockwise will make the hole bigger, allowing the oil to flow faster, thereby allowing the suspension to go through the stroke faster. There are many things that affect your suspension and its components, but hopefully this helps you get started. Click here (need a link to our suspension sponsor Full Factory Offroad) for additional help with your suspension set up.

Tires

Tires are the only thing connecting you and the bike to the ground so it’s one of the most important items to set up correctly. There are many tire manufacturers with various types and sizes of tires. There are different tires for sand, mud, dirt, rocks, and everything in between. So, it can be very difficult to determine which tires are best for your application. There are also tire debates on every website imaginable, which just adds to the confusion. Let’s take a general look at tires and where to start.

First, determine what your terrain is going to be. If you are riding sand dunes, then a sand-paddle tire is usually the first choice for that. These tires have large scoops instead of knobbies to dig into the sand. If you are riding hard pack dirt, you would most likely go with a hard-terrain style tire. In contrast, if you are at a groomed track with very soft plowed dirt or sand, you should choose a soft terrain tire. If you are going trail riding or aren’t sure what the conditions will be, you will most likely want to select an intermediate tire, which will work good in most conditions but not necessarily great in any of them.

One of the most important factors in selecting a specific tire is the type of rubber compound. A soft terrain tire is typically going to have a harder rubber compound. This is to help the tire dig into the sand, soft dirt, or mud to give the tire more traction, instead of flexing and staying on top of the soft terrain. They usually wear longer than a hard-terrain tire.

A hard terrain tire uses a softer compound to get as much traction as possible while riding on hard packed dirt or rock. Due to the softer compound, the rubber wears quicker but worth the trade-off for better traction. As expected, an intermediate tire is somewhere in between the two. There are also "gummy” tire compounds, which are extremely soft for conditions such as slick, wet roots, or muddy rocks. These are for extreme conditions and can wear very quickly. However, they can be very effective in the right circumstances.

There are also several hybrid tires offered if you find yourself riding both hard and soft terrain simultaneously. They may have a stiff sidewall with a soft center tread or look like a knobby and paddle tire combined. Try to find what type of terrain you are planning on riding and make your selection accordingly. It should also be noted a lot of specialty tires may not be available for kid’s bikes. So, check with your local shop or look at the different tire manufacturers to get an idea of what is available. There are several sponsors on our site “here” (link to sponsors page) who can help answer questions for you as well.

Tubes/Tubeless/Mousses

What goes inside your tires are very important as well. Rubber tubes are the most common and the cheapest. Air pressure itself is a huge factor on the traction you will get from your tires. You could pick the best tire and suspension in the world but if you have 50 psi in your tubes, the bike will ride very rough and not get very good traction. If you only have 5 psi in your tubes, you may get great traction, but you’re probably going to get a flat tire. The standard pressure is about 10-15 psi.

The higher the tube pressure, the lower the chances of getting a flat from the tire collapsing and pinching the tube into the rim when hitting an object such as a rock, root, or any sharp edge. However, the trade-off with higher tire pressure is lower traction so finding a good middle ground is key. You can also compensate for lower air pressure with thicker tubes, thus lowering your chances for a pinch flat. Some people may run tire sealants to combat flat tires as well.

If you are going to be riding in an area with lots of cacti or thorns, are serious about racing, or maybe lack the skill and/or desire to change tubes, you may want to look at mousse tubes. Getting a flat tire with mousse tubes is virtually impossible since they are solid foam inserts inside the tire which replaces a normal air-filled tube. There are several manufacturers with different types of mousse tubes available. You can choose different foam density as well, depending on the type of traction you want.

You don’t have the flexibility to choose any psi, but you can usually choose softer (8-11 psi) or harder (12-15 psi) compounds. Mousse tubes do eventually get softer from wear so you may want to choose the harder compound first as it will eventually become softer. When installing these, you will want to use a lot of mousse lube with them. This isn’t necessarily to assist you when installing them, although a little bit helps with that.

The main purpose of the mousse lube is to prevent heat from building up inside the tire which is a key factor to the foam breaking down over time. In fact, you shouldn’t ride with mousse tubes at high speeds for long periods, especially on pavement where heat can build up if you want them to last a long time. Some people have been known to get several seasons of riding out of them, and others change them after a few races.

In our experience, if you change tires often or at least keep them lubed in between tire changes, a mouse should perform for 40-60 hours, if not more. If you start to see some wear and tear or the mousse looks like it is decreasing in size, you can cut a 6” wedge from an old mousse, cut your mousse and wedge it into the tire, increasing the tube size and therefore prolonging the life of the mousse. Some manufacturers even offer these as a separate product if you don’t have any old mousses to use. Since mousses are basically installed as if you have fully inflated tubes, they are typically harder to install than regular tubes, but once you master the technique, it becomes easier. There are several videos on our site “here” (link to videos) explaining how to do this. The technique is very similar to installing typical tubes, with a few changes.

In comparison to standard tubes, they are about 10 times the cost. A typical tube will cost about $13 each and a standard mousse will be about $130. You really need to weigh the cost of never getting a flat vs. taking the chance of getting one. For example, if you just ride at the local track or don’t venture too far from your vehicle where you could easily change a tube, it probably doesn’t make sense to upgrade to foam tubes. However, if you are planning on traveling a few states away and are going to be riding or racing for days, you may want to purchase mousse tubes and not risk a flat, which would ruin your trip.

Some bikes (mainly adventure bikes or street bikes) have rims which are usually spokeless or sealed-spoke rims and don’t use tubes at all. There is also a system called Tubliss, which allows you to seal off your spokes and turn your spoked rims into wheels, which don’t require tubes and control the air pressure directly inside the tires. This allows you to run lower tire pressures for better traction without worrying about pinch flats from tubes. If you do get a puncture, you can plug it like a normal car tire and not have to remove the wheel from the bike. However, if you have a failure from this system due to a leak or sliced tire, it is difficult to change it back to a tubed system on the side of the trail, so keep that in mind.

We are hopeful these youth racing pages have given you the information to get your kiddo out there to ride, race, and have lots of fun together! Don’t forget to watch the youth training videos on our site “here” (add link). Please let us know if there is other helpful information you would like to see added. We built this page to help future riders race, have a ton of fun, and become more involved in this great sport! Keep checking back, as we will be adding as much content as possible to help you reach this goal! Happy racing!!!