I'm not a linux user myself so I'm not going to be able to be of much help here. If you have any other joysticks/controllers/drawing tablets connected at the same time you can try to disconnect those, having more than one can cause a conflict.
You might know of the jscal joystick calibration program, you could try playing around with the setting there.
Are you seeing any movement on any of the little circles as you go through the "calibrate controller" procedure in Freerider?