The Phillip Island track is another perennial circuit that’s been on the calendar for years. Just looking at the layout, you’d think it’s an easy track, but I find it one of the trickiest to consistently get right.

Any setup you use on this track needs to be good under braking and have excellent balance around prolonged corners, of which there’s plenty on this track.

I found a decent bike setup that worked OK for me, but honestly the bigger challenge on this track is staying on without over-running corners and falling off, regardless of the setup you use. It’s really hard to get consistently right and needs a lot of practice to get used to.

Here is a bike setup for the MotoGP class for Phillip Island:

• Suspension (Front Fork):
  • • Front pre-load – 1
    • Oil Quantity – 1
    • Front Spring Hardness – 1
    • Front Swingarm compression – 5
    • Front Swingarm extension – 7
• Rear Single Shock Absorber:
  • • Rear Pre-load – 7
    • Swingarm connector – 4
    • Rear spring hardness – 3
    • Single shock absorber compression – 4
    • Single shock absorber extension – 7
• Vehicle Geometry:
  • • Steering head inclination – 1
    • Trail – 7
    • Steering plate position – 7
    • Rear swingarm length – 2
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 4-4-4-4-3-3
    • Final ratio – 5
    • Slipper clutch – 7
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 355 mm
    • Rear disc – 220 mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 2
    • Engine braking – 5
    • Anti-wheelie – 4
    • Power mapping – 2

Good traction is a must round here. Running a TC value of 1 often isn’t enough and you can lose the bike round longer corners. At least 2 and sometimes 3 is needed. Also, it needs to have an optimal level of turn in to make corners correctly. This setup worked best for me, but tweak to your own liking or try the alternate one below.

Alternate Bike Setup For Phillip Island (MotoGP)

I did try another setup that was OK, but not quite as effective as the above setup.

Here’s an alternate bike setup for MotoGP bikes for Phillip Island:

• Suspension (Front Fork):
  • • Front pre-load – 1
    • Oil Quantity – 1
    • Front Spring Hardness – 1
    • Front Swingarm compression – 3
    • Front Swingarm extension – 6
• Rear Single Shock Absorber:
  • • Rear Pre-load – 7
    • Swingarm connector – 4
    • Rear spring hardness – 3
    • Single shock absorber compression – 4
    • Single shock absorber extension – 7
• Vehicle Geometry:
  • • Steering head inclination – 2
    • Trail – 4
    • Steering plate position – 7
    • Rear swingarm length – 4
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 7-7-6-6-5-4
    • Final ratio – 6
    • Slipper clutch – 7
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 340 mm (High Mass)
    • Rear disc – 220 mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 2
    • Engine braking – 4
    • Anti-wheelie – 4
    • Power mapping – 3

This worked quite well in terms of being consistent, but I got better lap times out of the first setup. Try it out though and see how it feels as bike handling and setups is very subjective and different settings work for different players.

Moto2 and Moto3 Bike Setups For Phillip Island

The Moto2 and Moto3 bikes don’t have such insane acceleration as the MotoGP bikes, but this track is still hard to get right regardless of the bike class you use.

If you’re looking for custom setups for these bike classes, check out my generic setups page which has basic starter setups also for Moto2/Moto3 class bikes. Test these against a default and modify as needed to see if you can find more time.

You can also try porting over your MotoGP setup as far as it can be (some settings parameters are different for different bike classes), but it’s not guaranteed to work well on all tracks.

Tips For Riding Around Phillip Island

Phillip Island is a tricky circuit to consistently lap around without falling off. You spend a lot of time leaning around prolonged corners while either coasting or partially on the accelerator. And with the powerful MotoGP bikes especially, it’s very easy to apply too much power and run off the track.

You need to be very precise and cautious to get the hang of Phillip Island. Here’s some extra tips for riding round there and navigating certain corners.

Traction – If you keep losing the rear of the bike around prolonged corners (especially turn 2) even if you’re staying on the racing line, it’s because the bike is losing traction. Set a TC value of at least 2 or 3 on your ECU dash to counter this.

Leaning – You’re leaning over heavily a lot on this track, which means you’ve got to get the braking right, or you’ll come off the bike trying to lean too much to make corners you’ve over-run. Also where you’re accelerating out of corners whilst also leaning (like the last 2 corners), you need to be careful and progressive on the power to avoid pushing too far wide and off the track.

Turn 1/2 – Go about 1.5-2 seconds past the overhead sign before braking for turn 1. You can carry quite a lot of speed into this corner, and into turn 2 as well because it’s cambered in your favour. Make sure you’ve got strong enough traction settings to navigate the prolonged right hander that is turn 2 without losing the rear end.

Turn 4 – This for me is the hardest corner on the circuit and the easiest to over-shoot. As soon as you come out of the left hand kink that is turn 3, come off the power immediately on MotoGP bikes and apply both the front and rear brakes to get the bike stopped in time. It’s easy to over-run this corner even when you think you’ve braked plenty early enough. The turn 5 hairpin that follows straight after is also easy to over-shoot – just a short dab on the power out of turn 4 before you need to apply the brakes again.

Turn 10 – Another tricky somewhat unsighted hairpin that it’s easy to over-run as the entrance is downhill. As soon as you pass over the crest of turn 9, apply both the front and rear brakes to make the sharp right of turn 10.