The good news is, dual-sport bike sales were up 24 percent in the first quarter of 2011! The bad news is, dual-sport skillsets for many riders have barely ever gotten off the pavement. And while there are any number of places to turn for on-road education, unless you grew up motoing, there just aren’t a lot of options for learning to ride a heavyish d-s bike in the dirt.
Enter the Dual Sport Riding Techniques and Advanced Dual Sport Riding Techniques DVDs, a pair of videos put together several years ago by the off-road enthusiasts at www.dualsportriding.com, in particular, one Ned Suesse, who claims to have successfully taught hundreds of riders using these techniques. Shot on beautiful location in the Colorado Rockies, some of the steeper scenes in the Advanced version had our reviewer clenching cheeks, tensing up and breaking into a clammy sweat in his office chair—in spite of the fact that hills don’t look nearly as steep on video as they do in person. Luckily, Suesse’s calm narration talks you through the techniques needed to get from here to there. And the miracle of video allows you to visualize it happening, a thing that’s nearly impossible to do when you’re sitting at the bottom of a rocky hill, sucking a dry CamelBak and watching the disappearing butt of a more-experienced rider make it look easy.
The first disc covers the basics: body position, turning, using the clutch to climb steep hills and the brakes to descend them, how to deal with sand, rocks and obstacles and, crucially, how to gracefully extricate yourself when all else fails. Watching the video won’t make you Paris-Dakar-ready, but the disc lays out excellent drills for beginners to use to hone their skills before hitting the trail. Just as important for beginners, bonus footage shows you how to prep your bike and what to pack along on the trail, including essential tools.
If you already know a little, the Advanced disc might be the way to go, especially since the first 13 minutes of it review some of the practice drills from disc one. From there, it’s time to learn about weighting and unweighting suspension, the importance of line choice, dealing with rocks, water crossings, more strategies for getting unstuck, the value of relaxation and energy conservation on longer adventures.
There’s a lot of good information here, and maybe the best info—especially if you’ve never been on a gnarly mountain trail—is that you’ll get the chance to answer the existential question: “Do I really want to go there on my new BMW?”
These videos, not exactly HD-quality but not at all bad and quite professionally produced, are a great way to know before you go.
DETAILS
Motopeak, LLC
P.O. Box 2082
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
888/706-4380
www.dualsportriding.com
Price…$29.95 each
Ups
- Easily digestible DVD form
- Beautiful Rockies scenery, especially on the Advanced disc
- Bonus bike-prep and gear-to-take tracks
Downs
- These guys make it look too easy
- Makes you want to quit your job and relocate to Colorado
