Improve your street and off-road skills with these simple drills. No dirt needed.
The first instruction in off-road skills I received came from none other than Jimmy Lewis, the Dakar podium finisher in the 90’s who now runs an off-road school in his home state of Nevada. He was visiting the Dirt Daze Rally in NY and offering little 3 hour clinics to ADV riders. He began by stating that the coaching at his school focuses on two things: balance and traction. I think the traction skills come a little later, maybe in intermediate classes—how to find and break traction when needed. But I learnt a lot about balance, throttle, and clutch control from that short clinic, and I’ve added to it with some instruction at SMART Riding Adventures, Clinton Smout’s school in Barrie, Ontario, and a couple of Spring Refresher days with GS instructors at some clubs here in Quebec.
I’ve cobbled together five drills that I try to practice when I have an hour or so to spare. I recently heard Chris Birch say in an interview on Adventure Rider Radio that really what you learn at his weekend courses are exercises that everyone should then go out and practice after the weekend. No one is going to learn how to ride off road well in a weekend, but if you practice, like in any sport, you’ll improve.
These are five exercises I do to improve my skills.
Static Balance
Everything starts with balance, and the best exercise to dial in the neutral point when the bike is in perfect balance is static balance. Jimmy had us attempting this without any assistance and it was hard. No one could really balance for more than a second or two. I think the better way to do it is how the dirt bike guys do it, full lock and your front brake on. You can also move the tire side to side a bit to dig a little rut into the dirt for support. Alternatively, you can lower your front tire pressure or get the bike on a hill pointed down so the front suspension is compressed a bit, which makes it easier.
Okay, it’s not an asphalt but you can do it at the top of your driveway on the grass if your partner doesn’t mind the groove permanently dug into the lawn.
Touch and Go
This one I got from Brett Tkacs’ video on his asphalt drills. It teaches fine braking, clutch, throttle control, and balance. You simply come to a complete stop at each obstacle and touch it with your foot or hand. You can use anything available such as parking blocks, lamp standards, garbage cans, etc. All these drills are simple but not easy. This one is a particular challenge for me on the Tiger.
Figure 8
This one teaches counterbalancing in tight turns both seated and standing. It’s important be able to turn both ways so the figure 8 ensures this. Just place two markers about 6 meters apart as your centre-point of each turn. (A tennis ball cut in half works best.)
For seated turns, you want to shift your butt off the seat—the one cheek sneak—to shift your weight. It’s not enough to move your upper body; you have to move your hips, where most of your weight is, even if you are diminutive like me.
For standing turns, I concentrate on gripping the bike with my legs. For a left turn, for example, I hold myself from falling off the bike when leaning by planting my left calf and thigh against the engine and my right knee against the other side, just under the tank. Using leverage in this way, I’m “locked in.”
For both seated and standing turns, vision is crucial. You want to put your chin on your shoulder and look to where you want to be, the next cone, not the one you are turning around. Keep your revs up so you have power on hand should you feel the bike falling and can clutch out without stalling. The goal is full-lock turns both ways.
Circus Act
This exercise teaches you to move independently of the bike but stay in balance. Begin by standing and riding with one hand, both sides, then lifting a leg off each peg. Once you’re comfortable doing that, swing a leg over your seat and sit side-saddle long enough to place the opposite foot on the peg, so put the right leg on the left peg, and stand up. Then sit back down side-saddle, get your left foot back on the left foot-peg, swing both legs over so you are sitting side-saddle the other way and put your left foot on the ride foot-peg. You’ll find the bike wants to tip to the side all your weight is on so be ready and compensate by tipping the bike away from you. As long as both you and the bike together are in balance, you won’t fall.
I find this exercise helpful for when you get into sand and mud and rocks and the bike starts moving around underneath you. Your muscle memory will remember and you’ll shift your weight to the opposite side to compensate. Off-road riding requires a lot of movement side-to-side with your upper body to compensate when the bike becomes unbalanced.
Finally, I get back to normal seating and then dismount the bike while it’s still rolling. (This teaches clutch and throttle control again.) Walk beside the bike for a few meters then put your left foot on the left foot-peg and do a rolling mount. You’ll have to transfer you weight quickly over the centre line of the bike to avoid it falling toward you. It’s a bit of a step of faith (not quite a leap) so commit and keep the revs up and the bike rolling. Do the same on the other side. The rolling mount is good practice for fine clutch, throttle, and balance, but can be handy in some situations on the trail.
Friction Point Practice
Find a hill or incline (a loading ramp will do) and point your bike uphill. Slowly roll the bike up and back using only the throttle and clutch, no brakes. Try holding the bike stationary for a few seconds only using the throttle and clutch, then roll back and stop the roll, again, only using the throttle and clutch.
I learnt this skill from the IRC Tire guy and he says it teaches you to break the habit of trying to hold the bike on an unsuccessful hill climb with the front brake. Instead, you have to develop muscle memory to use the engine to brake when rolling back on a hill. It also dials you into the friction point of your clutch and helps develop traction on hill climbs. You don’t want to spin the rear tire and lose traction.
All these drills look simple and easy but they are far from easy. I like them though for their simplicity, allowing you to practice them anytime you have a few minutes or even at the start of each ride.
I’m no expert, so feel free to offer advice in the comments section; I won’t be offended. I’m always eager to learn.
Do you have some exercises you do regularly? Drop them in the comments section too. I’ve kept this to 5 so they can be done quickly, but I know there are a ton of excellent exercises out there, so pass on your favourite(s).
I’d been warned about Bill: the “old man” hauls ass. There were twelve of us, and I decided to tuck in behind him so I could watch and learn. Soon after we pulled out of the ranch I found myself going 70 km/hr on a dirt road with a smattering of gravel. Shit, is it going to be like this all day? I was riding over my head but didn’t want to hold the group up. All was good for a few kilometres until we headed down a sweeping descent. Halfway down I knew I was in trouble. I knew if I braked and turned I would lowside, but fortunately I didn’t panic. I dropped my line and headed straight, gently squeezing the brake. For the first time in my short riding experience the thought that I might crash flashed through my mind, but fortunately I eased to a stop before I ran out of road. Someone behind slowed and gave me the thumbs up as a question. I nodded and looked back. No one was behind me, just empty road. I realized I needn’t have worried about holding the group up because they were all well behind. I had made the classic mistake of trying to keep up with a rider who had 49 years of riding experience on me.
650thumper 