The handling model in general for the MotoGP 22 game has been overhauled and is quite different even to previous MotoGP games. There’s quite a lot of new stuff to think about, but just one more of these new features is the so called Ride Height Device or RHD control. What exactly is this and how do we use it?

The Ride Height Device (RHD) is a driving aid that is meant to be activated using the triangle or Y button coming out of corners to deliver better acceleration and bike control. It can also be set to activate automatically, but it’s not clear that it offers any real speed benefit on the MotoGP 22 game and can even be a hindrance in some cases.

In other words, it’s another setting/control that’s adding yet another layer of complexity to a game that already has very difficult handling and leaves you with a lot of things to do at once to control the bike.

Given that it’s benefits may be marginal if there are any at all, it’s advised for newer players of the game especially to leave it on Semi-Automatic, let the game handle it, and focus on learning other aspects of the handling. Perhaps it’s something to return to for more experienced players who’ve got used to the very difficult handling model of this game.

Let’s look at the RHD in more detail – what it is, how to use it, whether it works and whether you should even bother using it

What The RHD Is Supposed To Do

The Ride Height Device or RHD is simply a device attached to the bikes that lowers the rear end of the bike coming out of corners. This is meant to offer two main benefits:

1. Lower the centre of gravity of the bike, improving acceleration.
2. Prevent the front of the car lifting under acceleration (“wheelies”).

It’s basically in theory meant to be a kind of a MotoGP equivalent to the ERS or DRS driving aids in F1 – give you a power/speed boost along straights. Just like you’d activate or deploy your DRS/ERS coming out of corners on an F1 game, you’d also activate your RHD system coming out of corners on MotoGP 22 to deliver better acceleration and bike control.

How To Use The RHD

Firstly, the RHD is only on the MotoGP class bikes, not the Moto2 or Moto3 spec bikes. It’s basically an assist or feature on the bike’s controls that can be set to activate itself, or by you doing it manually.

There are two RHD settings within the Driving Aids menu:

• Semi Automatic – Applies the RHD for you coming out of corners, so you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself (recommended for newer players)
• Manual – You have to activate it yourself by pressing the button you’ve assigned to the RDH (triangle or Y by default)

If you using it on the Manual setting, you just need to press the RHD button coming out of slower corners and onto long straights.

There’s an RHD indicator on the HUD in the bottom right corner; when it’s a activated, this space fills in green:

Activated:

Here’s your colour code for this RHD icon:

• No colour – Deactivated
• Orange – Ready to be activated
• Green – Is activated

But here’s an important consideration regarding using this feature:

Once activated, the RHD is only deactivated under heavy braking, not by pressing the RHD button again. This means it can still stay activated in faster corners and affect handling, causing understeer and pushing you off the track.

RHD Control & Function Demonstrated

Does The RHD Even Work On MotoGP 22?

As with any new features on racing games, there’s loads of talk about the RHD. But a more important question is does it actually work in improving speed? Does activating the Ride Height Device actually make you go any faster on the straights?

The answer to this may surprise you for MotoGP 22 – it doesn’t seem to make you any faster. See the video below where’s it tested. Admittedly, this was done on a very early build of the game, but it’s not even clear now that it offers and benefit.

In fairness, it DOES help keep the bike down coming out of slow corners onto longer straights (especially uphill corner exits). Test with the RHD disabled and enabled, and you’ll see it does stop the front of the bike lifting up so much on certain corner exits on certain tracks (that uphill right hander at Austria that leads onto the back straight is an example).

It might also offer more of a visual or “placebo” benefit, where it feels and looks like you’re going faster. But it’s dubious whether there’s any real effect on lap time.

Video – RHD Tested On MotoGP 22 (Doesn’t Seem To Make A Difference)

Bottom line conclusion from the video:

Enabling the RHD does not improve top speed at the end of straights versus disabling it, and in fact it seems the opposite way round – your top speed is actually sometimes LESS when you enable it.

Some players do report that it helps them keep the front end of the bike down coming out of some corners. There are some good examples of this in the video above. It might be helpful on tracks with a lot of heavy braking zones, long straights and sharp hairpins.

But equally, other players complain that it seems to interfere with the braking or causes understeer and offers no real speed benefit. So whether you use it manually or not is down to personal preference, which we’ll come to now.

Should You Use The RHD?

For a game that already has very difficult handling as it is, trying to manually control yet another feature that doesn’t even make a difference in many cases would be a waste of time. However, it does also keep the bike down on certain corner exits.

Therefore I personally would use the RHD, but leave it on the Semi-Automatic setting so the game handles it for you. However be aware that it doesn’t always disable in less heavy braking zones and can sometimes push you wide on corners and make the handling more difficult.

If you do decide to use it manually, you’re probably going to  need a detailed track by track, corner by corner understanding or where to use and not use it. Where it helps you and where it actually harms you and pushes you wide. The embedded video above offers some good examples of this. The bottom line yardstick to measure it’s effectiveness by is: is using it making your lap times faster?

But do your own testing to make sure. Here’s a simple process to arrive at an answer as to whether to use it or not:

Step #1 – Testing – Try some laps in a GP/Career mode weekend, both enabling and disabling the RHD onto long straight and testing your top speeds. See what difference you notice. It’s not really evident that it makes you any faster on straights, but it MAY make it easier to control the bike out of corners and especially uphill sections. Alternatively, some players find it makes the bike handling worse for them, so test and see what your preference is.

Bottom line – if it makes the bike either faster or at least easier to ride for you, it might be worth using it. For speed though, focus on overall lap time, not speed on the straights.

Step #2 – Configure RHD Settings – Once you decide that the RHD either does or does not make any difference for you, choose your setting for this function under the Driving Aids menu:

• Semi-Automatic – If you do want to use it on the straights, the Semi-Auto setting will enable it for you exiting corners by default. Easier setting.
• Manual – You have to enable if yourself (input defaults to the triangle or Y button) on straights, or you can just leave it and not use it on this setting if it doesn’t make any difference for you and you don’t want to use it.