That is how you don't make it up a hill.
Welcome to MOTOTREK.
I'm Dusty Wessels, professional motorcycle instructor with West38Moto.
Hills cause anxiety.
The reason is because we don't know what's ahead of us.
We have a good plan.
We have a good strategy.
We start up the hill, something goes wrong.
I'm going to show you how to recover from a hill climb fail.
If you fail the hill climb, the first thing you want to do... if you fall, just check
yourself out.
Make sure you're OK.
Take a break before you do anything else.
Next thing is walk over and shut your bike off.
OK, where I'm positioned right now, it's too steep for a restart.
So you're going to be pointed straight up the hill.
You've got to turn the bike so it's perpendicular.
I'm going to stand uphill from the bike because I can't push it up.
It's a much easier to pull it.
I have more leverage.
So I'm going to grab a solid piece on the back of the bike and pull it towards me until
I get the bike perpendicular.
I'm not going to try and lift this bike up like I would if I was on flat ground.
First of all, I don't have a whole lot of leverage.
Second of all, if I overdo it, the bike is going to fall down the hill.
The best way to get this bike up is to put your right foot on the foot peg, compress
the rear brake.
You're not going to have anywhere to put your foot on the right side.
Your foot should be locked on that brake the entire time.
Grab the handlebars and pull the bike up to you until you're in a seated position with
your left foot on the ground and you feel solid perpendicular on that hill with your
left foot.
You want it up the hill and you kind of want to brace it against the bike so that you can
lean the bike far enough.
When you start moving the front wheel back and forth, it'll slide down the hill and point
you in the direction you want to go.
Now, I take big chunks while leaning the bike against the hill for about 45 degrees.
You'll have to reset every once in a while.
Keep that foot on the rear break, locked in up until the point where the front wheel starts
to go down the hill.
Now you've got to pull the front brake in because now the weight shifts to the front.
We've got to keep that front brake on there to keep us from going down the hill.
OK, so now I've got two choices to get down this hill, I can start the bike up and ride
away, or I can just pull the clutch in and roll down the hill smoother and start the
bike at the bottom.
Since I don't have obstacles blocking my front or rear wheel, I'm going to pull the clutch
in and just roll down this hill.
I know what you're thinking, "OK, Dusty! what happens if we drop the bike on the other side?"
Now that I've dropped the bike on the other side, I don't have access to the rear brake,
so after I check myself, shut the bike off and position the bike in that perpendicular
position.
I want to reach down and put it in gear, make sure it's in gear.
So from here, I'm going to use the same technique I used when I dropped it on the other side.
So another type of fail is a stall, the good thing is I don't have to pick up the bike.
The challenging thing is it's going to be a lot harder to get it in that perpendicular
position in order to move the bike into that perpendicular position.
I've got to release the rear brake very delicately.
I've also got to pull the clutch in very delicately small, delicate movements of the clutch.
I don't want to let in the rear brake go all the way and I don't want to pull the clutch
in all the way.
Very small movements be ready for the bike to move here, even as you're being very delicate,
releasing the rear brake and delicate pulling in the clutch.
The bike might move on you as the motorcycle starts to roll down the hill, turn the handlebars
all the way to the left, lean the bike into the hill, support the weight on your left
foot.
So as I get the motorcycle moving down the hill, I'm going to lean into my left leg and
use that as my anchor and pivot point.
So once I get the motorcycle to the perpendicular position, I use the same technique to roll
down the hill.
In order to successfully climb a hill, you need commitment, momentum, proper body positioning,
vision, a plan or a strategy, line choice and obstacle avoidance will help if you happen
to fail.
These techniques will help you safely recover.