Adventuring Off the Road - Training to Trial

My affinity for vehicles started when I was around 10 years old. Growing up in the country, we often had all kinds of motors around - go-carts, four-wheelers, trucks, cars, tractors...

When I was 15, I got my first taste of two-wheels on a dirt bike in the North Woods - right into a parked car. I was mortified, terrified, embarrassed and didn't touch a two-wheeled bike for years and years following that single event. I stuck to my four-wheels and 'cages' both on road and off road.

Around a decade later, I started to get into the two-wheeled vehicles. Everything still seemed impossible and daunting. But being a biker was so cool - the status of achievement called to me. I signed up for a training course, and I got my M Endorsement on my driver's license. Shortly afterward, I bought my first street bike but off-roading on a motorcycle wasn't in my thoughts at that time.

Years following that - after learning through trainings and real-world experience on the road - I swallowed my fear and tried out a friend's dual sport bike. A fun experience, I thought that my husband might enjoy it so brought him along the next time.

I was right - he loved it - and went full-send into the sport. And so here we are.

I tried and tried to get as interested in it as he and the others that I rode with on the regular - but I was ill-equipped and struggled with the real-world learning without the fundamental training. Off-roading on a bike IS NOT like riding on the road. I found myself disliking riding more and more. Left behind, under performing my friends - I felt like the fun and joy I found in riding motorcycles was being wrung dry into a stressful, crinkled rag that burdened me the more I didn't want to tag along.

And so - we learn.

I took on some formal training - two days back to back at an adventure touring event with a professional, female trainer who specialized in the sport of adventure touring and off-roading. Her approach was amazing! My main takeaways to keep top of mind while riding:

Rule one: Breathe normally.

Rule two: Look up!

Rule three: Calm hands.

Practice, application, short trails, exercises. I was among around 18 other women taking this training. We each came from different backgrounds - some new to the sport entirely, some from different aspects of riding like street, some with years of off-road experience looking to learn more. On and off bike practice. Discussions of experiences and situations we'd all been in.

When I started the training, I was tense and unsure. Feeling a bit despondent after my perceptions about my short comings in riding with others, but open to instruction and excited about learning from someone with similar physical obstacles as myself such as height, center of gravity, and leg length. After the first day of training - I felt like I had gleaned so much fundamental information that I had been missing, that was excited for day two. After the second day of training - I had climbed loose gravel and dirt hills, dodged trees, jumped a root ( albeit into a hill, but recovered), and learned to counterbalance in an effective way for me.

I want to share more about counterbalance. Before this training I felt like I had understood the basic theory - to turn one direction you want to counterbalance the bike by changing your positioning to improve lean angle, thereby improving your bike's turning radius. But I had clear expectations of what you could and couldn't move to achieve that.

My expectations of counterbalance rules:

Feet should stay on the foot pegs. - Wrong.

Most of the time the inside foot was coming completely off the peg and only the outer leg was on the peg.

Hands should stay in full contact of the grips. - Not necessarily.

The use of the controls is the important part, not the contact with the grips.

Shifting my head to look around shouldn't be a problem. - Nope.

Shifts in my head position - particularly with the added weight of my helmet - could have huge impacts on where my weight was registered on the bike.

Knees should stay facing forward. - Not important.

For me, in a far lean I actually performed better if I angled my toe toward the bike moving my knee to be facing much more inward allowing more weight shift over the bike.

I'm certain that other ladies had different specific experiences and take aways from the same training as the approach was strongly focused on finding what works for the individual instead of following a checklist.

At the beginning - Nervous, scared, and low confidence.

At the end - Reinvigorated, validated, and armed with tools to improve.