This reminds me of a lesson I learned a few months after I started road racing back in 1981. I had a bone stock 750F Honda. I had run four races in Texas and was just starting to figure out how to ride a race pace. I went with a friend to Roebling Road in Savanah. As always, I ran not only 750 production class, but 750 modified, open production and sometimes open modified.
Because I was a relatively new rider and riding at a new course - and riders from that area I was not familiar with, I was still a bit tentative. In the 750 modified race on the first lap I was behind a guy on a pretty bad-ass modified 750 Honda. I figured he must be really fast to have such a heavily modified bike with all the good stuff on it.
After about a lap and a half of being held up by him, I finally passed him and never saw him again. The moral of the story is that how someone else sets up their bike does not always relate to how fast they ride theirs, or you ride yours. I've never gotten hung up on how a bike is set up. I learn to ride it fast the way it is.
I'm not implying that bike setup does not make a difference - it does. But what works for one person does not always relate to what works or does not for others.
