Advice for a newbee offroader

[FROSTY:Me]

Ok Ill admit it.Ive raced,ralled,road ridden for almost 30 years But Ive NEVER actually been for a ride on a trailie.
Ive got my old Suzuki 200 trailie and Sidi reinforced road race boots.Ive got some light race gloves and a HJC lid with no visor
I'm off to explore woodhill forest so experts from the dirt side--ADVICE please

[merv]

Get some goggles or a visor you don't want any risk of shit in your eyes.

Take it easy to start and when you hit bumps or jumps be ready to pull the weight to the back to keep the front light so you don't go crashing over the front. In the end if you want to go fast you've got to learn the right balance standing on the pegs and pulling back or leaning forward on the bars with the right throttle control to keep the bike biased towards leaning towards the back wheel not the front. Also don't use too high a gear always keep the motor revving for good on off engine brake, or go power, so throttle control helps you ride the whoops. In a high gear the bike will feel too flat especially one with a small engine like the 200. On slippery surfaces sometimes you've got to do the opposite, go up a gear to hold traction.

As you pick up the pace learn to ride kind of loose or with fluidity so the bike kinda of dances and standing on the pegs you'll be ready to counter any sideways movements due to either end of the bike jumping off line. Move your body back and forth longitudinally as required to either put more traction on the back wheel or less if you want to roost a corner. Just do it and it will come to you.

[Buddy L]

like merv said get some googles or even some clear safty glasses (as googles won't fit to well with the road bike lid), anything to protect the eyes.
And have fun, fun and som more fun.
with the bike that you have, let your legs do as much of the work as you can.

[MVnut]

And Frosty, remember my golden rule "When in doubt, GAS it ! "

[scott411]

remeber to put the foot out, not the knee (sort of liek th motard boys)

keep your weight more central, stand up when at all possible,

and have fun,

[Pierce]

Yeah i'm a noob too but definitely keep off the seat as much as possible (i.e. on the pegs). Keeping a steady throttle if you're hitting jumps too. I've onlybeen out a couple of times on my new bike so i'm prob not the best one for advise haha.

[007XX]

From my bit of experience:

-Definitely keep your knees and toes in.
-Elbows out helps.
-Keep your feet on the pegs as much as possible (natural instinct is to put your foot down when things go wobbly, but that's an injury prone situation).
-Keep the momentum going, and yes, speed is definitely a friend, especially in sand.
-In corners, having your inward foot parallel to your front tyre will change your centre of gravity on the bike and give you more weight towards the front, helping you keeping control and cornering faster.
- remain relaxed in the woops...tensing up will only end up giving you a headache and compromise the control of your bike.
-Don't always stick to the beaten track...what I mean is if there are a few ruts on the track, select the part of the path that's nice and clean. i know it sounds like an obvious one, but if you were to observe other riders, you'd be amazed to see a lot of them all follow each other.

And last but not least: Keep hydrated!!!! I always used to have a camelback with me. Things seem a lot more hard work when you're thirsty. Also, a snickers bar or something sugary really helps.

And have fun!!!!

Now, I'm no specialist, I'm just trying to be helpful. If any of these points are not right, and someone more experienced out there says so, listen to them!

[Ocean1]

From my bit of experience:

Not bad advice, (for a woman). Like the bit about the inside toe, good indicator of where your weight is.

Think the big thing for someone from the street is to understand about moving around on the bike to optimise traction. If you try to corner like you do on the road you're going to plant your face sooner or later (front will let go). As you head into a curve get back down on the seat, get forward and put the bike down. Keep your body more or less perpendicular to the ground though, (so usually upright), that means your arse is on the outside edge of the seat, (all of this the opposite to what you'd do on the track eh?). Put your weight on the outside peg and push your outside knee into the tank. All this is to get downward force on the front, to keep it planted.

Normally you do a lot of steering with the throttle, break the back loose to bring it around tighter. With the 200 that's tricky, just means your weight needs to move around even more than usual.

Other than that, try to keep your body mass over your tyres, have fun, get dirty, throw it away regularly, it's the fastest way to learn.

PS: if you really want to accelerate the learning find the slickest surface you can and practice at much slower speeds. Nice wet clay in 1st/2nd gear is good, really reinforces what works and what don't.

[Reckless]

Just have fun Frosty! You have more than enough riding experiance to be OK. Trail riding and MX is completly different but you'll have a great time. The balance and all the other stuff will come naturally as your a rider now.
Just do it man!

OH and you could come out with us some day. Check out the Ardmore threads. Seems to be coming a regular thing I started? I'm sure you'll find someone able to give you a ride on their trusty steed and bring yours. There is a guy giving demo rides on Yamy Wr's there most weeks as well. Post in the next ride days thread (when it starts) and we could bring out some extra gear.