When it comes to motorcycle days out there are three things I have an intense dislike of – gravel, mud and road surface water!
It’s not that I’ve not faced them or been unable to ride through them on occasion – but that usually involves incredible tension, gasping for air, a heartbeat that can be heard the other side of the country, and the shakes for what seems like ages afterwards.
I’ve been riding about 22 years and I’m not about to give up doing it anytime soon, but I’m sick of the fear and worry about what “might” happen let alone trying to cope with it when it does.
So I did what I do best – I asked around, did my research, and found someone to teach me how to do better. Because what I kept hearing time and again was that off road skills translate to road riding making you a far better rider – and that’s my aim: to be better. And if there was one name that kept coming up time and time again it was Sweet Lamb Adventure in Wales.
They do 1-2-1, 2-2-1 and group training from novices who’ve never even seen gravel through to hobbyists, coaches and champions who all want to hone their edge.
I learn best in a 1 on 1, because let’s face it I always have at least 100 of the dumbest questions to anyone else’s one question! and frankly if I’m going to make a fool of myself I’d rather do it with no one else watching!
My tutor was Mark Molineux – and what this man doesn’t know about off roading does not exist.
He began my day with some good strong Yorkshire tea, and getting to grips with my concerns, understanding my levels of experience and working out what miracles I was hoping to achieve – I wasn’t ready for nor wanted to be able to ride over hills, rocks and streams, my extreme novice status and focus was on surviving unexpected road issues.
I had hired bikes through the school and he wanted me to start with the Honda CRF250 which he said was bullet proof, before trying the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 later in the day.
We headed out to the basin – which meant a ride for a few minutes along a trail with me diligently following in his road positions as ordered. By the time we got there I had the usual evidence my heart was working as it was sounding loudly in my ears! Mark got me doing figures of 8s in the slightly wet, light gravel, to see my control of clutch, brakes and gears.
After several minutes he stopped me and surprised me by saying: “Prendy you are so much better than you think.” Apparently my use of gears, brakes and clutch is quite good with a little refinement needed. We worked on arm and head/body position (think flapping chicken crossed with strutting peacock) also two finger coverage of brakes and clutch which was entirely alien to what I was taught in road riding.
As the day progressed we worked on riding around the paths, up steep hills and around corners all on the moving stuff, criss crossing it, slow control down hill on it and turning tight corners. I will admit that I had a mini melt down at one point rather early on when I was feeling sick trying to ride down a steep hill and Mark kept holding his hand up but kept moving. At first I couldn’t make out what he wanted and was by no means inclined to stop literally headfirst down the steep cliff and find out. Eventually I just stopped and yelled my terrified head off about stopping his dithering, getting a bloody move on and quit scaring me to death!! Did I mention Mark is a very patient man?
It’s a good job that the Honda is also idiot-proof. Despite having already ridden up one steep path with a slight switchback, for some reason when I stood at the bottom looking up at it and thought about going up I then started to panic. And for the life of me then couldn’t work out power or clutch and ended up revving it to the limiter for ridiculous amounts of time. Fortunately Mark rescued me, calmed me down, urged me to stop over thinking it. We left the bike to cool down for ten minutes to get the clutch working again and used the time for a quick lesson in the mechanics of a clutch, drive and disengagement.
We repeated routes over hills, turns, in both directions to avoid complacency, with plenty of breaks for questions and advice. I was surprised to hear Mark tell me the road that I’d started on at just 9 miles an hour that morning, I was then riding quite comfortably at 35miles an hour by lunchtime, crossing the gravel with ease.
The Himalayan feels like a mighty beast compared to the little Honda. Despite it being a lowered one I was on tip toes. Initially I found it hard to manoeuvre and realised that whilst my MT09 Tracer is actually heavier and I also can’t flat-foot it, that it is just a little bit lower and that bit makes all the difference to my management of it.
But like any bike, once the Himalayan gets rolling it’s much easier to handle. I was surprised how much at ease I felt on it in the turns and little puddles. And most amazingly Mark had me standing up fully whilst riding it. Last month I had to ride through a road where a river had burst its banks and unlike many of the other riders who stood up, I was firmly sat since I didn’t know how to do it safely (do not stand with bent knees). If you’d said at the beginning of the day that I would be standing up on the pegs, firmly in control of my bike by the end of it, I would have laughed out loud in disbelief. Yet there I was and with the biggest grin on my face.
What a way to end my day! Poor Mark – I couldn’t stop hugging the man and grinning because I felt so very different to the morning’s start. Then I was frightened to my core with a fear of my bike washing out from under me and hurting myself. By the end of it I knew that it was going to take a lot more than a little twitch on gravel. I knew what that would mean (ie not instant death) how to relax, better body position, not fighting it, and knowing that unless something really is desperately wrong, that I am more than capable of taking it as par for the course.
I received a Sweet Lamb Adventure neck buff as my graduation gift 😉
⏹️Did the day give me what I wanted?✅ 100% – the knowledge and skills to banish the debilitating effects of fear.
⏹️Will it make me a better road rider? ✅100% – I now have the skills to identify the lines to take, a better biking position, better understanding of what the bike will do and how to use brakes and clutch should I happen upon gravel.
⏹️Am I going back? ✅100% – because skills need training. I need to go back to ensure I hone those skills, and even expand upon them because I want to be a better road biker.
⏹️But will I take up off roading as a hobby? ❌not in a million billion years 😂
Prendy
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A bird's eye view to biking! 