BMW Off Road Skills Level 1 report

[defblade]

I've put this in here rather than the off-road section as my level of biking is a lot nearer "general" than "off road"... they'll only laugh at me in there!


TL;DR: The course is excellent, I'm not. I don't get on with the 650 Sertao much, either.





Sunday morning on bank holiday weekend, and the alarm's going off anyway...

Up to Ystradgynlais - only about 30 minutes from me - in the car (I read somewhere that you may be tired, achy and not keen to ride more by the end of the day... they were right!) and find a lovely line of shiny BMW bikes ready and waiting to go. On closer inspection, some had clearly been used by level 1ers before...

Pick up my hired proper motorcross boots for ankle and shin protection. They feel odd and bulky, but not too bad; did make changing gear that bit harder but more on that later.

I should say here that I'm not a massively experienced biker, coming to motorbikes later in life; I've got no history of hooning around fields on knackered 125s; everything I've done has been purely road. One of the attractions of the course, apart from new skills, was the chance to try things like locking the front under relatively safe conditions (and with someone else's bike!!) - in general, being somewhat "out of control" of the bike, skidding, etc - I did learn a lot of car control by sliding cars around muddy fields in my student days


Anyhow, nervously setting off on my 650 Sertao - the first single-cylinder I've ridden since my CBT - with the instructors' comments of taking it easy cornering with off-road tyres in my ears, I found out 3 things very quickly. (1) I can't find the gear lever without looking at it in these boots, (2) singles feel very vibey... they reach the parts IL4s just don't ... but not sure I'd like it for a long trip (3) the Sertao is tall. Much taller than my Bandit. I'm 6' 4", so I can easily get both feet flat on the floor, but when I pull up before the petrol station, I automatically stick my leg out at same the angle I do when stopping the Bandit... and there's no floor underneath my foot! Luckily, being powerfully built, I didn't quite drop it... but it was close, and would have been highly embarrassing!

After re-calibrating my legs, we went up to the Arena (4000 acres of old opencast mine and now forestery) and started to learn some bike handling techniques on a large flat-ish gravelly/muddy area. I enjoyed this section, but found it very difficult to find a comfortable standing position that the instructors were happy with. I wound up sort of braced just below the back of the knees against the seat where it flares to the pillion area; trying to "just stand up" on the pegs got me told I was too far foward. I also had to drop my heels to lock my knees and raise my toes so as not hit the gear selector randomly with my size 12s. And the pegs felt too short to let my feet out to where my calfs weren't hard up against the frame and seat.

Next, "how to pick up your bike as you will drop it", then lessons involving breaking and cornering followed... I found a way to get around in a tight circle, but had trouble getting my weight onto the outside peg when doing it - it feels so wrong compared with turning and holding a road bike in by the inside peg.

Off out onto the trails, and the outside peg business starts to make some more sense. But I can't get the thing to change up without sitting down and feeling for it, and down seems to be rather random - still no feeling from the boots.

I ended up in a group with Simon Pavey himself as instructor - he was certainly keen and happy to teach us noobs, when you might have expected him to be looking after the advanced guys. Also at this point, there was a guy who was clearly struggling with even the basics of the bike. He was quickly and quietly given his own instructor, coming back to the group for some bits and off doing something else other times. I must say, while the course does feel expensive, this care to make sure that each person gets something right for their abilities (a bit of extra chatting, another run at an obsticle, whatever) is impressive and came in useful for me eventually...

The first main thing we did away from the flat was downhills - using just engine braking, just front brake, and both together. We'd done the same slope 6 or 7 times each with a few problems and crashes along the way but nothing serious and Simon was leading us off to the next section when I had my first drop, halfway down the hill I'd just done 6 times 3 different ways. Shook me up more than I expected, difficult to remember all the "how to pick it up on a hill" stuff when it actually happens, but not as much as dropping it again as soon I got to the bottom and tried to turn left. Turned out the bars and left peg had got bent in the first drop, so it all handled wrong turning. Seeing how Simon fixed the peg (bash it back with a rock) an bars (stand on the wheel, IIRC, and bend 'em back) actually relaxed me a lot: this is not high tech, worrying stuff Not liking the Sertao: it chuggs as often as it revs and it seems like it'll just choose whether it's going to try to stall or pick up and fly each time you twist the throttle. It makes it tricky doing the technique parts as you're mostly taking a short run at the problem from stopped, and it's hard to know if you'll arrive with enough speed to be balanced and upright, or if you'll already be too fast. I still can't find a comfy standing position. I can now ride down rough gravel standing up with no hands, though. Just.

