New to offroading :D

[LoweredOne]

New offroading guy found out it would be very usefull in bike training so here we go! Lets say im err..... 17 yeah i like being young! what can i ride and what would be good starting out with? Thanks in advance!

[G]

Probably not whatever we say, as you'll want to stick to your own preconceptions anyway .

"Off roading" is like saying "motorbiking" - the latter could be riding a scooter to the shops, doing 150mph on the motorway or riding on track in the novice group.

I started writing a 'types of off roading' thread many years ago, but never got around to finishing it.

I've done most of the general areas and all are fun, offering varying improvements in machine control and experience riding bikes to their limits.

Do you have transport to get your bikes to places - ie someone with a van, or a car that can take a trailer etc?

[LoweredOne]

[G]

Very rare for such places to hire bikes unless it's an expensive 'school'.

If you're using a trailer, you don't need to be limited to a 125cc.

You need to decide what sort of off roading you'd like to focus on.

For instance:
Greenlaning
Enduro
Motocross
Trials

[LoweredOne]

[bugeye_bob]

https://www.stalkermx.com/

might be worth a trip to somewhere like this.

[LoweredOne]

[LoweredOne]

[G]

If I was in your position, I'd go with a DT125 or a KMX125.
I wouldn't choose a 4 stroke and if I did it wouldn't be a chinese 4 stroke.

The bike you linked to is heavy, slow and has road not off road wheels and tyres.

[LoweredOne]

[G]

Both would make better commuters bar the tyre choice to my mind.

Both will be available for under £1k.

[thx1138]

I ride a 250 trail bike, with mousses and mud tyres, I'll ride it up to 40 miles, slowly, to get to a rendevouz point for a group ride on byways, though there are plenty nearer to me - or on occasion and pay and play venue, any further and I get a lift in a van.

There are some awesome public byways around, nearest one that I love that I'd get a lift to is Thetford.

Nearest pay and play places is actually a 4x4 venue, but they will take a motorbike group booking, it's about 12 miles away.

I used to be utterly hopless, I've now progressed to bad, and hope to one day advance to below average.

[LoweredOne]

[thx1138]

if you don't commute too far, mud tyres and inner tubes is possible I suppose

can all get a bit slidey aboutey, I've gone sideways down a bus lane before....

[G]

Give the choice, I'd have two sets of wheels - one with road tyres and the other with the knobbliest road legal tyres.

You could consider SM wheels for the road set, but that'll probably add to the price, while trail ones tend to be cheap.

[LoweredOne]

[thx1138]

as for hiring

well, some off road schools do a day package, where they have a deal with a manufacturer (some are even branded/sponsored) and if you buy a new bike from the manufacturer within so many weeks of going they knock the price of the bike

AJP for example https://www.ajpmotos.co.uk/ have deals with a few places, like trail world

Some of the bigger schools, like Yamaha off road in Wales, sell reconditioned bikes. So you could go there, piss about on their bike, then buy an older one.

[LoweredOne]

[G]

[thx1138]

[LoweredOne]

[stevo as b4]

Why are you now asking about a 125cc off road bike?
I thought you were applying for a race license and wanted a 125 or 250cc race bike? And I though you had discounted a 1000cc GSXR for track days, as you find the 160bhp 75ibft bike's to be too boring?

Or was it a 125cc off road bike that might be legal for you to ride on the road what you really wanted instead all along?

[Fladdem]

Depends on the tyres how slidey it is, I usually just use whatever tyres I can get my hands on, I rarely buy new tyres, always give a £10-£20 to a guy that owns a bike shop depending on how good the tyre is, if it's not a road legal tyre, I just get an angle grinder on the bit that says so and take it off, I then scuff up a bit more around the tyre wall so it looks like I've just scraped it on something instead of taking off "Not For Highway Use"

A mate of mine did his first rally on a Pulse Adrenaline 125, he bodged some wheels off a Tenere, I think, and made some spacers, the bike fell apart on Saturday morning and he had to bodge it together to make it last until Sunday evening, unsurprisingly he came last out of the finishers, but he did finish, some people didn't.

I'd run with a DTR125 or KMX125. I started on my MT5, with 3 hp on tap and some Shinko 244's on the wheels, wet, muddy British green lanes made for a right old struggle everywhere, I think it taught me so much about momentum conservation, something you'd never learn on a 450. I did snap my swinging arm though jumping a humpback bridge.

I have two sets of wheels for my TTR 250, but like you say, I'm lazy and usually just keep the road set on, if I'm just going to put an hour or so in, if I'm doing a Long Distance Trial, MX day, enduroland etc., a whole day riding in other words, I will swap my wheels over, it's only a half hour job. You just go slower with road tyres on.

I rarely have any traction anywhere, because of the road miles I do, I trash my knobblies in no time, so no traction on the road because of the dirt tyres, then none off-road because I've worn all the edges off. I was told yesterday that my back wheel looked like a snake, it was never following the path my front wheel was taking.

https://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag134/Fladdem/10897824_10202397697584048_5638151416065991604_n_zps9cbc3744.jpg

Not my TTR in this pic, but a bloke I met at a Long Distance Trial struggling around on a TTR as well. I got stuck in a great big ditch and spent ages trying to get out, that's where I missed the the bottom end torque and electric start of my TTR, kicking it over, halfway up an off-camber hill, when you can't reach the starter with your foot, so you just swing down with the back of your heel instead, you then go to fight up the hill, you move an inch then stall it, so you kick again, and go too far with the throttle and just wheel-spin and go nowhere until you stall it again... Still, light-weight, better suspension and two stroke, CRM wins.

I can't think of anywhere apart from schools that hire bikes out, green laning, you'll need to be 100% road legal, MOT, tax, insurance, licence, so limited to 125, then you can't go nuts really, what if there's someone around the corner on a horse? Or a land rover coming the other way? Or some prat, this happened to me, on a quad bike doing about 50 MPH, taking up the whole track, luckily, I had just started moving again, so I was going slow, I just rammed my bike unto the hedge out the way as he shot past. I much prefer pay and play sites for reasons like this, but only if they're quiet that day.

If you did pay and play or track riding, you could get anything, but then you'd need to get there, like G said.

On an unrelated note, Look! I made it to gold blob-dom! I hope I don't drop back into green blobs again, like the last three times I made it to gold.
____________________
Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[LoweredOne]

[LoweredOne]