A Day at the Ranch.......

[Firefight911]

I've ridden in the dirt, I've gone 50 yards with the best of them, and I've picked up a tuning fork along the way. It was time to do more than the normal and really start to explore the "right way" of doing things dirty with the Super Tenere.

On Novemeber 3rd I had a very unique and wonderful opportunity to not only learn from the pros at RawHyde Adventures how to ride my big bike off road properly but to do it in one of the best settings on Cody Allen's, errr, I mean Perry King's ranch up here in Cool, CA.

Many may or may not know Perry from his history in television and movie but most certainly know him for his contributions to motorcycling through his avid love of all things motorcycle and his position as a member on the Board of Directors with the AMA.

Let me let you all in on a bit of a secret.....that guy can ride!!!

That's him on the right with the cheesy, 13 year old, I'm gonna go ride all day on my beautiful R100GS look. He never lost that look all day!!

I have never been a person who cared about movie stars, famous people, etc. and I have met several. Many times they are stuffy, elitist, and pompous. Not Perry!! He has to be one of the most humble, down to earth, real, genuine and transparent people around. He is a true ambassador of our sport and is genuinely interested in you as an individual.

But, this isn't about Perry other than his opening up the gates to his beautiful 500 acre ranch to a bunch of wannabe big bike adventure riders so some true pros could teach us how to ride these things the way they were meant to be ridden.

Well, there may be more about Perry but we'll see him at the end of the story for that.

So, on with the show......

We all met at the local BMW dealer, A&S Cycles, for the morning brief and ground school. You see, RawHyde and BMW have teamed up to bring these free, one day riding clinics to your local BMW dealer. The idea here is to get those who own GS style bikes to put them in their element, dirt! 90% of GS's never see the dirt because of intimidation, fear, a lack of friends to do it with, and/or a lack of knowing how to do it.

Check with your local BMW dealer to see when RawHyde will be there. You really don't want to miss this event. It's free, you will learn something, lunch was provided for us, and, heck, we got to ride with some amazing people, amazing bikes (see, it's not BMW specific at all), and on an amazing location.

I don't have any pictures from the ground school portion but we had a pretty thorough discussion with some static examples of what we would be doing throughout the day.

We started off with body positioning and an understanding of controlling the bike from the waist down by using your knees, your feet, and your balance. This was an area I knew I needed improvement in! The tendency to tense up, to start to control the bike with your arms and shoulders, and balance from up high were all discussed and examples given of how this is not what you want to do as it causes the bike to unsettle, it goes where you don't want it to go, and you, the rider, become fatigued in a short amount of time.

We then went in to a more thorough discussion of balance. Not so much in the straight line but in the climb, descent, and in the turn while off road. All exercises we were assured we would practice and use throughout the day.

We explored concepts of control as they related to tires, contact patch, throttle, brakes, and the friction zone and its use in two distinct phases - friction zone as the clutch engages and friction zone as the clutch disengages.

Our two instructors, Shawn and Lance, were very thorough and covered all these topics and more in a very simple, easy to understand way and kept us engaged and worked to assure all of us, nearly 30 people by the way, that we should not be intimidated or worried as we will build up to the skills discussed throughout our exercises once we got to Perry's place.

After this, Shawn and Lance gave us instructions as to how to set up our bikes in a hybrid fashion. This means how to set them up where you could be riding along and suddenly see something off the road, in dirt, that we wanted to explore and you could just do it. You wouldn't need to change the bars, adjust the controls, etc. as they were already there where they needed to be.

I have to say, this was one area I was very glad to see covered. So many times, riders fit themselves to the bike as opposed to fitting the bike to them. Adjusting a lever up or down, moving the bars in or out, etc. to make the bike work for them. So many of us could become better riders just for understanding and practicing this concept, let alone adding in suspension adjustment to the mix.

Another important element that was covered was the area of doing things to your bike, farkling, shall we say, to both enhance the ride and protect the bike. Things such as bar risers to get your body position better while standing, a skid plate to protect the bike from the trail, engine guards, etc.

