Can someone teach me to ride?

[Devil]

So i've got me some semi-useful tyres on my supermoto now, Pirelli MT60RS Corsa's. This is as adventurous as my tyre choice is going to get, but were bought with the intention of exploring more gravel and dirt roads. Still a 17" front wheel here so i'm not going to crazy with heading OFF the road.

What I would like is someone to give me advice (either in words or in person) about riding on loose surfaces. I.e. Body position, weight transfer, leaning, steering with the rear wheel etc.

What gives me the absolute shits at the moment is bits of off-camber dirt road that just seem to be guiding you to the ditch at the roadside!

Any help appreciated. Unfortunately not around this coming weekend, but if anyone wants to come out with me some time and show me the ropes I'd be most grateful.

FYI, been riding about 4 years, done about 120,000km in that time. All on the road. No dirt riding history at all.

[nodrog:Me]

have a look in the mentor section for sombody suitable, i have seen R6kid's off road ability and can say his parking is top notch

[Gremlin]

have a look in the mentor section for sombody suitable, i have seen R6kid's off road ability and can say his parking is top notch

yeh, he'll show you how to miss the important obstacles

Devil: its easy ya pussy, get out onto the roads, and first thing is playing with the throttle, gassing it up out of corners, controlling the slides, getting it sideways down the straights at over 100kph etc.

I still haven't got around to practising how to go into corners, so I'm still a nana there.

[Devil]

have a look in the mentor section for sombody suitable, i have seen R6kid's off road ability and can say his parking is top notch

I have seen his offroad parking too, hence why i'm asking here
Dont need an approved mentor!

[inlinefour]

I have seen his offroad parking too, hence why i'm asking here
Dont need an approved mentor!

Is there an open block of land in your area that you can go and play on? The big thing is getting used to the feel of the slides and exactly how the bike reponds to doing different things. Being able to do this in an area thats clear of any obsticles is the best, but in this day and age finding something suitable might be harder. Once your comfortable on the bike and remember the limitations generally invlove fear and lack of experience, then you will be able to blast down the gravel roads. If I could do it on my DRZ400 then a KTM would be bloody awesome. Although its been awhile since I was on a bike, I remember it like it was yesterday...

[Devil]

Is there an open block of land in your area that you can go and play on? The big thing is getting used to the feel of the slides and exactly how the bike reponds to doing different things. Being able to do this in an area thats clear of any obsticles is the best, but in this day and age finding something suitable might be harder. Once your comfortable on the bike and remember the limitations generally invlove fear and lack of experience, then you will be able to blast down the gravel roads. If I could do it on my DRZ400 then a KTM would be bloody awesome. Although its been awhile since I was on a bike, I remember it like it was yesterday...

Yer I went and pulled off the road into a big gravel pit yesterday and got used to how the bike feels, how it spins up and getting used to stopping quickly. The KTM 690 is at the heavy end of motards though (not including weirdo's like the hypermotard or 950/990 ktm) so I'm very cautious about arsing off! Someone watching my riding would be handy though!

[inlinefour]

Yer I went and pulled off the road into a big gravel pit yesterday and got used to how the bike feels, how it spins up and getting used to stopping quickly. The KTM 690 is at the heavy end of motards though (not including weirdo's like the hypermotard or 950/990 ktm) so I'm very cautious about arsing off! Someone watching my riding would be handy though!

Yea my next bike was going to be a Apillia V-twin tard had I not had my accident. As for having an off the first rule is try getting away from the bike if you can. My off was a high speed crash just on a cr125r, which is fairly light but goes like its possessed. The thing that probably messed me up was I flipped possibly about 6 times, but every time I hit the ground the bike hit me as well. I put a 28L tank on the drz and had that been the bike I was on in the same accident, Im sure that I would be dead. But hey, thats the risk we all take and that time I got nailed. I was going to pick up a fox launch suit that afternoon. Full body armor from neck to kidney belt, including a big spine protector. I may still have done my back in had I been wearing that, but we will never know. I recommend that you invest in one of those yourself as being nervous in a big slide can actually sometimes cause an accident.

[Devil]

as being nervous in a big slide can actually sometimes cause an accident.

Yep, I definately tense up which doesn't help things. Biggest thing that I already know is to relax, and make sure i lighten up my grip and just let the bike do what it wants. I have to keep telling myself because I find myself tensing.

[Crisis management]

Faaaaar from an expert in this but having converted to dirty riding from road a couple of years back I don't recall it being all that different, yes stuff wobbles and slides a lot more but a couple of days of gravel roads will get over that.
I ride with effectively a throttle steering technique, if the rears spinning the front isn't sliding theory, but lots of others don't. It seems to me that there are several ways to get bikes around corners, depends what works for you.

Now the contradictory bit....dirt bikes have 21" front rims with narrow tyres that punch through gravel / loose stuff to gain traction, your 17" fat tyre will behave differently and take a bit more lining up of corners to make sure you don't lose the front.
I have never riden a motard or that combination of wheels / tyres so can't offer much more advice than this, helpful eh?

Your more than welcome to join in a ride if we're heading out of Auckland but there isn't anything planned in the near future. I'll flick you a Pm if Im heading north in the next few weeks / weekends.

[Devil]

Cheers. Yer understand about the fat front sledging across the surface instead of digging in but the tyres have made a significant difference (compared to the BT090 sports tyres it came with, hah!). So i'll just have to live with it.

One thing that I guess i'll get over with time is having so much power on gravel. Wheelspin very easy as it's a highly responsive throttle!

[johannvr]

I also still getting used to the DR's ways & often over weekends go riding around the pumice/gravel roads in the immediate vicinity - out Puhoi / Waiwera / Wainui / Waitoki / Kaukapakapa way. They twisty & windy with some traffic, so one can't let rip at all - thus ideal territory to go & take it easy-ish to get used to the bike's handling. Those should be within striking distance for you, so if you want to give it a go ... I no dirtriding teacher, but one can also learn from riding & talking & following another through lines & corners.

Plenty hardpacked sections, plenty loose gravel / aggregate patches with lots of tight, off-camber twists & turns. Fun all-in-all.

[marks]

I had an xt660x with the fat 17" front and it was fine on thin gravel and a total bitch on thick gravel

All I can suggest is dropping the front pressure down a bit (20ish) and doing the standard dirt bike stuff of humping the tank, all weight on outside foot peg, chin over outside handlebar (ie body vertical) and inside leg waving in the breeze up by the front forks while nailing the throttle

On my little DT230 poking my inside leg out by the forks makes a massive difference whereas on the KLR it just makes me look like a dork....

the xt660 was a big fat thing but if you could get the front to bite it would do big wailing power slides that were so much fun. If it didn't bite it would just scare me shitless