How do you deal with riding through fluffy dirt...next in my series of ???s

[Nimbus]

As a dirt newb, I will continue to ply you all for information until I am banned...

Anyway, I rode up to the Blue Ridge Parkway today (47.5mpg, what a machine) and in between my favorite twisty bits, I rode about 40 miles of forest service roads. I had a great time seeing parts of the mountains that never occurred to me to see on my other bikes. I got to eat my lunch at "Panther Falls."

So my question is this: how do you ride on deep dirt? I rode route 814 off of the BRP which looked to be a typical hard packed gravel forest service road for the first 100'. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, they were literally in the process of grading it as I rode it. So for about 10 miles, it was all steeply downhill switchbacks on soft brand new, unpacked dirt. I elected to stand through most of it going 15-25mph in 1st and 2nd gear, and found the old adage of more gas to be true. The bike seemed to track where it needed to go, I leaned with weight on the pegs to make the corners, and when I was in too fast, found that a handful of gas on TC2 took the push out of the front and brought the rear to attention to square off the corner. I wouldn't have continued riding if I had any choice, but the heavy bike down a 10% grade didn't leave much of an option for turning around. Any words of wisdom? This time I avoided mud entirely!

 

[Dirt_Dad]

they were literally in the process of grading it as I rode it. So for about 10 miles, it was all steeply downhill switchbacks on soft brand new, unpacked dirt. I elected to stand through most of it going 15-25mph in 1st and 2nd gear, and found the old adage of more gas to be true.

That sounds like a challenging situation, especially for someone with limited dirt experience on a heavy bike. Good job plowing ahead. Sounds like you did things correctly.

The only suggestion that comes to mind is how you position your weight over different terrain. On a 10% downhill you want to be positioned to the rear, stand and get your butt over the back wheel. There's already a lot of weight on the front end, don't add your weight to it. Exactly the opposite if you're going up. Up hill you are trying to stand so you are vertical, or slightly leaning forward. Depending on the hill sometimes that could put you pretty far ahead of the handlebars. Finally on level soft or loose stuff I like to stand get my weight forward and weight the front wheel. You can feel the back wheel hunting around behind you, but you don't care, you feel completely stable.

This is pretty intuitive stuff, so you probably already did what I've suggested. Again, good job. This is a big bike for learning dirt techniques.

 

[NoMorBills]

Go Fast and hang on!

You did well. You want the front to get up and float over the soft stuff. Getting your wieght back is good. If the front is running straight you are doing it right, if the front is pushing side to side, get the load to the back and allow the front to ride up on the soft stuff.

In deep sand and gravel the material will pile up in front of the tire and push the tire to the side. That is not good. That is what kicks you off line. I wiggle the bars back and forth in the extreme conditions where wieght is back and gas is on and it still wants to hunt for a new line. This wiggle washes of the front of the tire and allows me to control the line not the sand pushing my tire around.

Trial and error,,, you will find what works best for you. Slowing down and duck walking is also the best and safest way to get thru the very worst.

 

[GrahamD]

Watch Ryan Dudek and Franceso Catanese a lot in slow motion for clues and practice, ;D

Motociclismo Fuoristrada prova la Yamaha Super Ténéré 1200

2012 Yamaha Super Tenere

 

[wfopete]

dirt newb:

Congrats on surviving your learning experience. Now go find the right bike to learn on, something smaller; like a 250. Big bike riding is a bit different than smaller bikes but it will likely be less painful and less expensive if the learning process takes place on a smaller bike. Crawl, walk, run. Maybe a MSF off road course. Plenty of places/schools that will help you. Now is the time to learn correct technique, then once you are experienced with the basics move back to the Tenere' and continue on. BTW those guys in the videos are very experianced and/or experts, likely don't buy thier bikes and get free parts when they bust'em up. Can you say that about yourself? Good luck.

 

[Brntrt]

There is a lot to be said for learning on a smaller bike. Not that you can't learn off road on a big bike like the S10 but the learning curve may be a bit steep as well as frustrating. Picking up a big bike once is the equivalent of picking up a smaller bike 20 times. If you don't have access to a smaller bike just take it slow and give your self a bit longer to get there. Ride your own pace. I cut my teeth on one of these 40 years ago.

I kinda miss it some days!