Once this was covered, Shawn and Lance grabbed tools and went around to all of us to have us get on our bikes and go about adjusting anything we wanted adjusting or taking the recommendations they had to make the bike work for us. No changes were needed to my bike. I had previously installed bar risers, engine guards, a skid plate, etc. and had the controls already set to my needs.

At this point, tires and pressures should be addressed. Another very nice element was that all attendees were asked to arrive with the stock type tire is possible. Better than 50% tread and do not install knobbies for this course. Shawn indicated that for training in this setting it was better to have the stock Battlewing, Tourance, etc. as knobbies can mask bad technique and they wanted to instill in all of us that it is the rider where the difference comes in to play, not the bike and it's knobbie tire. I loved this. Just as my mentors had preached to me when I first got in to racing sport bikes where they harped on me - If you want to go faster, change the rider. Well, here in the dirt, it goes more like - If you want to enjoy yourself and take your bike to places most people don't, change the rider.

As for pressures, Shawn asked us to all have our tires aired down once we got to the ranch. He offered the idea of tires conforming to the rough surfaces off road which would gain traction as well as using the tire to absorb some impact and not transmit all the forces to the rim, suspension, bike, rider combo. We all aired down to Shawn recommended 25 psi front and rear.

OK, more to follow but allow me to introduce you to our instructors Shawn and Lance along with that cheesy, 13 year old I already told you about.

Shawn in the white shirt, Perry in the middle, and Lance in the black and gold.

Hey, Perry!!!! Come back, this is only part one!!!!!

Here's a sneak peek at the views we had...

Show off!

 

[tc9988]

more please ::012:: ::008::

 

[Swagger]

Way to go .... excellent bit of work if I may say so. You is a lucky fella.

 

[tubebender]

Looking forward to the rest of the story ::017::

 

[CREnorth]

Riding schools are such a good way to learn the right way. I've been to a few, MSF, Reg Pridmore and others and one thing is common, they are a blast. Can't wait to see more, thanks for posting. ::017::

 

[Venture]

more please ::012:: ::008::

::026::

I'm in the process of continuing to cut my "dirt teeth," except on the KLX250. I still haven't gotten any formal training, but I'd like to do something formal when I decide to step up to dirt on a "big bike." Yamaguy55 tells me if I master the 250, I can ride anything. We'll see.

 

[Firefight911]

Re: A Day at the Ranch.......(Pt. #2)

So after all was said and done, we were told where to meet and off we headed as individuals or as a group. I hooked up with a couple friends and we slabbed it up to the exit and then rode down in to the canyon and to the rendezvous point.

Once we were all assembled it was a short jaunt over to Perry's ranch where we again all got together to begin the day's training.

As you can see, there were plenty of BMWs, Triumph was represented, KTM, and my sole Yamaha. We even had a KLR.

Shawn and Lance immediately went about the business of getting us started. Of course, with a reminder that after training we would go on a fun Adventure bike ride where we could put in to practice what we learned.

I do need to make sure I state an important aspect about the training we did on this day. It was by no means a complete course. What it was was an opportunity to make friends, get some basic foundational skills formed, and whet our appetites for what we could do and learn with the complete course through RawHyde and with deliberate practice over time. Essentially, this gave us a license to learn.

OK, first drill;

Ride as slow as possible, use the friction zone, stand, lock your lower body in for control, and keep your eyes up.

We would ride as slow as possible through a field, the whole time adjusting our speed with clutch use. Shawn and Lance wanted us to move forward but not at a pace that would allow the clutch to be fully engaged. The concept and idea here was to ride as slow as possible, learn the friction zone and throttle control needed for this type of riding, get comfortable standing, and fight the balance of the bike. Yes, I said fight. The idea was to learn our particular bike's balance points, how to use the throttle and friction zone to pull us forward, and practice good body mechanics.

One of the most important parts needs emphasis, keep your eyes UP! This was something I knew very well from teaching motorcycling for over 9 years. You look where you want to go, you go where you look. I use this as a learning point - Look left, go left. Look right, go right. Look down, go down. This is a very common mistake with untrained and newer riders and it certainly applies here. Regardless of the many thousands of miles ridden over our life of riding many here were new to this form of riding so they can be categorized as new riders. And for those of us who get it and practice this already, it was reinforcement and getting us back to basics.

