lofting is a great way to clear obstacles on the trail
you can also jump it's a bit riskier but it's a lot of fun
welcome to MOTOTREK! i'm Dusty Wessels professional motorcycle instructor with West38Moto
on almost every off-road ride you'll come across trail obstacles that you can use lofting
techniques to get over lofting is lifting or lightening the front wheel to avoid the impact of
a trail obstacle for example a pothole a washout a cross rut an embedded rock or an exposed tree root
i loft because i want to protect myself and i want to protect my bike
i don't want a dented front rim and i don't want to lose control of my motorcycle
lofting the front wheel can help mitigate the impact from a trail obstacle
lofting is a technique that can be used on any trail anytime i use lofting on a trail when my
front wheel is going to be impacted a cross rut or an embedded rock or an exposed route
i don't want my front wheel to be impacted by that obstacle lofting over a simple obstacle
like a pothole on a trail is this as you're approaching it doesn't matter what gear you're in
just make sure you're not down in the gear don't be lugging the engine be up there you want to load
the front suspension you want to compress all of the suspension so dump the throttle
you want to time it right so that when your front wheel hits the front of the object everything is
unloading as the front wheel approaches the object and the suspension is unloading blip the throttle
what will happen is your front wheel will lift and not be impacted by this at all but your rear wheel
will be impacted by the object just be ready for it don't worry about it at all just be
ready to feel it the technique you use to get the correct throttle response is a blip
in this case we want to use a blip and a hold hold the throttle open until your front wheel
hits the ground as your skills increase and you become more comfortable with lofting
and ride more difficult terrain with steps ledges rock faces this technique is good for placing
your front wheel in a specific spot to keep your wheel on your intended line lofting is a great way
to clear obstacles on the trail you can also jump it's a bit riskier but it's a lot of fun
jumping is more of a risk conditions have to be
really good for you to do it comfortably and safely
jumping a 500 plus pound motorcycle off-road is getting both wheels off the ground a little
different and a dicier proposition than lofting the number one thing that goes through my mind
and the thing that determines jumping especially a 500 plus pound motorcycle is the landing and the
run out if it's not good enough and you can't see it or it's a question in your mind at all
don't do it number two is i'm assessing the object from a distance so how tall is it is it wet or dry
is it embedded is it loose is it a log is it a rock is it angled towards me that might be a
little abrupt is it straight up and down possible but i'm not sure if i want to do that is it angled
away from me perfecto the other thing is my speed you don't have to be going really fast to do a lot
of jumps sometimes it's better sometimes it's not your speed is going to be determined by how much
run out you have so when i come around a corner like this on the trail and i see a jump like this
that has a great landing and a perfect run out i'm going to take it and this is a speed jump to
me now from a distance all i can see is the shape of this water bar it's kind of round but as i get
closer i can assess there's a bit of an angle and it's going away from me i know i'm going to have
a good jump so my technique to landing this jump correctly is i really want to land with my back
wheel first i don't want to land flat and i don't want to land my front wheel first in order to do
that i've got a time my throttle hit correctly and a little bit of a pullback on the bars so the
technique is stand up approach the jump with your knees bent as soon as your front wheel gets to the
top of the angle of the jump that you're taking hit the throttle pull back a bit on the bars
once you land with your rear wheel first let the front come down keep on the throttle right away
when you land you definitely want your knees bent and you definitely want to move with the bike
the reason why you want to stay on your throttle all the way through the jump and not
dump it at all at the beginning the middle or the end is because you don't want to land flat and
you don't want to land with your front wheel first stay on the throttle all the way through the jump
so now we have a slow jump definitely not a speed jump
you could hit this at speed but you'd have a pretty abrupt impact on your front wheel
so i roll in here slower in first gear you want to hit the throttle as soon as your front tire
contacts the object you're trying to go over to achieve correct throttle input here you do want
to do the blip you want the blip and the hold you blip hold the throttle until your rear wheel
contacts the object you jump over at that point since this is a slow jump and not a great run out
i decide to dump the throttle or let off a little bit so that i can have a smooth landing
if you keep the throttle on you could run out too far and since you're at a slow speed that much
of an abrupt throttle hit could get you out of control on your landing this is definitely not a
trail obstacle that you want to go over too fast or too exciting this is also something you don't
need to jump you definitely can you can use some lofting techniques here as well but you definitely
don't want to go fast here if your decision is to roll over the top of this this is an obstacle
you're going to be able to roll over the top of just fine without jumping it's definitely safer to
just ride over an obstacle like this i personally like to jump the motorcycle i like to see
what the bike can handle i like to practice and raise my skill level by jumping over objects by
rolling over them first the first time i did this i rolled over it to see how loose this
terrain was how hard of an abrupt hit it was how good the landing was so i want my skills to go up
i like to do things like this i'm going to choose to jump this certainly don't have to jump this
before you go out on the trail and loft over an object or jump an object with your loaded
adventure bike you want to practice first find a high traction environment go to the pavement
what you really want to feel is how the motorcycle reacts when you compress the suspension completely
and when it comes back to you and unloads at the same time you're hitting the throttle to lift the
wheel those things are all about timing timing is a key element to lofting or jumping you want to
time it so that your front wheel gets right to the edge of the object as your suspension is unloading
then you give your abrupt throttle input this is going to lift or lighten your front wheel over the
obstacle or it's going to make you jump over the obstacle the speed at what you should practice is
first gear your speed on the trail is going to be determined by your takeoff how big your object is
most importantly your landing and your run out when you're practicing in first gear
to compress the suspension here's what i like to do get all the way to the top of the gear get
those rpms really high and dump the throttle at the same time push down on the foot pegs push down
on the handlebars and compress that suspension as much as possible as the suspension is unloading
pull back on the bars and hit the throttle give it a nice blip that'll lighten or lift the front
wheel you can use that technique to get an idea of how your bike's going to react on the trail
if you're going to choose to loft or jump your motorcycle here are a few key things to remember
assess your obstacle make sure you're comfortable jumping or lofting over it before you do it also
assess the terrain make sure you have a good take off but more importantly make sure you have a good
landing and a good run out and practice on your loaded adventure bike before you hit the trail
you