Adventure Essentials is all about foundational skills that are required for riding big, heavy adventure bikes.  It’s important to master these skills in order to ride safely, confidently, and in control.  This class is appropriate for new and experienced riders.  Starting new riders by teaching proper techniques gives you a “jump start” toward being skilled, confident, and safe on a big ADV bike.  And experienced riders benefit for several reasons.  Many experienced riders never learned proper fundaments and “fuddle” their way through.  They manage to get it done, but often ride “by the seat of their pants” and struggle in challenging sections.  In my expereince, the problems advanced level riders encounter on more difficult terrain are often directly related to improper fundmental skills.

Body postion and balance; throttle and clutch control, braking, and line choice are the eseential skills we focus on.

Adventure Essentials Bullet List of Skills

  • Proper Body position- balanced always, using legs, maintaining upper body power position, and efficiency for those long rides.
  • Teach 1 foot on the ground only- ADV bikes are tall.  Rather than resist that truth, learn skills to ride that big beastie!
  • Briefly show how to lift bike only when someone falls.  We have a full 1 hour dedicated classroom session on lifting the bikes
  • Throttle and clutch control and balance- big ADV bikes often IDLE at 10 MPH.  That’s pretty fast.  Master riding slow.
  • Braking drills (Turn off ABS) Skillful braking separates the good riders from the average riders.
  • Corners- learn to counter balance and “The Jacques Turn” which is especially helpful for inseam challenged riders.
  • Scared of riding up and down steep hills?  It’s about body position and braking control. Start small and work to steeper terrain.
  • Line Choice.  Sooner or later riders who consistently choose “bad lines” will get burned.  Learn how to pick “good lines.”
  • Have you ever stalled on a hill and wondered how to turn aournd?  We teach that.
  • Backing down a hill or ramp with the bike in gear using the clutch for braking is very effective.
  • Unweight front wheel to ride obstacles (Optional skill if time allows.)