We would each make two passes. Lance would prep us at the start line and Shawn would be down range giving us instruction and commentary to make sure we got it right. On the second pass, Shawn would walk alongside, in front of, behind, he would grab the bike (simulating uneven terrain), and do what he could to distract us. One of the first things that happens once distracted is the looking part. The eyes drop which only exacerbates the problems that have already started from a point of control.

Do it like this, he says,

Hey, they said to show up as we would normally ride. No stripping the bike down for the class. Ride it like you would on a trip. This guy even had his bags loaded!

Yes, bikes fell over!

Shawn, about to terrorize his next victim, err, I mean student!

In between formal passes we were all encouraged to practice in the open areas. Heck, with 500 acres we could go damn near anywhere.

On my second pass, I made the big mistake of saying Shawn's mother dresses him funny! About 3 seconds later my back end was experiencing a violent uprising as Shawn infused "outside forces" to my bike. Almost went down!!! Dab of the feet, plant the feet, hold 'er up, phew, that was close!!! Shawn was laughing as hard as I was!!! This really was fun!!

This exercise took some time as people where determined to go slow, get it right, and really understand the body mechanics involved and the collective use of the body, bike, and control inputs.

After everyone cycled through and had had enough practice it was lunch time. It was fun to see that there were a lot of hand massages going on as everyone quickly realized just how much clutch and throttle work was going on with what we were doing.

A&S Cycles provided a great lunch of sandwiches, soda, water, and dessert. Everyone milled around and started to really loosen up. You could see how much fun everyone was having. We were excited for what came next.

Perry interjected and stated he had a better place to train just over the hill. A bit more open and with a good variety of terrain to play around with. He really emphasized his desire for us to feel at home and take advantage of what we had. He really wanted us all to get exposed to everything his ranch had to offer and make it a successful outing for all.

After lunch we all rode to the next area. Everyone was standing, working their controls, and you could already see an improvement, a level of comfort emerge, and everyone’s confidence was building.

On our way to the next training place.

OK, next exercise;

We would now take that balance and apply it to what was termed, a trail stop. A trail stop comes in to play when cresting a blind hill, for example, and deciding what to do next without having to put your feet down and restart again. You are in your balance position while standing and have better control over the bike and traction from this point and you have a better visual advantage, so use it. Once you have crested this blind hill you can stop, decide your next direction of travel, and then start again without upsetting the bike. A very valuable tool!!

We would accelerate from a stop after getting some tips and one on one with Lance, get some decent speed going, make sure we were standing and in good form, keep the eyes up, and then on signal stop hard, keep in our standing position without taking our feet off the pegs and start again.

This would disprove the stupid myth of front brakes being bad and got us to move our balance fore and aft during the stop and acceleration. It solidified our body positioning and the concept of controlling the bike from the waist down, not through the upper body. Emphasis was placed on moving forward during the acceleration and back on the deceleration while keeping as light a touch/grip on the bars as we could. After exiting the practice area we were encouraged to ride off road, within instructor sight, and practice what we had learned up to this point as well as just enjoy ourselves.

Again, two passes. The first to get the concept and the second to really get it to work with more speed and harder braking.

Yea, it's quite the ranch!

Triumph 800

After this, it was on to turning with an emphasis on balance. This is where I really picked up the most on the day.

I have always understood and practiced the concept of counter balancing at slow speeds. A bike must lean in order to turn, but boy did this next drill and the body mechanics that went with it really take my ability to turn in the dirt to a whole new level!!!!

This one might be a bit difficult to describe but let me give it a try;

You are riding along in a straight line and you are about to make a turn to the left. The set up is to turn your right foot in so your toes are in to the bike and your heels out. You take your right knee and drive it in to the tank. You weight the right leg and, in fact take your left foot OFF the peg entirely, while leaning the bike left. As the bike begins to carve you continue to counter balance and lean the bike over as much as necessary to accomplish the turn.

You need three points of contact with your bike at all times to effectively control it. One - foot to foot peg. Two - knee to tank. Three - hands on bars. The rest is just doing it. Yea, riiiiiiggghhhhtttttt!!!! Go try this positioning. It is foreign. It should be exaggerated to emphasize the positioning which, in turn, gives you the control you need.

