First time off road for me

I know it's hard to believe but today was the first time ever I took a bike off road. In the UK, Germany and Switzerland it's pretty much impossible to ride off road unless you go to a disused quarry; something like the public (BLM) lands about 10 minutes ride from here doesn't really exist over there.

Anyway, when I put my cheapo DR650 up for the winter it had a couple of minor issues so I spent a couple of hours working on it last weekend and just needed to take it out for a checkout ride today. The ride led past the public lands (not entirely unintentional), so I picked a suitably looking dirt trail and just turned into it. Chugging along the trail, then getting a little lost and coming down a goat path that was supposed to be a bike trail made me grin so hard that my face hurt.

A few lessons learnt today:

• A DR650 is really too heavy for a non-experienced rider, even though it's got all the temperament of a docile brewery horse (and I mean that in a good way). Adding a 6.6 gal tank doesn't make it any easier to handle either.
• It would be nice if I knew what I was doing but even 12 years of road riding and a lot of miles on the road didn't really help with that. The only thing that helped was that riding in London did teach me some low speed riding skills that came in very handy.

Definitely will do that again, but I think I should probably keep an eye out for something like a road-legal 250 that's zippy enough to get me to work and light enough to allow me to do a bit more off roading. I'll probably wait until it's a little less muddy, I first kept more to Jeep and ATV trails simply because I figured if it got too tough I could turn around, but the ruts left behind by the bigger vehicles weren't exactly confidence inspiring.

Dirt biking is the bee's knees. You will need to break a few street habits: first and foremost on street bikes you stay on the seat and moving your body an inch in any direction is a big deal, stability wise. On a dirt bike, it's not unusual to have your ass hanging a foot to one side or the other, front, rear, you name it.

DIRT RIDER Magazine had a 'Basics of Off Road' video which was great for the novice off road nut. I can't find it, but here's a pretty decent 'starting out' tutorial: http://www.dirtrodders.com/tips/ The best advice he gives are 1) body position is crucial 2) do NOT look at the front fender! You need to look way down the trail; if you are looking at the front fender, by the time you see an obstacle it's too late to do anything about it and 3) the bike is going to 'wiggle' a lot (terrifying for a street bike rider), get used to it.

You will need to learn to stick your leg out for balance. That's cool, it's an accepted technique, just don't 'lock' your leg straight out, leave the knee bent a little. If you smack an obstacle with your foot and your knee is 'locked', two things are likely to happen: 1) you will go sailing backwards off the bike and 2) knee damage! A boyhood MX buddy completely trashed both his knees that way (slow learner), he walks funny to this day.

Thanks for the link, that looks like it's very useful.

Yeah, the wiggling of the bike was somewhat disconcerting, but I think I'll get used to that. And yeah, looking at your front fender isn't too clever on the road either .

I've always wanted to buy a small cow trailer. I almost bought Jensenmans, er Curmudgeons Hodaka.

I still wish I hadn't had to sell that Super Rat. Man, it was fun to piddle around on.

Like most things in life, the only way to get good at dirt riding is to keep doing it.