Road riders vs dirt riders?

[Oscar]

Yeah because people tend to go up in the world not down...

Dream on...

[**R1**]

Well Im not bad on the road but it took me a few weekends to consider my self any good at all on a dirtbike (and I started riding them when I was 6), the hypothetical you gave where a road rider would have 30mins to practice is a joke....

So in short NO!!

[dnos]

i think you guys are forgetting just how long it takes to become semi competent in either - its easy to hop on a bike dirt or road and think your going fast, but when u see someone who is good they make ya look like a nana.

[cowpoos]

I started my biking passion on offroad bikes of various genre's and cumitivly havn't really been riding on the road for all that long...I have on quite a few occasions had road only riders out on dirt bikes...and they genral get the jist of things pretty quick with a small amount of incouragment and tuition...but when the speeds increase you find them reacting to small slips and skids or what ever you wanna call them with their road riding instinct's which ain't really the best cause of action...they do that I suppose because its a well drilled in the skills they have learned on the road...where as I find coming from a offroad riding backround...if I hav a slide or what ever I'm quite relaxed about it and go with it...same with wheel spin on the track or road...it almost feels natural...

I think road riders can become good off road riders...but they have to probally really force there natural road instincts to change...

[kiwifruit]

A background in dirt riding is a major advantage to riding on the road
the reverse is less true

[Motu]

In fact with so many top road racers having a dirt background and riding off road for training - I'd say if you want to get somewhere in your road racing you will be a nobody until you get off road.

[kiwifruit]

In fact with so many top road racers having a dirt background and riding off road for training - I'd say if you want to get somewhere in your road racing you will be a nobody until you get off road.

I fully agree

[scott411]

the answer to this is no, dirt biking helps road riding (and racing) to an extent because you get used to the bike moving around and sliding, but the reverse is not as true, being a good dirt rider helps in being a good road rider but its not the only skill needed

[Motu]

Fitness is the key - MX is one of the most physicaly demanding sports in the world,that's why MotoGP riders train with dirt bikes...even Kimi Raikkonen the F1 driver rides a dirt bike as part of his training.

This is also one of the reasons I don't ride off road much anymore...it's pretty obvious what's wrong after the first 100 metres....

[Wolf]

For a dirt rider, the road is "tame". Even things that are deemed hazards by road riders (not racers, people mixing it with the fickle nature of the public roads) such as gravel and other slippery is "par for the course" for a dirt rider. A racing track is even tamer than the roads. The speeds may be higher on the racing track but you're not likely to come flying around the corner of a race track and encounter 1.5km of twisty gravel road.

Going the other way, from road/race track to dirt, is so much harder. The terrain is rugged and unpredictable, your're in a different riding position and your bike is going airborne frequently. The track can be slippery and you have to know how to corner in those conditions.

As several here have pointed out, a lot of the track racers practise and build up their fitness on MX prior to races (like Olympic shooters tend to ride bicycles or canoe to hone their bodies) - they would do well on an MX track because they are trained to do well on it, it's not like they're going onto the MX circuit with no prior experience.

Even a very good road rider would be at a serious disadvantage going off-road for the very first time. Yeah, they might have good skid control from learning to deal with icy roads but try skidding around a corner at a greater speed and with a bloody great hump in the middle of it. The experienced dirt riders will make him/her look like a nana.

[Edit] And for the record, I do not deem myself to be a good dirt rider - I quite literally get out of my depth in a shallow puddle. In fact, if the ground isn't as arid as the Arizona desert, I'm pretty much fucked.