let's talk about riding on trails with reduced traction. most riders that come
to me they're really focused on the riding technique but strategy, strategy
is actually more important or at least equal to the riding technique so what we
have here today is a nice wet day with limited traction we've got clay on the
trail over here and here we've got some nice loose gravel up on the bank the
idea is we want to be able to make sure that the bike doesn't slip out from
underneath us we have pretty limited traction even with knobbies on the bike and
the way we're going to do that is make sure that the bike is always
perpendicular to the ground so if you're riding down the road and we're riding on
flat ground it's always going to be perpendicular like this it's when you
lean that the bike runs the risk of slipping out just like in a corner so if
the earth moves up like this then what's perpendicular is here this allows me to
take the bike and lean it over so the tire is perpendicular to the earth I'm
looking to go at just the speed to allow it to do that so that's where the
strategy comes in as I'm looking down the trail what I'm gonna be doing is
watching for those two things what is the traction look like and what is the
bank depending on how high the bank goes depends on how much speed you have to
carry into this now where you ride on the bank also makes a difference if I go
too high on this Bank the chances of me blowing over the top
that increases if I come down too low I end up on the flat ground and then I'm
sliding into it I'm more likely to slip out now from a technique standpoint what
we're gonna the riders I'm always gonna stay
perpendicular to the planet. the bike stays perpendicular to the ground if the
bike slips or stalls and slides down the bank I can recover if I do get too
high and blow across the top I'm on top of the bike and again I have a better
chance of recovering now some of you are thinking ah but in the dirt I see
dirtbike guys and they hang down inside and they and they berm all the way
through these you're absolutely correct and on dirt bike you can do that they
have higher traction they have less weight on these adventure bikes they're
very very heavy so we need to stay up on the foot pegs of the bike and we're
going to be riding at slower speeds and our traction no matter how good your
knobbies are an adventure bike they are not pure dirt bike tires so that makes a big
difference so you're always going to stay perpendicular to the planet the
bike is perpendicular to the land here's a little more complex approach we're
still going to use that same Bank strategy but instead of just banking
into the land we're going to use this route to wedge the tire and the reason I
want to come into this wedge here to clear it is this route that's running
diagonal across the trail is very wet and very slick if I were to come square
on to this route and hit it with my front tire the chances of its slipping
right and falling down are much greater so that's why I'm going to use that same
strategy up and through here using the bank and angling the bike in so it
matches the angle I go in the alternative is to come straight on to
the route but to use that same wedge strategy here where the route itself has
a natural growth where two sides come in and make that V and that's where I'm
going to put that tire to clear over
on the big adventure bikes like this they're not dirt bikes they're not as
forgiving it's very very important to really focus on developing your riding
strategies as much as you concentrate on your riding techniques