2 Days Off Road Training

S1000RR  FORUM

Help Support S1000RR FORUM:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

soofsayer

Forum Admin
Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
6,790
Reaction score
3
Location
York
Starting today on one of these.

b78e097462c8c49abfdcf354aa77b6a5.jpg
 
cac189b640edfc80d81d9957be53e774.jpg


6aa1860a4117a34ab1e407aee854f20b.jpg


First refreshment break. Welsh weather playing its part. Good fun this but it's physically hard work.
 
Brilliant, didn't know you were doing this Andy, interested to hear if you think its worth it, have fun.
 
Hope you're having a great time Soof, will look forward to hearing all about it in due course! [emoji4]

I started out riding enduro bikes then Motocross and have loads of fond memories, so can definitely appreciate how physically challenging it is!
 
The morning after the 2 days off roading and this is my summation of it all. I have never done off roading, well apart from a couple of hours on a mate's 125 on sand dunes when I was about 14... so the 2 day Stage 1 course worked like this:

32 riders split into groups of 6 with one instructor per group. We were roughly divided according to ability based on a 'anyone done off roading' 'anyone have lots of road riding experience' etc. Hardly scientific but I went with the flow. I went into the latter group.

Straight away we went off to the 'training ground' which is a 10 minute bike ride away. The site is a 400+ hectare disused quarry now used for motorsports. The terrain is perfect, gravel, mud, rocks, trees, streams, hills and valleys. The grounds men continually manage the site to keep it in good condition for the various events held there and it showed.

First off the group was on fairly level but rocky ground and went through various basic stuff like how to pick up your bike correctly, how to get on and off without a side stand before moving on to learning the correct standing position for off road riding. As the morning progressed things moved on to understanding how to control front wheel lockup, turning in 4m diameter circles etc. I won't give the whole game away here.

After lunch it was time to head into the scenery and learn skid control and some other beauties.

By the end of day 1 I was feeling pretty confident.

We all met for a complimentary 3 course meal at a local pub before hitting the sack shattered.

Day 2 we could do more trails and introduce some tricky stuff. Hill climbing, how to sort things out if you stall/fall off going up a hill, momentum control, and loads and loads of dirt track riding. I had two big offs. One where the front wedged into a rut and I got launched into a bank of stone. The other was an off nearly at the top of a very steep hill. Could've been really bad with the bike needing 4 of us to extract it from its 'Italian Job' predicament and me saving my arse by grabbing a sapling as I was ejected from the bike, stopping me from a long decent into a rocky dried out riverbed several feet below. The forcefield armoured pants and vest saved me from injury.

By the end of day 2 I had had a brilliant time, made some new friends, and learnt a whole lot of stuff I will hugely benefit from both on and off road. Have I got the bug? Despite the crashes (which most people had) it was so much fun I will certainly be looking at some adventures where the Tarmac ends.

b09d4683c65c1cc504c54df5e4af2c8d.jpg

ff555ad7609ce63c4e732cc3472b4a96.jpg

255c7391daf64db240ee6f9434df9cb2.jpg

aa433afb9b2ee1c035e167b83fef6fdd.jpg

4742358f685d97309438207b0a6a11a2.jpg

8f5a2e0e8db0a271faa637db00788805.jpg

21923ee27aaf114d9227c3c602d7d15d.jpg


Couple of things to add for if you do the course:

I recommend you drive there and back, you'll be done in if you ride home too, but each to their own.

Rent the boots, gloves, over clothes from the event guys. Your stuff will get knackered up. Take a few underlayers and armour if you have any.

Be prepared for your helmet to get scratched or worse, even though it might not happen. I.e don't take your favorite carbon race helmet lol.

Trust what the instructor says the bike will do.

Enjoy trashing a GSA, my loan bike was in a terrible state by the end of day 2. But it still ran fine, amazing machines.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like u had as much fun as i had in wales. Cracking place and so much different to road riding. They teach u nearly the total opposite of road riding. Still dont fancy trying some of them hills on a gs tho. I'll stick to a nice light 250. Good work.
 
It also seems alot more fun trashing someone elses bike and equipment. My dad said in hindsight he's glad he forgot his keys as it would of cost him a fair bit more than 150 to make his dr400 road worthy again after all the smashes
 
Glad to hear you had a great time and came away unscathed Soof!

I'm surprised they had the brand new GS Rally for people to use (would have thought they'd be older, far more battered GS's).

Sounds like a fantastic event
 
Thanks chaps. BMW supply a batch of brand new bikes each year for these guys to use. Mine had about 900 miles on it and was in good condition when we started. Even had heated grips :).
 
Thanks chaps. BMW supply a batch of brand new bikes each year for these guys to use. Mine had about 900 miles on it and was in good condition when we started. Even had heated grips :).

Classic BMW, business class off roading as they're known for [emoji16]

They make the best all round sportbike, best all round adventure bike and best luxury touring bikes ... what a brand!
 
I was really impressed with the capabilities of the bike. The instructor in our group is a succesful enduro racer, he pulled a few tricks on the bike every now and then for a laugh to show us what it could do which was jaw dropping. From an idiot proof point of view it also takes some beating. One of the drills we did on day 2 was emergency braking on gravel, the abs is so good you could grab all the front brake at 40 mph on loose ground and not experience any loss of traction, took some big balls to try it first time. Not as big as then being told to do it again, 'a little slower' with the abs turned off lol. Really good machines.
 
I was really impressed with the capabilities of the bike. The instructor in our group is a succesful enduro racer, he pulled a few tricks on the bike every now and then for a laugh to show us what it could do which was jaw dropping. From an idiot proof point of view it also takes some beating. One of the drills we did on day 2 was emergency braking on gravel, the abs is so good you could grab all the front brake at 40 mph on loose ground and not experience any loss of traction, took some big balls to try it first time. Not as big as then being told to do it again, 'a little slower' with the abs turned off lol. Really good machines.

Was Simon Pavey (not sure if that's spelt correctly) one of the instructors? I remember he was based in Wales and does a BMW off road school, was featured in Long Way Round and Down.

Re the ABS, is a testament to how advanced modern electronics/bike development is. It's incredible how good a GS is off road considering how heavy they are!
 
Back
Top