I have spent the last 28 years learning to ride a dirt bike and how to get the most out of them, most of my technical knowledge coming in the last 15 years. And to be honest, I find it frustrating at the very least when I see people throwing money at things b/c it appears that it is the only answer. And I'm not saying that my way(s) is the only way, lot's of ways to skin a cat, and I have certainly learned a great deal from the folks at this site, and continue to learn.
Let me share a quick story with you. I used to race shifter karts in the mid 90's, and I was pretty good at it. I raced with a great bunch of guys that all knew they had to work on Monday, so while the racing was intense, everyone treated each other, and the machines with respect-open wheel cars are very very unforgiving.
Anyway, there was this one guy who was leading the points chase, he was sponsored by Red Line and some other folks, and had great equipment. He and I were good acquaintances at the track and we enjoyed racing with each other. I suppose that I should mention here that the only reason I wasn't leading the points and was second in the points was b/c I worked rotating shift work and could not make all the races, but, when I did come to the races I would always beat this guy. I digress........ I had done my homework on how to set up my Kali chassis, and while I ran a basically stock 92 YZ250 motor on my kart, I almost always qualified on pole and won races, b/c my Kart handled well-on used tires most of the time, while the sponsored guys ran new tires almost every race.
The Red Line fellow had a great opportunity, well connected, sponsored etc-and was hoping to go race Toyota Atlantics, the stepping stone to Indy lights and Indy cars at the time. There was big national race down in Arizona, formula K race way north of Phoenix, one year and all his sponsors were there, and he was carrying the ESPN 2 on board camera. I was killing this guy in qualifying, and the qualifying heats, and he was really feeling the pressure, as his sponsors were obviously not happy, and my buddy who was helping me, told me that the ESPN crew had come over and inquired as to who I was and whether or not I would be interested in carrying the camera. I knew how he was setting the toe on his Kart, and it was totally off, you could see it just by looking at the Kart, his front tires were badly worn on the inside edges. I went over to talk with him about improving his performance, and he told me he just couldn't figure out how I was going so fast on used tires etc.... He asked me what I thought about changing the camber and caster on his front end, and what I thought he could do to improve his machine. Long story short I offered to set his kart up so that at least he would have a fighting chance of beating me in the second days qualifying, heats and main. I was like "hey, you can try it out in practice, check your times, and if you don't like the feel, or go slower, you'll have plenty of time to put it back" He agreed and brought his Kart over to my pit area.
You may wonder why I would do this. Because I liked the guy and his wife, and he had a genuine opportunity to get into the big leagues.
I used a couple of bricks and a very straight piece of thick aluminum bar stock that I would lay parallel to the ground, on top of the bricks, even with the axle centers, between the front and rear wheels on one side. I would lay this straight edge across the rear rim, and then go to the front and measure the distance on the leading and trailing edge of the front rim, and make it parallel with the rear wheel. I would then check the steering wheel to make sure it was centered, if not I adjusted the tie rod on that side. Then I'd take the straight edge over to the other side and repeat the procedure, and make sure the front wheel was in parallel with the rear. If memory serves, I think I put about 1-2mm of toe in on my Kart. The other competitors had these big aluminum wheels that would bolt on in place of their regular front wheels to check the toe with. The only problem with this was that you had to remove the fuel tank to get the measurement across the back or trailing edge of the wheel. Since nobody wanted to do that b/c it was a pain, they would take the measurements at about a 45 degree angle, taking the rear measurement across the bottom of the Kart. Which is the same way I had seen Mr. Red Line doing it.
So I bring MR. Red Lines Kart over and we find that his Kart is running like 25mm of toe out, like I said before you could see it, it looked duck footed LOL! So I spend like 10 or 15 minutes setting his Kart up and we were done, straightening his steering wheel as well. When he was pushing his Kart back to his pit, he turned and looked at me and couldn't believe how much easier it was to push.
About 30 minutes later, I see Mr. Red line over at his pit, with one of the other competitors that I thrashed soundly every weekend, helping Mr. Red Line reset his front toe in the fashion I described above-he never even went out in practice and tried the set up I had given him. I had even showed him on my Kart before we started how mine was set up and how I did it. Keep in mind, in this sport, when you walked up to someones Kart in the pits to talk with them, they would throw a blanket over their Kart, to hide something.
In the end, he was not even close to being a factor in the final days heats or especially the main. Due to a schlamazel at the beginning of the race I was in second place a 3/4 of a lap down to the leader-the race really should have been red flagged and restarted. At end I had made it all up and had caught the leader in the final esses 50' before the finish but couldn't get around him.
Mr Red Line? I lapped him in the process of catching the leader.
