as adventure riders we ride on pavement nasty gnarly trails and roads like this
today I have five tips for taking your adventure bike off pavement let's start
with relaxing the first time you get off road it doesn't feel very natural the
bike wiggles and squirms all over the place and our first tendency is to
tighten up to look down at the ground and then hold our breath so that's what
we have to get past first keep your eyes as far down the road as you can remember
to relax your shoulders relax your grip and take nice easy breaths when
cornering let the bike roll underneath you on the road we lean in with the
motorcycle motorcycle leans in and we lean it when we go off pavement the
motorcycle still leans into the corner but we stay to the outside of the corner
the easiest way to make sure you're in the proper position is move your body to
the outside and look all the way through the corner it's like you're trying to
peek all the way around the higher the speed you're going the more you need to
move to the outside eventually you need to be standing on the motorcycle and you
shift to the outside and peek through now your arms are going to be your
limiting factor here so you'll end up moving slightly forward on the bike and
then moving to the outside and that's gonna give you the greatest ability to
see as far through and that's going to put you in the proper position so the
bike rolls underneath you and you're staying on top of the motorcycle more
vehicles than ever are using roads like this we need to remember to stay to the
right there's no painted lines on these roads
to divide where you're supposed to be and where they're supposed to be and
it's very common for people to take their half of the road out of the middle
as you come around these corners hold far enough out that you can see around
but you stay far enough to thrive the roads though if the vehicles in the
middle of the road you have time and space to get out of the way and to dive
back to the outside where you're safe
don't get sucked into going faster the limitations on these roads aren't
necessarily the motorcycle and the tires or even how good you are as a rider the
real limitations have to do with the environment conditions and the other
users on the road if you can't stop fast enough to avoid a car coming around a
corner in your lane you're going too fast
it's the skilled rider that recognizes those limits and doesn't get sucked in
and finally keep your eyes up vision is the key to all of this if you want to
stay relaxed you need to look as far down the road as you can when you're
looking down at every Rock every stick every puddle every little patch of sand
or mud it causes you to be tense in those limited sight corners if you're
looking through the corner when you lean out from the bike and you peek around
the corner before seeing that body to give you the best vision puts you in the
best position for the corner when you're looking farther out on the road to see
what's going on and what's happening it helps keep your speed in check if you
can't see through a corner you're gonna slow down if you have a long sight line
you're gonna speed up that vision is gonna help control that speed it is the
key