There was a time (and it wasn't very long ago) where a practice field like the one we're seeing in this new Adam Riemann video would have intimidated me. I know, I know; it's just dirt, right? It doesn't look particularly sandy, or rocky, or muddy, or rutted, or even like it's at any sort of particularly steep angle.
But the thing is, I didn't grow up riding at all, and while I played in the dirt as much as any small child probably does, I didn't usually do it on anything other than my own two feet. When I did learn to ride, it was on the street. So the idea of losing traction and having that back end step out on me in ways I couldn't control was genuinely a situation to bring on a cold sweat, you know?
Over the past few years, I've been lucky enough to take a few different off-road trainings. I started with the MSF dirt bike course, which was held up at Road America and so was actually mostly on grass. Didn't make me any less nervous on the little Yamaha TTR 125 I was riding, and I went home sore from that class not because I'd fallen a lot, but because I'd been so tense the whole time that my body was basically clenched up every hour we spent on the bike.
Although I didn't know it at the time, that made things a little easier when I had the chance to test the Honda XR150L, and they specifically were looking for folks who had very little off-road experience. Why? Because they wanted to show how easy it is to learn and gain confidence on this bike.
Fast-forward a few years, and I attended the BMW ADV School. To my great surprise, they stuck my very short self on an R 1300 GS. Now, I'm not going to try to tell you that I didn't fall, because the number of times I fell on that thing was easily in the double digits. But at the same time, the experience taught me multiple important things.
Firstly, falling on dirt at slow speeds doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as falling on asphalt, as long as you're wearing proper protection. You do need good boots that will protect your ankles and won't let them or your feet get smashed. But as long as you have those and you're otherwise well geared up, you're most likely to end up with bruises and stories.
And secondly, the same techniques do absolutely apply to bikes of varying sizes, which Riemann will handily demonstrate and tell you about in great detail as he leads you through a few helpful exercises in this video that you can set up for yourself to practice.
You see, in addition to spending most of my time on that R 1300 GS in class, I did also have the opportunity to try riding the same loop on a G 310 GS, and feel how that bike responded to what we were doing and the terrain we were riding. And while the feel and controls were much different (that clutch is much, much snatchier than the one on the R 1300 GS), moving my body around as I guided the bike where I wanted it to go remained the same.
It was kind of fascinating to note the similarities as well as the differences, because I wouldn't have expected it if I didn't have the chance to experience it for myself.
Where there are definite differences is in when (not if) you fall down while riding in the dirt. That's where, as long as you have plenty of protection on the bike (engine guards and etc.), the big GS might actually be kinder to you. Why? Because although it's significantly heavier, if that boxer engine is properly protected, that configuration makes it quite a bit easier to lever back up. That's extra true if you're out riding with friends and they can tag team the pickup with you. For as many times as I fell on the big GS, it was the little 310 that came closest to giving me more than bruises (and if I didn't have really good boots, it might very well have done).
The exercises and explanations shown in this video make tons of sense and seem very likely to help anyone who wants to improve their skills (including me; now I kind of want a little dirt bike, lol). Wear good gear, up your skills, fall down, laugh it off, and get better!
