Skill set?

**D3ALN** · 25th April 2011, 19:52

Been riding an rmz 450 all yesterday and was having a lot of fun and found I didnt have to feed the throttle as much.

**morg_nz** · 25th April 2011, 20:39

Originally Posted by D3ALN

Been riding an rmz 450 all yesterday and was having a lot of fun and found I didnt have to feed the throttle as much.

i was majorly surprised how easy my new crf450 was to ride, especially after the 125. the thing about the 4 stroke is that it has exactly as much power as you twist the throttle, no surprises, so i found it incredibly easy to ride - didnt get it past third lol, even on the flat, the thing was just drifting sideways as i fed the power on!

**fastoyz** · 25th April 2011, 21:45

dont bother with coaching or videos the best thing is to just go out and ride, go to woodhill or somewhere where you can spend the whole day on the bike just riding, weighting the outside peg or keeping your elbows up is not going to help if your starting out and prob are struggling to stay in a straight line anyway

**Blagger** · 25th April 2011, 23:32

I found these pretty good, as well as free

http://www.schnygg.com/enduro/teknik/

**Jay GTI** · 26th April 2011, 08:17

Originally Posted by fastoyz

dont bother with coaching or videos the best thing is to just go out and ride, go to woodhill or somewhere where you can spend the whole day on the bike just riding, weighting the outside peg or keeping your elbows up is not going to help if your starting out and prob are struggling to stay in a straight line anyway

Sorry, couldn't disagree more, this is where the bad habits are picked up and once they are ingrained, they are very hard to unlearn. I speak from experience. Start out doing things right (how hard is it to keep your elbows up?) and it will pay dividends later.

**Crisis management** · 26th April 2011, 08:25

Originally Posted by D3ALN

Been riding an rmz 450 all yesterday and was having a lot of fun and found I didnt have to feed the throttle as much.

I'm with Taz on the move to a 450, that sounds like a huge step in capacity and power when you are still learning to ride, my advice would be to get the learning done on a small bike, the WR is an easy bike to learn on and will keep up with the bigger bikes well. However, having been young once, I understand the need to have the biggest toy in the shop...good luck!

Originally Posted by fastoyz

dont bother with coaching or videos the best thing is to just go out and ride,

While there is nothing like on bike time, I learnt a huge amount in 4 hours of coaching so, sorry, I have to disagree with your suggestion.

**mfordy** · 26th April 2011, 09:52

+1 on this. My son picked up some bad habits pretty early on and are proving pretty hard to break. He's paying the price with some spectacular offs and inconsistent results. Coaching is really helping to keep him SAFE.
I can highly recommend Broxy and I see he's heading your way on the 30th May.
He's not cheap but worth it IMO.
www.broxy.co.nz

Originally Posted by Jay GTI

Sorry, couldn't disagree more, this is where the bad habits are picked up and once they are ingrained, they are very hard to unlearn. I speak from experience. Start out doing things right (how hard is it to keep your elbows up?) and it will pay dividends later.

**Shorty_925** · 26th April 2011, 12:50

Originally Posted by D3ALN

Been riding an rmz 450 all yesterday and was having a lot of fun and found I didnt have to feed the throttle as much.

Where did you go riding sunday? You been out valley rd lately?

**D3ALN** · 26th April 2011, 16:59

Valley road is rubbish I wont be back there a farm out at tutira top local rider that my mate knows and we were allowed on his track Im unsure of the guys name lol.

**Shorty_925** · 26th April 2011, 18:12

Originally Posted by D3ALN

Valley road is rubbish I wont be back there

Whats rubbish about it? At least its a place to ride if you dont know anyone with land.

**D3ALN** · 26th April 2011, 18:34

just a mess. I prefer being able to go through rivers and stuff when bored of track.

**buffstar** · 27th April 2011, 07:33

Back braking!!! Use it heaps until you dont even have to think about it any more, practice locking it up heaps and getting used to being able to direct the bike where you want it to go - almost all of my big offs have been due to panicking and grabbing the front brake.

Standing up as much as you can and holding on with your knees and ankles - using your whole body to direct the bike rather than just the handlebars.

Just MHO of course but yeh back braking will totally save your ass

The more you ride the better you get - coaching is def a really good option if you have the coin. We are heading off to a Broxy coaching day next weekend - if you do a group day this can help with the cost.

Good Luck - have fun

**D3ALN** · 27th April 2011, 18:05

Originally Posted by buffstar

Back braking!!! Use it heaps until you dont even have to think about it any more, practice locking it up heaps and getting used to being able to direct the bike where you want it to go - almost all of my big offs have been due to panicking and grabbing the front brake.

Standing up as much as you can and holding on with your knees and ankles - using your whole body to direct the bike rather than just the handlebars.

Just MHO of course but yeh back braking will totally save your ass

The more you ride the better you get - coaching is def a really good option if you have the coin. We are heading off to a Broxy coaching day next weekend - if you do a group day this can help with the cost.

Good Luck - have fun

cheers I have never even used the back brake