If you watch experienced enduro riders with a trials background,
their low speed crashes don't even look like crashes.
They jump off as if that's they planned to do all along.
Or they gently lay their bike down as if it's afternoon nap time.
A well known saying from motocross is 'If in doubt, gas it!'
But in extreme enduro, it seems the opposite is true...
'Give up early and work out how to get off the bike'.
Instead of that last ditch handful of throttle that makes for great crash videos, these guys
casually step off and avoid all the bruises and bent bike bits most of us are familiar with.
These guys come from a trials background where the bikes are so light even we
gumby riders can usually keep them under control when things go wrong.
But put us on enduro bikes and it usually ain't so pretty...
especially for shorter riders. Instead of lots of throttle,
back off and plan how to deal with the situation.
Aaron is quite short, so instead of throttle he looks for somewhere he
can put a foot down to prevent dropping the bike.
Often the best option is simply to drop the bike then step or jump off it.
Nobody likes to intentionally drop their bike of course,
but often this is far better than using more throttle to launch your bike into orbit.
One thing I've noticed is the girls are usually much better at dropping their bikes in a
controlled way as there's no testosterone telling them that hitting the rev limiter will save them.
Melissa's approach to technical riding was great to watch as she
would just calmly throttle off then step or jump off the bike.
Sometimes if you are lucky you can even look quite
cool in the process like one of our resident gumbies here, Sam.
As you get the hang of it, you can try to dismount and keep control of the bike in many situations.
Aaron is probably the shortest rider in our group but becoming an expert at the casual dismount.
Again you can see this is all about avoiding any last second heroics,
but accepting you won't make it then plan how to get off the bike.
Can you practice this?
Definitely.
If you watched our recent weighting and deweighting vid,
you can use the same principle to practice jumping off the bike.
Then plan how to dismount slowly becomes your natural reaction,
instead of full throttle and throwing your bike at nearby spectators.
Most of us find it easier to dismount to the left, so make sure you practice the right side too.
It can be hard to get out of the habit of throttling on in the process.
'Ghosting' the bike.
Sometimes the only option is jumping off the back of the bike.
In some cases, you can apply throttle as you push
off the back of the bike to get it up the last part of a hill or obstacle.
It's called ghosting because if it ain't you riding that bike, it must be a ghost.
At some point we'll do a proper training vid on this.
This ties in very closely with our training vid about hill climb recovery.
Avoid that nasty roll or slide back down the hill
by turning right before you stop.
Just click on the link to see that vid again.
So that's it! Here are the key points again.
With a bit of practice, you will find yourself falling off less at low speed.
And when you do, hurting yourself, and your bike, much less.
Good luck!