Again, we would make multiple passes. Only, this time, the course consisted of soda cans set in an wide offset cone weave pattern that crossed to the left and right of the trail we just practiced our trail stops on. This would ensure we would get some decent bike movement from the terrain.

The concept of looking where you want to go is so important here! Once you have set up for the turn you are about to make it is time to crank your head over and find the next turn, or soda can in our case.

I can not emphasize enough the need to look where you want to go, relax the upper body, and allow the bike to carve its turn beneath you.

After this, everybody needed a break. We debriefed all we had covered up to this point and Shawn asked if there were any questions. A couple concept questions and then a great question from the sole female, Lynn, of the group, "How do I pick up my bike after I do what you have been teaching me?" Laughter ensued, of course. Since we were all filled with a lot of information we were still trying to process this gave a nice change of pace. By the way, don't think for a second I have captured everything we learned here in this ride tale!!! Not even close!!

Shawn and Lance asked for a volunteer bike and Lynn offered up hers.

Once down, Shawn and Lance explained how to position the bike depending on how it is down in relation to the fall line. He then went in to the two basic methods to get your bike back up.

One method involved sitting on the bike's seat with your butt, get your legs out in front of you but not past the 90 degree or you lose power, grab a hard part with your one hand and the lower handle bar with your other, lift with your legs while looking straight up, stand.

If the bike is on its right side put the kick stand down first so it can be set on it as soon as you are upright.

A couple others tried with Lance's bike;

Even the 13 year old got in on the act!!!

The other method involved dead lifting while using the handlebar to lift with;

Since Lynn had never before been able to accomplish picking her bike up she was quite excited. Shawn and Lance then threw the gauntlet down and she promptly picked it up by applying what she learned to Lance's R12GS Adventure. BAM, no problem!!!!!

After we completed this, Shawn and Lance went over all we had learned so far, answered some more questions and then informed us that we were now in for a fun treat as Perry wanted to take all who were willing on an Adventure ride around his property. We were told that we would encounter some stuff that would stretch us beyond the taste of basics we had learned but, hey, it's an adventure so......

More to follow in the next installment……..

 

[Mike Sisson]

GREAT stuff Phil!! ::012::

Thanks for sharing.

::017::

 

[Firefight911]

Re: A Day at the Ranch.......(Final Pt. #3)

The 3rd and final part.

We had done most everything we came to do at this point. This was a lot of information and it was also only one day. Everyone was feeling the work they had done. There were tired clutch hands, throttle hands, a couple falls (all minor with no injury), and some very happy people.

The weather had held off too. We were expecting a rain storm that day and the clouds were building but not one rain drop. The temps were perfect and the light made for some fantastic views along the way.

It was now time to put in to practice what we had learned. Perry's turn to lead us around his ranch in a follow the leader rider.

A bunch of happy people about to go ride.

Here I am conspiring with the KTM driver to kick over some BMWs.

Off we went.

One of Perry's personal friends. He could ride that thing running through some rocky sections like it was a trials bike. Oh, and several jumps for fun.

We rode all over. There aren't a ton of pics from this but we had a blast riding with Perry and with new friends and with new skills.

There were a couple incidents on our way to Perry's favorite area to go to just sit and contemplate things.

We needed to come up this grassy hill after transitioning off the trail and this caught a couple people out when they found the grade and the terrain changed the traction and really put a premium on throttle control.

Coming up the trail then going up the hill. You can see there has already been carnage.

Eventually, we all made it up to the top of one of the vistas on the ranch and were greeted with some of the most amazing views that these pictures will never be able to capture.

Talking about views, motorcycles, and having a great time at Perry's special place of solitude. Thanks for sharing!!!

After hanging out for a while it was time to continue on. Hey, anyone ever heard the line that goes something like, what goes up, must come down? Yep, the hill climb is now a descent. Balance, brake control and modulation, body positioning, and loose bars.....or not.

Now you see him.

Yup, I still see him!

Cleared for descent.

