Its a different device. The one for the start is the same as mx. It is a rudimentary device that locks the front in the compressed position until load on the front wheel unlocks it. The other one lowers the rear coming out of corners. I honestly have no idea how it works. I don't know if its a button they push or if its gps activated like their traction control. Maybe lex knows. Paging Lex to isle 9, Lex to isle 9 your services are needed. I do know that it is the most noticeable on the ktm.
Wish I could be the arbiter of fact and conjecture regarding ride height, but it's an opaque area of development, and very little leaks.
The official story is they push the button on the handlebar, and the ride height engages and disengages hydraulically based upon the attitude of the bike and suspension pressure/position of the rear shock. Reality is probably different than the official narrative, and some social media posts and interviews have alluded to ride height devices being nearly ungovernable. All suspension components are hydraulic so the issue is where the line is drawn. At what point does something become electronically-controlled; therefore, illegal? How do we police this line of demarcation?
The paddock seems to have rejected a set of regulations that they ratified about 2-2.5 years ago. This makes me think that the regulations for ride height have not been successful, sort of like the first attempt at tire pressure regulations (maybe the current attempt, too?). In other words, the GPC's long-held belief that ride height devices were unserviceable was the correct opinion all along.
But the manufacturers have been comfortable with loopholes in the past, Suzuki famously had a mechanical variable valve timing system, though variable valve timing was banned. So why does ride height scare them so much? Imo, a major onus for adopting ride height was Marquez. He was steamrolling the competition, and the Marc-Honda combination had cracked the 1000cc Michelin code, similar to what Bautista and Ducati are doing in World Superbike. The GPC was probably assuming another 5 years of Marquez domination because he was in his prime, and Dovi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Rossi were all fading away without any replacements. Unlike Rossi and Lorenzo before him, Marc was not moving to other manufacturer to keep the story interesting.
So imagine the frustration of the other MSMA members. Marquez won't switch teams, and the regulations are too stringent to allow other manufacturers to build a better mousetrap. So Ducati develops a hydraulic ride height system that works around the rules, and they rally the other manufacturers around ride height. I also wouldn't be surprised if the agreement to ratify ride height for 2022-2026 was Ducati giving the components to everyone to "keep costs down" (lol). This could be part of the reason the MSMA will not dump the system, despite its disastrous impact on MotoGP, turning grand prix racing into 2-wheel-F1. Front shapeshifters were not equally well received.
Marquez suffers a near career-ending injury in 2020, and over the last 3.5 seasons he's accomplished very little. This season he's flirting with another career ending injury because the Honda is so far off the pace. Furthermore, since 2022, Ducati have been unleashing the true potential of ride height devices and aero, and they have 8 bikes on the grid, so the other manufacturers are just as much deadwood now as during the height of Marquez.
By letting a snake into the garden, and by holding a few low-IQ rumination sessions, the MSMA have unleashed something that they now want to kill with fire.
True? Who knows. But it's an interesting story
