Techniques for off-road riding?

[Jorja]

what I need to know is how to avoid the jarring etc. Find I am pretty sore the next day through my back.

Any tips for how to ride to minimise this?

[Jorja]

am doing that. So much so that I feel it in my leg muscles the next day.

[CaMo]

maybe your suspension setup? Makes a huge difference if its not set right

[ArcherWC]

Stand up, ALL the time. infact take you seat off so you dont have a choice till you do

[telliman]

what I need to know is how to avoid the jarring etc. Find I am pretty sore the next day through my back.

Any tips for how to ride to minimise this?

your gonna be sore anyway, just ride more! dont forget to stretch

[Jorja]

Stand up, ALL the time. infact take you seat off so you dont have a choice till you do

Shit!!! Don't tell Frosty or he probably will lol

[Jorja]

your gonna be sore anyway, just ride more! dont forget to stretch


Think I shouls clarify something. Have arthritis in my spine so any jarring and I really feel it.

[telliman]

Think I shouls clarify something. Have arthritis in my spine so any jarring and I really feel it.

sell the bike, take up lawn bowls

[Doogle]

Improve the suspension on your bike and your back won't get so jarred.

[merv]

You are sitting on a Shineray in your profile pic - is that what you are riding off road and does it have suspension as hard as rubber blocks?

If the going gets rough stand up as other have said and you've got to ride the bumps as in use your body to pick which bumps you wheelie over and which ones you ride over as in you have to think and plan which holes in between you'll let the front wheel down into. Dirt riding is like dancing along on your bike and it has to seem light on its feet (wheels) with controlled rising and falling so there is as little jarring as you can manage.

Besides working the handle bars to get this control it has to all be like dancing as I say with throttle control in unison. If you feel like the bike has got up and is just dancing along then it will feel right and be less painful - throttle on throttle off, in and out of dips, lofting over the high bumps, planning to land the front wheel smoothly into a nice curved dip then loft over the next bump etc etc. Harder to say than it is to do for me I would say as it isn't easy to explain but you will know when you are in the zone.

The other thing is fitness by constantly doing it. I've always been a bit of a part timer so never reached a good fitness level, but when I was doing enduros the other thing I had to do was ride through then pain barrier. It usually took the first hour to start feeling buggered and get arm pump etc, then for an hour I put up with it and then it all would come right and I could then ride after hour 2 at a fast pace in the zone and go on all day after that without feeling worse. That is until the day after the day after (i.e. 2 days later) when shit would stiffness set in. The only way to avoid that was ride again the day after your first ride and just keep on doing it, but as I said I'm a bit too part time so had to put up with the pain after the fun of the ride.

p.s. if the Shineray is it, get a decent bike. My XR250L and Mrs merv's DR650SE have very plush suspension compared to the bikes we once rode.

[Jorja]

You are sitting on a Shineray in your profile pic - is that what you are riding off road and does it have suspension as hard as rubber blocks?

if the Shineray is it, get a decent bike. My XR250L and Mrs merv's DR650SE have very plush suspension compared to the bikes we once rode.

Yes it is the shineray. Apart from the suspension is it not a bad bike. We choose it for because it fit me (I am a short ass), it was cheap and had an electric start. (I have trouble kick starting anything other than the kids 80's)

Your advice has been the best yet. Will perserver. We go riding once a week and was so bad last week was worried I would have to give up.

[SDU]

What they've all said. I found taking my drugs half hour before going out. Keeping up the fluids & relaxing by letting the bike move under you.
Also building up to the bigger rides helps & recognising when you're having an extra bad day (pain wise) & knowing when to turn back early before you get so sore you can hardly ride but only by sheer stubborness. A hot tub afterwards & a massage & more drugs & you're be sweet.
Make sure suspension is setup for you & use gel grips & put rubbers on ya pegs to help with the vibes.

[Jorja]

What they've all said. I found taking my drugs half hour before going out. Keeping up the fluids & relaxing by letting the bike move under you.
Also building up to the bigger rides helps & recognising when you're having an extra bad day (pain wise) & knowing when to turn back early before you get so sore you can hardly ride but only by sheer stubborness. A hot tub afterwards & a massage & more drugs & you're be sweet.
Make sure suspension is setup for you & use gel grips & put rubbers on ya pegs to help with the vibes.