The gear level had also moved - I could change up easily, too easily in fact as bumps would have me in third from first until I completely changed my foot position - but changing down now took a look and several stabs.


Everything's starting to ache and I drop the bike once or twice more during the rest of the day, but nothing serious. Evening meal in the Abercraf Inn is good and we all spend a good couple of hours nattering about this and that. Drive home, wife says "you look like you need a bath and bed" and she's right (as always, darling ).


Up early agian the next day and weather is due for rain and more rain... which amazingly never comes! Wales is clearly ill, or something.

Pretty much straight back in the deep end today.

Next drop is on a silly little downhill that leads through a ford, up around and back for another go. I've already done it 2 or 3 or 4 times with more and more technical comments from Simon each time, fine tuning stuff. But as I ride around from the ford after the drop, I can feel I'm knackered and getting overloaded with things I've "learnt" but have really got to internalise. As I'm thinking about new things, the first principles are going out of my head again. So I park up and take my lid off for a break and a drink. Just as I'm getting cooled down, Simon's over the back path talking to one lad about their last go and everyone else is circling through the track - there's a massive REV REV REV and crash and splinter and we all start running down the hill. One of the blokes on a 1200 had stalled it in the ford, then given it a bit of throttle when he restarted, to make sure he cleared the water. He certainly did, but rather than forward and out, the bike took off to the left and smashed through the trees, parked itself pointing backwards down the bank about 15/20 foot away from where he was aiming... Impressive the amount of damge the bike dished out to the trees, impressive how little it took itself (cracked the beak, broke the light/cluster mount one side) and a good flow of blood from the rider's nose and face where he took a branch across the face through the visor slot.

So we all took a bit of a breather.

We went on to momentum practise - just coming over the top of a slope on a closed throttle to give you time to assess the next bit.
I dropped my bike again trying to change down before a sharp coner on gravel on the back circuit of this part; this time I'm actually doing a number of miles per hour rather than just losing it at walking pace or even stopped/stalled. I'd put my good Goretex gear on due to the promised rain and I'd often wondered how well it would actually hold up in a crash. Happily, it took zero damage from a short slide, so I've got more confidence in that at least.

This time, the gear lever ends up where I can use it standing, up and down the box! This doesn't last long though

Lunch and then on to the "swap" part, where you get to try the bikes you're not on. The GS650 riders tell me the Sertao is lot better than theirs, so I'm bloody glad I'm not on one of those! The 1200 is plush and smooth and torquey - I can see how the bloke got in trouble earlier - but I'm constantly aware of its mass. The 800, however, is lovely - much smoother than the single, much lighter than the 1200 and I quickly find a standing position that feels much more natural than on the Sertao. I think I would have done better with one of these from the off (but may have just got in more trouble, more quickly!). An F800st goes higher up my road bike short list. But I'm still pretty tired, so skip extra goes on the bikes at this point.

Simon then takes us off on another longer ride; gets quite technical at times and I'm really starting to feel tired and tenser and more at sea - I'm still trying to apply the basics and we're a good couple of cuts above there now. This time, I drop it on a "fuck off" downhill (for us. I suspect it's tiny and shallow for experienced folks;) ). Where I had at least understood what I'd been doing wrong on my drops before and been able to correct it next time around, this time it just all went Pete Tong too fast, too tired, too much in my head, and I'm sliding down the hill with my left leg bent back under the bike between the front wheel and engine thinking "please don't twist bike, 'cos you'll snap my leg". It listened to me and I stopped with the lovely smell of the exhaust pressing in to and melting my good Goretex trousers. Actually, they took very little damage really and the bruises aren't nearly as impressive as I'd hoped, which shows the armour and those motorcross boots really do do what they're supposed to. Simon pulled the bike off me, and I said "I'm not having fun anymore." He said he didn't want me to stop with my confidence at such a low ebb as I had been improving all weekend... when another lad came sliding down the hill trapped under his bike, too. Knowing how kinda scarey that is now, and seeing his bike was still running (if the back tyre finds something to grip on, it can start the bike turning around itself), I was suddenly ignoring my leg and was the first over to him to switch the bike off and start to lift it enough to free him. He was hobbling for the rest of the day, but basically OK.