The moral of story here is that you can show a horse a trough full of clean, refreshing, cool water, but, sometimes the horse would rather go on being thirsty.
Let me share a quick story with you. I used to race shifter karts in the mid 90's, and I was pretty good at it. I raced with a great bunch of guys that all knew they had to work on Monday, so while the racing was intense, everyone treated each other, and the machines with respect-open wheel cars are very very unforgiving.
Anyway, there was this one guy who was leading the points chase, he was sponsored by Red Line and some other folks, and had great equipment. He and I were good acquaintances at the track and we enjoyed racing with each other. I suppose that I should mention here that the only reason I wasn't leading the points and was second in the points was b/c I worked rotating shift work and could not make all the races, but, when I did come to the races I would always beat this guy. I digress........ I had done my homework on how to set up my Kali chassis, and while I ran a basically stock 92 YZ250 motor on my kart, I almost always qualified on pole and won races, b/c my Kart handled well-on used tires most of the time, while the sponsored guys ran new tires almost every race.
The Red Line fellow had a great opportunity, well connected, sponsored etc-and was hoping to go race Toyota Atlantics, the stepping stone to Indy lights and Indy cars at the time. There was big national race down in Arizona, formula K race way north of Phoenix, one year and all his sponsors were there, and he was carrying the ESPN 2 on board camera. I was killing this guy in qualifying, and the qualifying heats, and he was really feeling the pressure, as his sponsors were obviously not happy, and my buddy who was helping me, told me that the ESPN crew had come over and inquired as to who I was and whether or not I would be interested in carrying the camera. I knew how he was setting the toe on his Kart, and it was totally off, you could see it just by looking at the Kart, his front tires were badly worn on the inside edges. I went over to talk with him about improving his performance, and he told me he just couldn't figure out how I was going so fast on used tires etc.... He asked me what I thought about changing the camber and caster on his front end, and what I thought he could do to improve his machine. Long story short I offered to set his kart up so that at least he would have a fighting chance of beating me in the second days qualifying, heats and main. I was like "hey, you can try it out in practice, check your times, and if you don't like the feel, or go slower, you'll have plenty of time to put it back" He agreed and brought his Kart over to my pit area.
You may wonder why I would do this. Because I liked the guy and his wife, and he had a genuine opportunity to get into the big leagues.
I used a couple of bricks and a very straight piece of thick aluminum bar stock that I would lay parallel to the ground, on top of the bricks, even with the axle centers, between the front and rear wheels on one side. I would lay this straight edge across the rear rim, and then go to the front and measure the distance on the leading and trailing edge of the front rim, and make it parallel with the rear wheel. I would then check the steering wheel to make sure it was centered, if not I adjusted the tie rod on that side. Then I'd take the straight edge over to the other side and repeat the procedure, and make sure the front wheel was in parallel with the rear. If memory serves, I think I put about 1-2mm of toe in on my Kart. The other competitors had these big aluminum wheels that would bolt on in place of their regular front wheels to check the toe with. The only problem with this was that you had to remove the fuel tank to get the measurement across the back or trailing edge of the wheel. Since nobody wanted to do that b/c it was a pain, they would take the measurements at about a 45 degree angle, taking the rear measurement across the bottom of the Kart. Which is the same way I had seen Mr. Red Line doing it.
So I bring MR. Red Lines Kart over and we find that his Kart is running like 25mm of toe out, like I said before you could see it, it looked duck footed LOL! So I spend like 10 or 15 minutes setting his Kart up and we were done, straightening his steering wheel as well. When he was pushing his Kart back to his pit, he turned and looked at me and couldn't believe how much easier it was to push.
About 30 minutes later, I see Mr. Red line over at his pit, with one of the other competitors that I thrashed soundly every weekend, helping Mr. Red Line reset his front toe in the fashion I described above-he never even went out in practice and tried the set up I had given him. I had even showed him on my Kart before we started how mine was set up and how I did it. Keep in mind, in this sport, when you walked up to someones Kart in the pits to talk with them, they would throw a blanket over their Kart, to hide something.
In the end, he was not even close to being a factor in the final days heats or especially the main. Due to a schlamazel at the beginning of the race I was in second place a 3/4 of a lap down to the leader-the race really should have been red flagged and restarted. At end I had made it all up and had caught the leader in the final esses 50' before the finish but couldn't get around him.
Mr Red Line? I lapped him in the process of catching the leader.
The moral of story here is that you can show a horse a trough full of clean, refreshing, cool water, but, sometimes the horse would rather go on being thirsty.
But, what brought that on? I hope that you aren't getting worked up by some anonymous a-hole with a keyboard. Those guys aren't worth the time it takes to type a good rant! 
