|
|
|
Home
|
Basic Trail Riding Technique 103 March 2002 This is the third in a series of articles about basic Trail Riding Techniques for beginners and novice riders. The first article, in the March issue, dealt with basic body positions used for riding up-hills, down-hills, slippery rocks, sand and turns. The April article covered suspension loading and unloading techniques used to ride over obstacles such as rocks, ledges, logs, mud and ditches. Call me a nag, but I cannot stress enough the importance of “standup” riding. If you do not learn to ride standing up over rough terrain, you cannot become a good rider. My vision is to see all young riders ‘standing up’ at the 2004 Kids Classic ride on June 12th and 13th. Spring Bike PrepBefore we cover whoop-de-doos, bermed turns, jumps and wheelies, lets begin with a bit of bike prep. If you have not already done it, this is the time to get your bike ready for spring riding. It is time to delve a bit deeper into the bike than you usually do after each ride. If you did not wash the bike before putting it away for the winter, do that first. Then, remove the seat, tank, fenders, air filter, air box, lights and any other easily removed accessories. Clean these parts with hot water and detergent and inspect them as you wash them off. Next, remove front and rear wheels and clean these thoroughly checking for broken spokes and tight or rough feeling wheel bearings. Clean and check for wear on the sprocket and chain. Clean and repack the wheel bearings with waterproof grease. Replace worn seals and worn brake pads. With the bike on a stand, check for slop in suspension linkage and rear spring bushings. Disassemble the linkage and clean and repack the bearings with waterproof grease. Replace any rusty, sloppy, or sticky linkage bearings. Check the fork seals for signs of leakage. Replace the fork fluid if it is a year old or more. Next, check the steering head bearings. Handlebars should rotate smoothly with light effort and there should be no slop or roughness. Clean and grease the bearings or replace them if necessary. Next, remove the carburetor and the float bowl. Dump out any water in the bowl and clean the carburetor passages and bowl with solvent and reassemble. Inspect both ends of the throttle cable. If there are any broken cable strands or a bent outer sheath, replace the cable. Check torque on all nuts and bolts, especially motor mounting bolts, steering head and triple clamp bolts, swing arm bolts and any other bolts before doing the complete reassembly. Change the motor/transmission oil and put in a new sparkplug. Clean and re-oil the air filter. Finally, clean and wax all the nooks, crannies and parts of the bike. Now, you have a spiffy, almost new looking bike ready for another year of fun and safe riding. Riding Whoop-de –doosWhen I moved from Massachusetts to the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1974, I thought I knew how to ride whoop-de-doos. Wrong! I learned that Western desert whoops are different. They are up to 5 or 6 feet high and during a 100-mile desert race they beat you up if you do not learn the proper riding technique. Fortunately for me, I made friends with a top, local rider who taught me how to ride the whoops. Body position is very important. Ride standing up with your knees bent, butt back, shoulders low, arms outstretched and pulling back on the handlebars to keep the front end light. As your rear tire contacts the whoop, accelerate to raise the front wheel. As the front wheel touches the next whoop let off the throttle a bit. Keep modulating the throttle, on/off with each whoop. If you get into the correct rhythm, everything feels right. Speed helps as it lets you kiss the top of each whoop with the front tire, absorbing most of the hit with your knees and the rear suspension. Your bike should glide over the tops of the whoops while your engine and rear suspension does the work. If you ride too slow, or sit down on the seat, you will bounce and down each whoop and become exhausted within a few minutes. It is important to have your suspension damping dialed in correctly. Too much compression damping beats you up. Too little, lets your shocks bottom causing loss of control. Too much rebound damping makes your forks makes your suspension pack up, reducing suspension travel. Too little rebound damping makes your bike pogo. If you are not familiar with suspension tuning, ask your local “A” rider for help. Bermed TurnsMost trails develop berms at the turns from years of riding. If the trail gets a lot of use from quads, there are two parallel berms to ride in. Berms can help you ride safely because they keep your wheels from sliding out while accelerating through a turn. When approaching a bermed turn, look ahead, decide which berm you are going to use and keep your speed up. As you get better and develop confidence, berms help you to ride faster. Some very good riders hold their inside leg straight out, ready for a dab should the bike slide out. Except when riding on ice or snow, I do not recommend this as you can break your foot or tear out your knee. Generally, if there is a berm, you do not need this crutch anyway and your feet can serve you better on the foot-pegs. Be careful on narrow trails and power lines with brush at the sides and poor visibility. Another rider may be coming head-on. I usually slow down and stay to the right side of the trail and hope anyone coming toward me does likewise and stays to his (her) right. Be careful, a head on collision with a 500-pound quad can spoil your whole day. Be especially careful of this on power lines because of two-way traffic. Marked trails like the Hopkinton Everett State Forest are safer as most trails are marked for one-way traffic. JumpsJumps are not often encountered while trail riding. Occasionally however, you may be riding along a trail when you suddenly come upon a rock, ledge or dirt mound that sends you airborne. Practicing how to handle these surprise jumps can save you some grief. When launching off a jump in unfamiliar territory, it is best to land on the rear wheel first, followed by the front wheel. If you land on rocks, front wheel first, you can crash hard. So keep the front wheel high by moving back on the bike while holding the power “on” as your rear wheel leaves the jump. Fight the tendency to hit the rear brake while on the jump as this causes the bike to land “nose down”. If you must brake, do it before you get to the jump, then get ‘off’ the brakes and ‘on’ the throttle going over the jump. This can be practiced safely in an open field maybe even on grass near your house. Once you get familiar with jumps, you’ll enjoy it. My friend and riding mate, Luis Colom loves to jump. He launches off rocks, logs, small animals or other riders, always with a big grin on his face. WheeliesAhh, wheelies are fun. Everybody likes to wheelie. Boys like to wheelie. Girls like to wheelie. Even old farts like me like to wheelie. Wheelies are also a useful tool out on the trail. For example, riding safely and smoothly over a large rock or log begins with the wheelie maneuver. When encountering a surprise ditch, a wheelie can save you from a bad crash. I like to wheelie over streams or large puddles because the water could be hiding large rocks that could cause a bad crash. Wheelies are easier to do on big bore bikes but with good
rider technique, even 80cc and 100cc bikes can wheelie.
The best place to learn to wheelie is in an open grass field with a
moderate long uphill. Wear all your
protective equipment, especially your helmet.
Head uphill, standing on the foot-pegs in 2nd or 3rd
gear depending on your bike. Do the
‘load and unload’ movement that we learned in the APRIL trail Rider.
To do this, stamp hard on the foot-pegs with all your weight, then
immediately apply hard throttle and pull back on the handlebars as you jump
upwards. Your first few tries may
only produce small wheelies but this is OK.
If the front end gets too high, control it by easing off on the throttle
or pulling in the clutch. By
modulating the throttle on or off, you can sustain the wheelie.
Steer the bike by using pressure on the foot-pegs.
If you start to loop out, tap on the rear brake.
This will bring the front end down.
If all else fails, simply slide off the back of the bike.
That is why you practice on a grass field and not on asphalt. Feathering the Clutch It is good practice to develop a habit of riding with your index finger or two fingers always on the clutch. Be ready to pull in or feather the clutch when riding up steep hills. On steep hills with good traction, feather the clutch if you begin to loop out. On steep hills with poor traction, keep the throttle wide open and control speed and power with the clutch, not the throttle. Feather the clutch if you begin to get wheel spin. This trick lets you keep your RPMs up nd helps prevent bogging the engine. More stored flywheel power is always available instantly. Now, as we move into Spring, lets all get out there and practice. |