We all stopped and took stock, seemed like once I'd spoken up about half our group was finding it all a bit too much at this stage, so Simon had a quick mental re-jig of his plans (as I said near the start, they were very responsive to individual needs at every stage)
and take us all for a gentle trail run for the last half hour or so, pointing out optional harder side bits for the more confident. It worked well, and we were all pretty much back in the swing of it and taking a bit more in again when the "adventurous" group got "very adventurous" and managed to get 3 bikes stuck in a ditch filled with deep mud and water. One was so well in the mud that it didn't even fall over! As we in the MTFU group arrived on scene, Chris "I just want to get back in one piece now" 1200GS was so suprised at the stuck group, he dropped his 1200 down the bank and went for a good long roll into the trees

Once everyone was stood up and freed up, it was back to the gathering point via some lovely wet muddy tracks. Funnily enough, some of the guys who'd not or hardly dropped thier bikes all weekend came unstuck here, whereas I really like sliding along sideways with the front wheel in one rut and the rear in another

Once we gathered up we were told, soberingly, that an ambiwlans was due through to pick someone up, so watch out for it... I guess I may have run out of fun and skill and energy, but someone must have had a less fun weekend than me. Went to bed 3 hours earlier than usual and bloody needed it, too. Ached for 2 days. Didn't tell wife about sliding down hill under the bike.

Glad I did the course - a lot to think about, a lot that will improve my riding I think in the long run... not sure I'd do it again, even at level 1. Very little of it comes naturally to me, and I'd want to have the turns and other basic things well engrained by hours of messing about on flat mud or gravel before I took it further again. I even think I enjoyed most of it, since the aches are gone and my brain's settled down! And it'd definately be an 800 next time.

If you've read all this, thanks! And now you know how I felt by the end
____________________
Honda Varadero 125cc => Suzuki Bandit 650 33bhp => 77bhp =>
BMW K1200R Sport 163bhp => Aprilia Shiver GT 750 95bhp

[T0MMY]

Oh god...if Teflon Mike replies to this we could crash the entire internet...
____________________
ZX6R + CBR600RR

[multijoy]

There aren't enough words on the internet, we'll be fine!
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'11 CBF1000A, '99 C90, '98 CB500
silky666: He rode amazingly well considering his bike is the weight of a small van and had slicks on.

[UrbanRacer]

https://www.urbanracing.net/misc/abuse/whao.jpg

[rac3r]

I read a few words and then skipped down hoping for some pictures
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Bikes : 2006 CBR125R - 2004 Monster 620ie - 2004 ZX-6R B1H - 2005 Monster S2R 800 - 2011 Street Triple - 2009 Streetfighter 1098 - 2014 ZX-6R 636

[defblade]

[Skudd]

A good right up of a good weekend.

What sort of fitness do they recomend? I'm a fat git so do they have gear with 6xl in it?

What sort of prices are we looking at?
____________________
Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[defblade]

[defblade]

[.....]

£500!!!!!!!!

Go trail riding in the sun for 3 days for about £600.

https://www.redtread.com/short_week.html

[Reid]

Great write-up, cheers mate. Definitely looking to do something similar now

[phk6]

brill write up, ive just bought a 1200 adventure and was thinking about doing this course to get a few skills before i try any thing daft on mine lol.
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Current .. 2008 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure ..
Before .. 2003 Yamaha Fazer 1000 .. 2004 Kawazaki Z1000 .. 2003 Suzuki Sv1000s .. 1999 zx6r Track Bike .. 1999 CB 500 Cup ..
/Phil

[G]

[621andy]

Thanks for the long write up...wondered about doing one meself...hmmm
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'93 Africa Twin RD07, C-90,MTX-125,H-100,XL-125, a 125UAG(CG copy!)

[Rogerborg]

Thanks for the write up. I've been considering trying a bit of mucky stuff myself, and you've convinced me that I should start on some fleaweight 125 or 250 rather than a 193kg bike with a known recalcitrant gearshift.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[G]

The old G650 would have been a much better choice and uses the same engine.

However, even that's still heavy compared to some of the other options.

Incidentally, if you have a look at the Ady smith school, they use KTMs which I suspect in real world terms could actually weigh half of the weight of the G650!
I'd choose them over the BMW school if I wanted to splash some cash on getting dirty.
Think they almost encouraged their riders to crash (safely, of course) - having one of the lightest bikes on the market means there's a lot issues if you do so.

[thx1138]

I've just bought a Sertao, though the closest I've got to off road, is single track roads with gravel and muddy puddles.

I want to go on an off road course soon!

[T0MMY]

[neatbik]

[Nai]

Currently keeping an eye on Auto traders for cheap little old 125 off roaders. Busting to try some light green laning myself >.>