Have found some days I ride really well and am totally into it. Others (like last week) I just feel wrong. Could feel the jarring from legs up through abdomin. Even helmet felt heavy and was making my neck sore. Should have listened to my body and not ridden. Am suffering now and will have to watch everyone else ride on Thursday. :(

Still listening to all of the advise I am hoping to continue.

Tried the bath thing. Didn't feel too bad till about 24 hours later.

[007XX]

Make sure you avoid the foods that exacerbate the arthritis*, drink plenty of fluids, and keep up the glucosamine and whatever else helps you. Maybe take some ibuprofen before you go riding. Watch your posture too - don't slouch on the bike.


* For me, I have to avoid any member of the pepper family, tomatoes, smoked food, citrus fruit, and should really avoid wine, beer and whiskey (but I'm only human).

That, and also encouraging surrounding support of the spine with core exercises, not just the run-of-the-mill crunches. I know you boys will wince at the idea, but pilates are fantastic for this, and yes, Lycra pants are optional :p

You cannot forget the fact that if your spine is all that's holding you up, it will wear and tear faster than if you have really good muscles around it to assist.

The upside is...you're getting a real good workout with the dirt riding.

[007XX]

Not at all. The vifferbabe did pilates (or was it pirates? :confused: ) for a while, and it sounded incredibly hard, and therefore correspondingly efficacious.

I had considered taking up dirtbiking again (did it in the '70s, and again in the mid '80s when I worked on a farm), but I reckon my general decreptitude would ensure I'd end up wrecked in a very short time.

Yes, well...that si the thing: you do need some form of initial firtness to start soemthing like that.

Hence the fact I prefered adventure riding to hard core dirtbike riding. When you're built like a coat hanger who mated with a racing sardine, the odds for upper body strength aren't that thrilling :p

But I'm at peace with it now...:crazy: :angry2:

[Motu]

I have noticed females seem to sit (or stand) on a bike with a very straight back,guys do the sack of potatoes thing.I don't know if it's a physical difference in body structure that makes it impossible to slouch....but it looks stiff and unbending.Loosen up,let that spine flex.

And stand up.....or has someone already mentioned that?

[marks]

we have a shineray like yours. I have an aging body. If I ride the shineray aggressively I hurt for days - sometimes all week - my back especially. If I ride a wr450 or kdx200 the same way I am sore the next day and then am OK (unless I've been kissing the terrain again...).

It is largely the bike. It doesn't matter if you stand or sit the suspension simply beats the living daylights out of you. We have other chinese bikes and they have much better/softer suspension than the gy 150/200.

sorry I can't offer any positive suggestions

[clmintie]

Do you wear a kidney (gut) belt? I won't ride without one, helps this old, slow arthritic guy heaps, with good back support and holds the rib cage up, off the kidneys.
I have a daughter who's into period costume design in a big way, how about a 1700's whale bone corset? Does a similar job, but believe me when I say the modern M/C gut belt is easier and more comfortable........

[FROSTY]

Do you wear a kidney (gut) belt? I won't ride without one, helps this old, slow arthritic guy heaps, with good back support and holds the rib cage up, off the kidneys.
BINGO- Jorjas issues are caused by a combination of factors.
1) no back support--Ill give her my Kart kidney belt
2) suspension that needs work --Ill sort that after school holidays.
3) riding experience.-Im NOT an experienced dirt rider but Im riding her bike almost twice as fast as her and I weigh more. >the thing is shes on a 2.5 minute loop track and hasn't the experience to minimise the effects of bumps. She isn't lightening the front or using her legs as suspension.
4) the genuine health issue-she works around it most of the time but its made worse by the factors above then it in itself makes it difficult for her to learn what she needs to learn.

[DEATH_INC.]

Yeh, I suffer from a spinal compression injury.....it stopped me from MXing in the end. It sucks but sometimes the day after riding I couldn't even get up....so you got my sympathies. Sometimes you can't do anything to help physically get around it either :(
Fix that damn suspension ( Tony :p ) or it'll wear ya down and you'll loose the enjoyment of what really is a great sport.