Supporters asked for a training vid about riding in soft sand.
So here it is.
And even though my total experience with snow comes to 45 seconds,
these principles can apply to riding in snow too.
First... bike setup.
If you are riding a lot of soft sand,
consider reducing air pressure for tyres to 8psi or even less.
And make sure your rim locks are tight.
A whole day in soft sand? For more stability, you can lift the front of your bike by sliding
the forks down a bit through the triple clamps, and get more sag on the rear shock.
Suspension?
It can help to increase the damping at both ends.
You can also fit a wider higher front tyre like the Goldentyre Fatty.
This high profile knobby lifts the front for more inline stability,
and it's extra width gives you a bigger footprint on soft sand.
Awesome tyre in almost all conditions, it's my standard front tyre now.
I'd suggest don't lube your chain.
Or use something like silicon spray that won't let sand stick to your chain and sprockets.
Oh no!
Has your pumpkin broken down again?
This pictorial guide for illiterate riders will get it running again...
for a little while.
Available at all dodgy motorbike shops.
So riding in soft sand.
The big problem is it's counter-intuitive.
Normally the best way to learn is do something slow.
But the slower you go in sand, the worse things get.
You know how a boat 'planes' over the top of water with enough speed?
It's the same with your bike.
It will wallow around like a pig and push through the sand at low speed.
But you reach a critical speed and suddenly you are riding on top of the sand.
And in most cases the faster you go, the easier it gets.
You know the saying "When in doubt gas it?"
We don't think it's relevant very often...
but it can be in sand.
Most crashes in soft sand will be from backing off the throttle, not using too much.
Momentum is the key.
Body position is critical.
When taking off you need to weight the rear wheel.
And take weight off the front wheel so it can ride on top of the sand as soon as possible.
Not too much throttle or you'll just dig a hole.
Here James does it the wrong way.
It's tempting to lean forward and push with your legs, but it
will just wear you out and make things worse.
Only use your legs to stabilise yourself until you start riding on top of the sand.
Then stand as soon as possible.
The bike is going to squirm around and move in unpredictable ways.
So you need move your body to counteract this.
If sit then your body is just 'dead meat on the seat'.
Remember the default standing body position from our training vids?
It's similar but you move your body weight back even further the softer the sand gets.
If you've seen our training vid on footpeg positioning,
then riding on the balls of your feet helps too with moving your body further back.
Another counter intuitive part of sand riding is learning to relax,.
Let the bike move around and don't have a death grip on the handlebars.
This very unnerving at first.
But most of the time when the bike starts to do something weird it
will come back into line again if you keep the throttle on and the front wheel light.
Trying to control the bike too much will only wear you out and make the bike do even stranger things.
If your bike is powerful enough, get into a higher gear and use less revs if possible.
You will get better traction and more stability.
Cornering can be very tricky in sand.
Ideally you come in wide, clip the apex then exit wide so you
can keep enough speed to stay on top of the sand.
Normally you slide forward on the seat to weight the front wheel
but not on soft sand, it will just dig in.
Sit in the middle of the seat or even more to the rear if it's very soft sand.
Should you stand or sit?
If it's a wide corner and you have enough speed
to definitely stay on top of the sand, then stand on the footpegs.
Otherwise sit down as you will have a better chance of recovering when the front wheel digs in.
For more info, see our training vid for cornering in soft sand.
Braking is very different too.
When learning, it's best not to use the brakes at all as there is so much drag in soft sand.
Don't cut the throttle, but reduce it so the pull of the sand slows the bike instead.
This greatly reduces the front wheel tucking in and you going over the bars.
As your skills improve, start using brakes but use more rear brake than front.
A trick of the top riders is to keep the throttle on and apply rear brake.
This compresses the rear suspension and provides more stability.
What about bigger adventure bikes?
Essentially it's all the same technique.
And I rode the DR650 in very soft sand without problems.
However, with bikes bigger than 650 I encourage riders
to just jump off the bike if you get into trouble.
Putting a leg down to try and stay upright can lead to some very nasty injuries on the
big adventure bikes, and usually dropping a bike in soft sand won't scratch or damage it.
Snow riding?
On top of our 45 seconds experience, we've been told all these principles apply.
But you also need to watch out for obstacles hidden by the snow.
Apparently up to 30cm is fun to ride but it bloody hard after that.
Firm crusty surface?
Studded tyres could be an option.
That's about the limit of my knowledge.
This is the sandman signing out.