Enduro and Dual Sport Motorcycle Riding Tips: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Started
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- If you're new to dual sport or enduro riding and looking for dual sport beginner tips, these five things I wish I'd known before I started dual sport, enduro, and dirt bike riding can and will help you become a better beginner dual sport rider more quickly, whether you're into motorcycle exploring, logging road riding, motorcycle trail riding, or just getting some experience on the street. There's a lot of information out there about how to ride dual sport, but these five adventure riding/dual sport tips have proven the most useful to me as a semi-experienced rider and really helped me figure out how to ride dual sport motorcycles faster and with more success.
These tips include advice on dual sport gear, the versatility and different types of riding you can get into on your dual sport motorcycle, the many advantages of being able to attach other outdoor activities to dual sport riding, and a pair of dual sport, dirt bike, and enduro riding tips including standing up while riding and making good use of 2nd gear.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:49 You Need Specific Gear
03:26 There are Many Types of Dual Sport Riding
05:32 It's a Gateway Drug
06:57 Stand Up!
08:25 Ride in 2nd Gear
#dualsport #dualsportskills #dualsportbeginner
-SUBSCRIBE for more adventures, how-tos, gear reviews, and moto shenanigans!
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I got dual sport fever. Thanks for the tips, this noob appreciates it
I'm happy you found them useful
made it half way into the video and now im gonna go take my dr for a spin around the block lol
I love inspiring people to go ride 😂
I used to use mine for that too. Scouting for trails I can take in my truck, camp spots, shooting areas, moto camping, pistol shooting! I miss it I can’t wait to ride again
It's perfect for scouting, for sure. Nice to know I can pretty much turn around wherever I want.
Thats when your bike becomes a tool. A fun tool. Just like a horse in the old days, sure it's fun to ride a bike or a horse, but sometimes they just become a tool to get a particular job done rather than entertainment and sport.
I always keep some pressure on my foot pegs...Even on easy riding roads...It makes your reaction time quicker
Great tips! I'd recommend learning to shift while standing though and don't be afraid to shift gears in general. Most of the time you'll be ok in one gear but I spend a lot of timing going between 2nd and 3rd for more bumpy or curvy trails, sometimes 4th if its straight with good sight distance. That's because I tend to keep RPMs low and just downshift before corners or when I want to accel quickly though - gives better MPG and smoother riding. On nice smooth dirt roads even 5th is on the table. A few weeks ago went on an adventure ride with a group and we did 70+mph for over an hour on a dirt road. Ended up riding almost 400 mi in a day on my '03 DRZ400S. Awesome bikes.
One thing I learned as a new dual sport rider (which you touched on) was about slipping/feathering the clutch. I learned to use a clutch driving cars and trucks that have dry clutches. You don't want to slip a dry clutch because it will cause it to wear it out quickly. Motorcycle clutches are different. They operate in an oil bath and are made to be slipped much more than dry clutches. Clutch slipping is very useful for climbing hills, it allows you to increase RPM's where the engine produces more power to pull a steep hill. Sometimes you don't want to downshift and lose power and some momentum while pulling a hill so just pull the clutch enough to race the engine but not enough to completely disengage. Slipping the clutch also allows you to race the engine so you have some extra momentary power to lift the front wheel over obstacles when you release the clutch lever. Good video !
It took me WAY too long to figure this out. Very useful skill.
@@DorkintheRoad It might be worth considering for a video. One thing I hadn't mentioned before was clutch feathering to reduce stalls during low speed maneuvering. It's hard to find much information about clutch control and feathering for dual sport riders. I found one for dirt bikes that got quite a few views: czcams.com/video/_JxTWH7k4Oc/video.html
I feel like I need to get a little better myself before I start trying to teach others...but maybe a video of me practicing and trying to get better would be good.
Exactly. Watch trials and endurocross riders hop up stuff. The technique is to use rpm loading, bring the bike up to an rpm where it makes good power and literally use the clutch lever like a throttle in reverse. On the KLR doing the longer clutch arm mod makes it easier to ride tech, and with proper technique you can do 'trials' on a KLR, I've hopped up 3 foot rocks to rear wheel on mine and can do trials style tap ups and drops on and off deadfall or rocks using this technique.
OMG yes!! I too was wired to NOT do this from thinking like a car driver, and that’s NOT applicable to motorcycles at all!
This video is the reason I bought a DS. I'm usually in my jeep on these roads, but it's gonna be nice to get more than 9 miles to the gallon while exploring!
Congrats! Enjoy!
Great top 5 thanks for the video exactly why I dual sport exploring
Thanks for watching!
