Any tips on dirt riding? - Page 3

 timeOday wrote:

That's too big for a dirt bike. you need a 400cc or something. With my
short legs I like my Yamaha TW200 dual sport. It get 100mpg on the road
and with it's big tires really grips off road. I had a Suzuki 400 years
ago and it was fine off road but I couldn't touch the ground with my
feet which made stopping a challenge especially if their was a hole
where I stopped.

--
Blattus Slafaly  ? 3     :)  7/8

 Blattus Slafaly £ ¥ 0/00 :) wrote:

True.  But we're talking compromise here.  My favorite kind of riding is
(on-road) canyon carving, but I wanted something that can also get me to
some more distant canyons with a modicum of comfort, can handle 2-up,
has luggage, and can take me up to a campground or a trailhead for
hiking.  Clearly what I really need is 3-4 different bikes and a support
crew driving a chase vehicle.  Since that isn't happening, compensating
for the bike's deficiencies in each situation will be my job.

Hopefully 30 years from now we'll have something that's a dirtbike,
sportbike, and touring bike all at once, or can at least switch at the
touch of a button.

 timeOday wrote:

Get a motorcycle trailer for your V-Storm and haul a dirt bike along.

--
Blattus Slafaly  ? 3     :)  7/8

 

During the late spring and summer, you can ride almost any 500 to 600
pound motorcycle anywhere you want to go on America's huge grid of
unpaved dirt roads that have been graded and gravelled for traction.

These riders went almost anywhere they wanted to go by using roads
wide enough for cars.

http://www.geocities.com/backroadsperiod/rides/trip2002/top.htm

http://www.backroadsboogie.com/toc.htm

http://www.montanadualsportadventures.com/Index.HTM

You will get into problems after the spring thaws when the roads wash
out or the four wheel drive vehicles cause deep ruts.

If you start getting into narrow cannows with stream crossings, you
can except washouts and you can expect to get stuck and need to
wrestle the wheels out of
ruts, or have to pick the machine up by intelligent force.

Desert roads will be compacted by the winter rains and riding on
desert roads is fine until the four wheelers break through the crust
and turn them into sand.

There's no way to get a heavy weight dual sport bike up on top of the
sand unless you're Godzilla and stand seven feet tall and weigh 350
pounds. Smaller riders can stand up and make real dirt bikes get up
onto top of loose sand to run on the crust.

If you ever find yourself bogged down on a sandy single track, one
trick is to ride the edge of the sand and use the low vegetation in
the sand for traction.

Of course the rider who wants to go out and see if he can climb steep
hills or see how fast he can go in the dirt should really be riding a
true dirt bike...

 

You'll learn to slow down when you go off road. It make take one or
more crashes for you to realize that street bikes don't work well in
the dirt.

It isn't just the excess power at the rear wheel, the lack for front
tire traction will also prevent the machine from steering very well.

You cannot expect to just lean the bike over like you were on
pavement, that doesn't work. You have to learn to slow down and direct
steer the machine and square off corners.

The front tire will skate away from you if you're riding an off camber
trail.�

Anything that weighs more than 300 pounds is too heavy for serious off-
road riding.
A machine  that weighs 215 to 250 pounds will handle anything you will
encounter.

Nothwithstanding the above statement, I have ridden 550 pound
sportbikes down dirt roads with great care to get to sites that were
at the end the end of a short dirt road or trail.

I rode very slowly and cautiously to avoid dropping the humongous
beasts and I was glad when I got back to pavement.