Drills For Dirt Riders......

[Steve]

What drill's can I practice on my dirt bike that will make my track riding better? I have read the books, with TOTRII getting a regular re-reading. Can you recomend any other reading that will improve my riding even half as much as this book has?I am riding my dirt bike every day (work) and have been able to apply alot of what is in your book to it.

[Bones]

Steve,

 

Are you talking about drills when riding a dirt bike on the road, or, riding the dirt bike off-road?

 

Cheers

[Steve]

Bones,

 

I'm doing all of my dirt biking on the farm. I only get on the seal at the track. Most of my riding is on gravel tracks and grassed paddocks.

[sanfret]

I wish I had that kind of space.

[adifferentname]

In Kenny Roberts Seniors book he recommends putting a worn tyre on the front of your dirtbike to practice control of a front wheel that is sliding (with a good tyre on the rear) then you can get used to backing it in and getting the throttle on early to take the weight off the sliding front. You can also put a worn rear on with a good front to practise control of a rear that has gone off. Emphasis is placed on repeated practice till the actions you want become second nature.

[stuman]

I like to pick two points about 100ft or more apart and ride around them in a circle. I practice rolling on the gas and getting the rear tire just beyond traction. In other words I try to get the tire just spinning a little not just totaly pinning it. I'm trying to get the feel for finding the maximum drive that is available.

[rccline]

Adifferentname wrote:

 

"then you can get used to backing it in..."

 

Can you describe what you mean when you "back it in?"

 

Thanks.

 

Robert

[adifferentname]

I guess what Kenny means is to get weight on the rear tire before the front tire has a chance to slide

 

This can be accomplished by carrying some throttle into the turn (eg Getting off the front brake and giving it some throttle as you are turning in)

 

Hope this is useful

[JeF4y]

hehe... Last year, I had mini-motard tires on the XR-80, and hit my dad's back yard with my brothers. We had a slide-fest. It was awesome fun. I was the king until I went flying down the yard, and went to downshift before the left hander. I meant for one gear, but grabbed two. I dumped the clutch and the next thing I knew, I was eating grass with my shoulder digging into the ground. It was funny as hell...

 

Now? I'm tearing up the frozen tundra (well, the lakes anyhow) of WI on a new CRF-450 ice-bike... I went out ice riding ONCE, and realized that this was a MUST DO for winter fun and practice.

 

It really teaches you a lot about suspension and the effects of throttle on suspension, as well as how to control a slide...

[alwayslearning]

I learned a lot by riding my XR100 around in circles. Never straigntening it out, just riding around in circles. Several clockwise, then several counterclockwise. Of course, I was trying various techniques the whole time. Like, add throttle until the back starts spinning then weight the outside peg. Do it again and weight the inside peg. See what happens when more throttle is added to an already sliding back tire. See what happens when I start a slide then hold the throttle steady. Ride around and move forward, backward, inside, outside, hang off the inside, sit upright and lean the bike over underneath me. Go faster and faster until the front slides, then give it gas and see what happens, or hold the throttle steady and see what happens, or shut off and see what happens. After doing that for a while, work on corner entrances by going down a straight and then flicking it in with no brakes faster and faster until the front slides. Experiment with doing different things when that turn entrance front end slide happens, just like when going in a circle. Wear full body armor at all times when doing these exercises, because sometimes you're learning what DOESN'T work. It's a lot less painful and expen$ive to blow it on a little dirt bike than going into eleven at Laguna.