As a new rider, this information was incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together! I just recently bought a KLX 300 (lime green) I absolutely LOVE it...👍
Great video Dork!! Back to your WABDR
Excellent channel. Tons of useful information.
Great tips. Thanks.
Great video! First time watching your channel, and I subscribed. Grew up riding dirt bikes in Missouri, went and took the m-cycle safety class at age 43, never did anything with it, and now at 59, am once again thinking about it. Would like a 250 dual sport (likely a Honda CRF250L) to do just exactly what you are doing, i.e., mostly forest/logging/blm roads, maybe easier trails but nothing too intense. This was really great and very helpful!
Thanks for watching. I'm glad you found it useful.
Great vid! I’m a Dual Sport dude all the way with my 2020 400s.
I have the same bike! I love it.
That was an excellent video for a brand new dual sport rider. Thanks for the excellent content.
Thanks for watching!
So glad I came across your advice on using 2nd gear! Being new to dirt bikes, I thought I had to use 1st gear at slow speeds on trails, but trying to remain standing felt like some kind of rodeo. Good to know that these bikes don't mind lower rpm's. I wasn't able to find any info on this at all before watching this video for unrelated reasons.
I carry a battery operated chainsaw on my bike when back in the woods. I use it often and can continue down the trail instead of having to turn around.
Great tips thanks
Some nice tips there matey! :-)
Thank you! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the video. Looked like a nice place to ride. And you got a new Sub here.
Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Excellent 😊
*guitar noise*
My first dual sport was a Kawasaki KE175 back in 1979 when I was 17. My second is a 2021 Yamaha TW200 (I'll leave you to do the math). The TW doesn't have the top end speed of the Kawasaki (or any other bike for that matter), but it's a great, fum little bike just fpr 'tootling' around in the woods and along trails, which at my age is pretty much all I want to do. I agree with everything said in this video. For versatility I bought a trailer hitch motorcycle carrier and that really helps me to get where I want to go. Tke only five minutes to laod the bike and I can drive my truck anywhere I want to then take the bike into the back country. Great fun.
Excellent 👍 thanks 💯
Was doing my first trail Monday and got to some ruts panic and braked, should have just stood up and keep going.
Going to get some moto boots and go back once I heal up.
Thank you!
That last tip makes a lot of sense. I should be on second more.
It takes a little getting used to but makes things much smoother once you get it down
Second to hard boots, MX style, I think proper knee protectors is a must. I know it was mentioned in this video, but can't be underlined enough. When you have the front wheel slide and disappear, going diagonal over a muddy rut, the first thing that will hit the ground will be the knee cap. And as DIR say, you will regret just having the flimsy knee pads that is built into most low/mid-tier MC pants, that rarely is positioned in the correct spot anyway when crap happens..I tried it, twice! so I know😂 Luckily I haven't suffered pemanent knee damage. Second time I got a pretty deep cut from sharp rock hidden under the mud.
Do yourself a favor and get separare hardshell MX knee protectors, the kind that are strapped in place, and just remove the lame pads in the pants if it gets too bulky to have both.
Im getting into it soon😊
I want to get a dual sport one day. Good to know👌👍
They are super fun and versatile!
@@DorkintheRoad I am sold!
These are really good tips, especially the bit about standing up in second gear. I just added a DRZ to my quiver. It initially surprised me how difficult it was to ride it smoothly in first while standing. I figured I just needed more practice, to get better at feathering the clutch, but riding in 2nd makes a whole hell of a lot more sense :-). Derp.
I have only been riding my BMW GSA on bad roads and gravel up to now, and I can ride it in first standing up just fine, if needed. However the thing weighs a ton, therefore it doesn’t jerk around as with a small light bike like the DRZ. Plus, in Enduro mode throttle response is damped for you, so it is cheater mode.
I am excited to learn how to ride without the help of aids like traction control and (to a lesser extent) ABS, and rode modes, etc. I hope it will help me become more effective on my GSA.
The fun really starts when you cruise in third gear on at least a mid-size adventure bike lol
In addition to camping spots, I scout trailheads with my dual sport to see how difficult they might be to reach by car vs my gas-guzzling SUV. Only time I don't like 2nd gear is on steep, rocky downhills. I just can't seem to get confident going down hill. Still working on that.
I know what you mean. No matter how much I lean back and use the rear brake, it's still sketchy going down steep hills.
Good boots are an absolute must 👍
I remember when I first started dual sport I was wearing trainers......the first weekend I went out luckily wearing full on MX boots I got my foot trapped between a rocky rut and the bike.....no injury at all.....hate to think how much damage it would have caused to my foot/ankle/leg wearing the trainers 😯
Absolutely! I shudder to think of all the injuries I'd have received if I didn't always insist on wearing proper boots.