Once down off the vista we continued to ride around and see and do things on our bikes that many probably never thought they ever could or would. I think everyone came away with a bunch of information, a lot of skills, and a huge boost in their confidence. Another road opened.

Maybe a bit anti-climactic in the finish but there really is no way to capture here how much fun I had, we all had, with the last hour of just riding.

One nice thing to note, at least for me, was getting up the next day and having fatigued legs but no pain in my arms, neck, or shoulders. Something I had happen many times from my off road forays in the past. This is a good thing and made it all worth it to me!!

One of my favorite shots on the day.

And, of course, I can't finish without thanking A&S Cycles, RawHyde and that 13 year old who opened up his ranch for a bunch of 12 year olds to come play!!

 

[colorider]

Fantastic Phil!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
::008::

 

[tc9988]

::008::

 

[GrahamD]

A big thank you Phil for putting all that work into posting that up.

Much appreciated.

I learnt the "look where you want to go" and the relaxed upper body bit from an old guy when I was a young taker.

I was trying to chase down a guy on an old (not that old then) Bemmer on my super duper powerful Jap rocket and just couldn't catch him, until I pulled into the next stop.

There he was, grinning away and came over and said something like..

"You know, If we swapped bikes, Id still kick your butt, Want to know why?"

"Yeah right Grandpa", I said "But I have a bit of time to waste". with a smile of course.

He then went on to teach me how much of a noob I was. It was a good day, and has served me well, so far.

I spent the ride home, relaxing, pushing on bars with 1 finger, body steering, going around corners with no hands (I has a screw up throttle lock, in case you were wondering. Glad they banned those ). I might have looked like a dill but I was suddenly intrigued by all this.
Practice practice practice.

I will have to get out on one of these courses and you have put the fire in me a bit. Probably the best Farkle you can buy.

Thanks Phil. ::008::

 

[CREnorth]

Hey Phil, Fantastic report. I could tell it was fun from all the smiles and it looks like alot of good info for a one day course.
There has been much talk about the S10's ABS and it's down hill ability, what do you think. How did she do?
Thanks for the right up. ::012::

 

[Firefight911]

ABS is seamless and flawless off road. I have gone downhill, over baby heads, done HARD stops in teh dirt, etc. and I am telling you as sure as I am typing here, it works PERIOD!

If you know me, you know I have always been a big, I do mean BIG, proponent of not using driver aids. They have always gotten in the way, stepped in too soon, compromised safety in certain aspects, ohhhh, like OFF ROAD, and generally have detracted from the ride.

I can, and do, believe Yamaha got it right. The aids allow you to extend without the intrusion of them suddenly getting in the way. They allow me to focus on the ride, to push my limits and get better all without the nagging person over your shoulder telling you that you've gone to far. When they activate, they do so because you have over extended. And then, they do so in a manner that does not upset the chassis or your body positioning, etc. The AID where they should and otherwise stay the heck out of the way.

I have no doubt someone will chime in and tell me, again, just how ridiculous I am and how this bike is just useless off road without being able to shut off ABS, blah, blah, blah to which I simply respond, OK. I'm not gonna change their minds any way. I ain't James Stewart and nor are they but.....

Go try half of what I have done on any other ABS bike and I'll watch as you speed up as you have no brakes, go off line because they intruded so much that you and the chassis have been completely upset, or are left clamoring to shut off teh ignition so you can regain your braking. 8 BMWs I have had. My R12GS Adventure was bought only because it did not have ABS. My G540X Challenge nearly killed me several times after forgetting to shut ABS off and my F800GS wasn't too much better but I had learned my lesson enough to know by then and rarely forgot to shut ABS off.

RawHyde kept saying over and over, turn off your ABS, to which they then looked over at me and said to do what ever I do. That was leave it alone all day, ON.

 

[GrahamD]

Excellent Phil.

Now go and post that on G-Spot ::025:: ::002::

 

[snuffcityrider]

Great post, I learned some things just from reading this. Thanks from another 13 year old...

 

[20valves]

Outstanding. You can't beat a little learning while having fun. ::008::

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Fantastic write-up. Thanks for taking us along. Makes me want to go play in the dirt.

 

[CREnorth]

Great to have real world feedback Phil, thanks for all your info.