"I have gone back and forth between the stock WP suspension and the WP XACT Pro Components a time or two on the 2020.5 KTM 450 SX-F. I have seen a lot of riders with the AEO/REP stickers on their suspension and wanted see what this company was all about. Mark Johnson was the WP factory Red Bull KTM suspension tuner for over ten years and he recently thought it was time to expand and create his own suspension company. He recently started Research Engineering Performance in order to use what he learned at the factory and incorporate that to help us normal everyday Joe’s that want their suspension re-valved. I had a set of WP XACT Pro 7548 spring forks and a XACT Pro 8950 shock laying around, so I decided to send my stuff off to Mark and the guys at REP. 

Before REP took delivery of my suspension they asked me a few questions. They asked what type of riding I was doing, what type of rider I am and of course what I didn’t like about my previous WP Pro Component fork/shock setting.

With the REP valving I get more front tire contact patch feeling on lean angle and you can start your lean earlier when setting up for corners without getting the high front end, vague feeling like you do with the AER fork. With the AER fork I get some pushing in the front end through the middle With the REP/XACT fork I can lean in the corner and the fork stays planted, which lets my front end settle and bite. The REP/WP XACT fork also feels less active on braking bumps and allows me to leave the throttle on longer once the de-cel bumps start. I am able to jump in and out of bigger bumps with the REP valving without having the fork rebound too quick and be too active. If I wanted to pound through the bumps, the fork had better damping control than any other WP fork I have tried to date, through the middle to end part of the stroke.

The most notable change was to my wrists when over jumping/flat landing with the REP/XACT fork setting. I could get more aggressive with obstacles and have the bike settle into corners better in areas of the track I wasn’t able to with the stock suspension or any previous XACT Pro fork valving setting."