I tried wearing motocross boots but none fit me right, my feet are size 16 and wider than measurements go. I've gotten worse injuries (plantar fascitis, metatarsis, hammertoe, etc) from wearing MX boots for weeks on end. I wear military combat boots when i ride hard as they're the toughest boot i can find in size 16/4e, and for commuting i just wear my skate shoes. I skate downhill and am often going way faster than dualsport speed, 50+ mph down mountains when shit happens. I have absolutely no problem using my gloved hands and feet to bail and slide out at those speeds with no injury. I just find my board and start sending it again.
Learn how to fall/bail and you can pull off sliding while being in control of it and coming off your bike will be less of an event if you know how to handle getting yourself stopped safely from those speeds using hands and feet.
@@rustymustard7798 sometimes you're not so lucky and can't slide out of it tho. Motorcycle wrecks or any wreck for that matter becomes dangerous when you start tumbling. And that's good to know ab the combat boots. I might try that thanks
@@blixxy1320 Well when you can't slide you roll. A couple of days ago i came off at nearly 40mph on my downhill skateboard when i overcooked a drift, overshot a turn, slid down to 30mph before i hit a stop sign with both feet, spun 360 sideways and then recovered to tuck into a roll that i steered away from a parked truck.
No injuries and i popped back to my feet from a roll and ran the rest of the speed off. I had wheels made to slide good and on the fresh pavement i tossed it sideways to do the skateboard version of backing it in, predrifting, and got absolutely zero braking over about 100 feet of slide.
Practice and being good at bailing are key, at least once a week i end up bailing at up to 50mph and you just gotta do what it takes, slide, roll, jump, run whatever. After so many of them it's actually boring rather than exciting, you just go into slide posture and wait to stop while steering around obstacles. I use a patch of about 3 layers of gorilla tape on my pants over the right ass pocket where i slide and it works like poor man's leathers.
You may have tapped into the Bigfoot Picnic Area😉👌
Maybe I should set up a trail cam and see if I can get some footage of him...
No joke. Notice how the tree was snapped around 10' up. Common practice for Sasquatch to lean a tree over and snap it blocking trails like that to keep us humans out. Or at least that's what my CZcams education on the matter has me thinking now.
Browns camp is a great place to ride , Washougal as well
I have the same bike and agree with the gear selection. I switched over to 13/42 gearing and can now ride in 3rd quite a bit which is helpful. I have a lot of deep loose sand in Florida so I will use 2nd for that. Hard pack I can go up to 3rd and still have plenty of torque.
Good to know. I've toyed with the idea of different sprockets a few times.
What's it like at 60mph?
Dean Fleming I don’t think it’s bad at all. I only spend a little bit of time traveling at those speeds while getting to the woods though. My top speed with that gearing is only 70-72mph and it is revving pretty high at that point. 55-60mph is quite manageable with the 13/42 setup.
@@FloridaTwoWheelAdventures ok because i do some riding to work at 60 to 65mph but I go off road too . Not sure to change it or not I use it as a adventure bike and off road so many the standard is better for the long rides . Don't want to rev the engine hard for a long time
Dean Fleming I would agree. Having said that, the two sprockets are cheap enough and you don’t need to replace the chain. You could always experiment and switch back if you wanted.
Good tips.. we have same bike.. same helmet.. it better not be hiviz
Mine's only a little hiviz, but mostly grey.
Oregon dual sport group ride 🤘
Do you think people would come if I set something up? I may have to go out and scout a potential route...maybe up to that amazing overlook from my "Why We Ride Dual Sport" Video?
@@DorkintheRoad I'm sure we could 🥁 up some interest
That would be awesome, I live in the Southern Oregon area right off of I-5 corridor soon maybe moving to Salem also.
I would be interested in that, would have to be on a weekend for me tho.
@@hobzsgarage6130 is that the umpqua NF ?
Another one would be to just take it slow. Spend enough time on each type of road and gradually increase the difficulty. Start with smooth / flat gravel roads, then gravel roads with some uphill / downhill sections, then rougher gravel roads, ruts, dirt etc. Also avoid riding with riders that risk more than you normally would. You can find yourself in some pretty regretful situations. Ideally you should find someone of similar skill level or at least someone that will be patient with you learning. What is easy for them might be a complete nightmare for you. That's what I wish someone told me when I started out DS-ing.
I refuse to wear riding boots, I've been wearing Work boots my whole life, that's just what I'm used to.......a broken ankle is the Least of my concerns on a motorcycles....I just need ankle flexibility when I ride, it screws me up Not having that, don't care what anyone says!
