The Circuit of The Americas in Austin is a tricky circuit to get round on a MotoGP bike for sure. With all the chicanes and twisty sections, you’ve got to be extremely patient and precise.

At this track you need a setup that you’re comfortable cornering with, as you’ve got everything here – fast chicanes, prolonged corners where you’re having to ease round on partial accelerator, and sharp hairpins. It’s a challenge to stay on the bike here for sure, and you need a setup you feel comfortable with first and foremost, and not necessarily one that’s blisteringly fast.

Doing some of my own testing, I did manage to find a nice bike setup that allowed me to lap more consistently.

Here is a bike setup for the MotoGP class for CoTA Texas:

• 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 – 3
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 5-5-3-3-3-3
    • Final ratio – 6
    • Slipper clutch – 7
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 355 mm
    • Rear disc – 220 mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 2
    • Engine braking – 5
    • Anti-wheelie – 5
    • Power mapping – 2

The engine braking and Anti-wheelie settings are quite high, but this is just personal preference. Lower them if you like. But I found this setup helped me lap the circuit most consistently and made the tricky cornering sections easier.

Alternative Austin Circuit MotoGP Class Bike Setup

The above setup uses slightly harder or stiffer values on average. I liked the feel of it, but some players like to use softer suspension and geometry settings.

If you do prefer a softer setup, here’s an alternate setup for Texas (CoTA) for MotoGP bikes:

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

This setup definitely has a “softer” feel to it, but I didn’t like it as much driving it around CoTA. I found it harder to take the the corners precisely and just struggled for rhythm using it. But setups and car handling is very subjective on these games, so test it out yourself and see if you prefer it.

Moto2 and Moto3 Class Bike Setups For Austin

The Moto2 and Moto3 bikes are easier to control than the insanely fast accelerating MotoGP bikes, which really does help round the technical Circuit of The Americas. You’ve got more time to prepare for the successive corners and the braking is easier as well, so a setup is less crucial.

However, if you want to customize your setup, check out our MotoGP 22 generic setups page, which has custom setups for the Moto2 and Moto3 class bikes as well.

If I find better custom setups for these bikes, I’ll add them here.

Tips For Riding Around Austin

This track is one of the harder ones to get consistently right for sure. We might be able to put together a single lap here without corner cutting or falling off, but stringing together consistent laps in succession is really tricky round here.

Here’s some extra tips for lapping this circuit.

Accelerator – You need to be really cautious and reserved on the accelerator round here, especially on the MotoGP class beasts that deliver a lot of power. You’re only really on full power for any length of time on the shortish pit straight and and the long back straight. Other than that, it’s short dabs or squirts on the power only, before you need to be braking for the next corners.

Turn 1 – Even though it’s an uphill entry, you still need to brake very early on MotoGP bikes to get them stopped, like as soon as you start heading uphill. It’s also a deceptively sharp hairpin and you might need to use the rear brake alongside the front brake to get the bike turned in properly.

Esses – The sector 1 “esses” are perhaps the trickiest corners to get consistently right, as they all come one after the other. You need to get your lines right all the way through, or it messes up your line for the following corner. You’re barely on the accelerator at all through this section – either the smallest dab or sometimes none at all and you just lean over right away, ready for the next corner.

Back Straight – Try to get a good exit onto it for the best speed – you can cut the kerb a little bit on the sharp left hairpin that leads onto it, but not too much. As for braking, as soon as you pass the overhead sign, start thinking about stopping the bike. It’s quite a long braking zone into the left hairpin and it’s very easy to get too aggressive and over-run the corner.