A++
Liked your video.However I have this advise as an ancient mechanic.No engine should ever be lugged or pinned to the max.Even the Mighty Honda engines should not be subjected to such abuse.Just sharing my experience.
I didn't mean to suggest it was a good thing to do on purpose, more that the engine will survive and hopefully keep you moving and upright if you ended up lugging it accidentally
Do those small 4 strokes have a bunch of engine braking? My 450x was so much.
Doesn't feel excessive to me...but then again I haven't ridden a 2 stroke since I was a kid so I may just be used to it.
Good morning. I know we talked about about your CRF250L. So you never did any Suspension work to your front forks & rear spring ? You didn’t bottom out the front forks?
Bottom out the front forks all the time ? Just doing trail rides
Need to learn how to feather the clutch. I find myself shifting way too much
It just takes practice. It took me a while to really start to do it instinctively.
Carry a bow saw in the spring.
What are your thoughts on a dual sport vs a Grom/monkey for a first bike if one knows they wouldn't be able to get to the gravel/woods more than a once or twice a month and would spend most of the time learning in the neighborhoods?
Honestly for the money a dual sport is going to be far more capable over a much wider variety of situations. Grom/Monkey is a fun bike, but they're not a great "only" bike except in certain situations. I think you'll get a lot more use out of a dual sport for the money.
Dual sport for sure. Groms are dope, but those are a secondary bike.
Do you know the max handle bar riser I can get without getting longer cables? I am 6' 5" 220lb and I am leaning to 2" (other options are 1" and 3.5").
I put 2” ROX pivot risers on no rewiring or extending cables. Simple, fast, 10 minute installation & gait like a new bike.
2016 XR650L
Hey just subscribed.. brand new dual sport rider here. I'm in Oregon.. just west of Portland. Is that in Oregon? That looked like a great place to do some practicing for me. I heard you mention browns camp and I know that's not too far from me.
This is near Cascadia, which is pretty far for you. Lots of great riding out towards Brown's, though!
I have a hitch carrier if needed. I'm more curious on great places to learn and practice more so than how far they are. I'm willing to go wherever if it's a good place for beginners. Do you know any other good spots you could point me to other than browns camp? I think that place is usually pretty packed and maybe not great for a brand new rider.
Lots of logging roads to ride all over the Tillamook state forest. No need to go Brown's specially
As a fellow Oregonian, where about are you riding?
I've ridden MTB for about 8 years now... Done pretty much all but the scariest of sh1t. Completely green to motorcycles but seems like there should be a few transferable skills here
I've Been riding street for over 10 years, and Just started dirt!.....the biggest threats are CARS.....and Deer. Also, learning to look ahead for potholes and Crap in the roads. There's usually no going "over" certain obstacles like Wooden planks or large rocks with a motorcycle, you gotta lean and swerve!....It's definitely easier going to street from dirt, you have perfect traction....just be careful of intersections, that's where most crashes happen.....just gotta learn to "read" situations on the road, trust no one.
What dual sport is for people on extreme budget? and transport convenience in car without having to buy a truck?
If you're looking for the cheapest way to get into a bike, I'd advise looking at used and not being too picky about which model, though a used DRZ-400 or KLR can often be found pretty cheaply. Transport-wise, the good thing about a dual sport is you can just ride it to wherever you're going because they're street legal. That's the cheapest option.
Yamaha XT350
What boots work well, but yet still allow you to walk around in comfort ?
I'm a big fan of my Alpinestars corozals
what is a good beginner dual sport bike
czcams.com/video/e6yYMHZTZ9o/video.html
Is there any difference between a 650s and a 650se.
You mean besides the letter "e"?
Yes. Usually small differences like "S" for street legal means it has plates, blinkers, taillight etc, "E" can mean electric start as opposed to a kickstart.. but it depends on what those mean according to the manufacture and models
That looks a lot like WA.
What, no Silky Poketboy??
Decided to go with the old fashioned "use my head as a battering ram and push through" technique this time.
where is this
Hey you should watch Yammie Noob’s “7 most hated motorcycles of all time”. I feel like you may have some opinions to share with the group after that one.
LOL he's hating on the Versys? Hilarious.
I'm more of an explorer
What brand of motocross boots?
Mine are O'Neal Riders
You think too much. We used to go out on the trails on crappy 80's bikes, tennis shoes, jeans, leather jackets, cans of soup for dinner and a 12 pack. Go, have fun!
Does the dual sport community have any respect for 250cc bikes?
In my experience, yes. Lots of people ride them
Lots of sasquatches around there I see.
You gotta keep an eye out for them 'squatches
If you want to be a good dual sport rider get a dirt bike first.