I ride my electric mountain bike (eMTB) and my Husqvarna 701 Enduro motorcycle primarily off-road. I have now explored most places within reasonable riding distance from my house, especially in the case of the eMTB (about a 20 mile radius). I want to explore much farther, including taking the motorcycle to the Colorado San Juan mountains. I have a receiver rack for the bikes that I can use on my Cayenne but that is my wife's car and I don't want to leave her without a car. I also have a Porsche Cayman S but that is a manual transmission which she can no longer drive. I have friends with trailers and that is great but does not work out consistently. So, I bought a 2019 Ranger FX4 so I could haul my bikes.
I have had incidents where a bike was disabled or someone was injured so I also wanted an off-road hauler that could go as close as possible to the injured rider and/or disabled bike to rescue them (or me). Last year we were up near Caliente, many miles up a rocky hill climb when a person in our group was injured and could not ride back out. Luckily he had a Jeep Rubicon with a receiver rack which we were able to use to retrieve him and the bike. I realized I needed this capability.
Trailers are great, and MUCH easier to load a motorcycle into for sure. However, there are downsides. You can't drag a trailer up an off-road trail. The receiver rack is functional, but not very robust. They make me nervous on a nice paved road. Hauling in the bed of a pickup with the right points to retain the wheels and bike firmly works better off-road. The bad part about this is the truck (especially a 4x4) sits high and it is precarious to load a heavy bike in there.
I concluded that the Ranger with 2 ramps, E-track with wheel chocks and additional points to secure the bikes, and a winch to help load heavy bikes, would solve the problem. I started by adding E-track to the front of the bed, along with additional E-track sections for better points to strap the front of the bike down. I added additional E-track single mounts in the bed itself. I also added strap loops to the tailgate to strap the back wheels of the bike in place so they cannot move side-to-side.
I added mounts and straps to secure the ramps in each side of the box. I have cables to lock the ramps in with the tailgate, which locks with the truck door locks. I keep the ramps in the truck all the time.
I setup an electric ATV winch, mounting all the components together on a mount that connects to the E-track. It has a wireless remote control so I can even load bike alone with ease. I ran 6AWG cables to the battery with a 120A fuse. It has 120A connectors so I can easily connect and disconnect the winch, stowing it in the cab of the truck. While the winch can pull up to 3,000lbs, pulling even large motorcycles into a truck is far less force than that.
I also have a class IV receiver hitch on the truck. I have a shackle. I carry tow straps and other pulling equipment as well. My winch bracket supports a sling strap that can be used to connect to this receiver shackle for pulling bikes our of precarious areas. The winch wiring is long enough to reach for this.
I can easily add another electrical connector in the front of the truck for this too.
I keep all the traps and accessories in the cab of the truck so everything needed to rescue a bike in the boonies is there. If I am riding and need a rescue, my family can simply go to my location with the Ranger and pick me up. I always carry a Garmin InReach as well so I can easily message them with my GPS coordinates.
After setting this up to haul motorcycles, it is a bit overkill for the eMTB but works really well for them. My eMTB weights 90lbs so most traditional bike racks are inadequate. Loading is not as easy either. Having the ramps make this a breeze. Often I can park on a hill where I can easily load/unload the eMTB without ramps but there are also times it comes in handy if I am alone.
If I had to rescue a bike that requires traversing a rugged off-road trail, and can secure the bike like this with 4 straps and both wheels restrained. In this configuration the bike barely moves even while off-roading.
Securing the ramps with a cable to the tailgate latch. The tailgate locks with the truck.
Starting at Whitney Pocket (top of map), we rode to Little Finland and then proceeded down Gold Butte Wash Road to the old townsite of Gold Butte. All was going great. As we headed down Scanlon Ferry Road we were about 9.3 miles from Gold Butte when we had a mild but rocky climb. With all the loose rocks, I was knocked off-course and headed to the uphill side of the road. I could not get the bike back on course so I stuck my leg out to catch the bike from falling. Unfortunately my foot got caught between the bike and ground in a way that jammed my toes towards my shin, overextending my calf. It was bad enough at that point but I then fell off the bike overextending it much more. Here is the video (below) where the left foot get caught.
We had planned a loop back to Gold Butte. None of us had ridden this area before. After I rested a bit I got back on the bike to continue. We discussed going back the way we came or continuing forward. Unfortunately I chose continuing forward (very bad choice) so we did. At this point I was tired and of course my leg was in pain. It was hard to shift the bike with my damaged leg too. Scanlon Ferry Road was in a sandy wash at this point forward. This is hard riding on a motorcycle. Our planned loop then turns into Twin Springs Wash. It was a less travelled sandy wash that got more primitive as we proceeded. It finally got so primitive it was deemed impassible by me, and some others on bigger bikes so we turned around and headed back.
By now it was after 1pm. As I was quite tired at this point, I crashed another time on the way back, breaking a rib. It was about 35 miles from where we turned around back to the truck. That was a long ride and it was getting dark when we finally got to the truck.
After the foot issue, my torn calf muscle kept spasming periodically, which was quite painful. I took 3 electrolyte pills to try to help it but the issue persisted. I also drank all 3 liters of water I had so I borrowed some from another rider. The cramping persisted intermittently for the whole rest of the ride.
I always ride with full protective gear, including motocross (MX) boots. MX boots are very thick and rigid, giving very little foot movement. Many riders complain they are so stiff they are hard to ride in. It makes shifting and operating the rear brake challenging for sure. However, they are thick and rigid for a reason: to save your feet and ankles. This could have been much worse. I also only ride with others, never alone.
Note: the screen protector is just a cheapy I bought on Amazon. Does the job though.
The Biktrix Juggernaut Ultra FS Pro 3 hit 2000 miles today. We were on a ride near Corn Creek. This has been a great bike and I have put many very hard miles on it since I got it in 2023. Since my last review at 1000 miles I have made a few changes.
I bought a Ranger pickup so I can haul to more places now.
This bike has served me very well. I never have range anxiety at all. Even when I use higher power levels and throttle often, I can ride it longer that my body is capable. I am the limiting factor. I often don't even bother to charge it between rides, When I do, I generally don't let it charge to 100%. I do use chain wax before most rides. My gears don't show any visible wear.
I use action cameras to capture my hobbies including driving the on the track (HPDE), off-road motorcycling, and electric mountain biking off-road. I am very much an amateur but I have learned a few basics from years of experimentation and learning from others. I have very little patience with video editing and I am not so interested in making engaging videos that attract hits. Instead I like to capture and share the videos to relive the moments, and to give others a sense of what the event was like from the drivers, or riders, seat. My off-road videos are especially focused on showing others what these trails are like so they know what they are getting into if they choose to ride them. I typically spend about a minute per video "editing" the videos captured from the camera in preparation for upload to YouTube. I am far from an expert on video capture or editing but I share my thoughts in this article mostly for those who are just getting started.
As an Engineer, I think it is important to understand some of the basics around what is going on with digital video. This helps to create better video.
One very important note to begin with is the differences between Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and their use cases.
Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
Optical image stabilization is accomplished by adding physical suspension and damping to the camera lens. This allows the lens to move somewhat independently from the camera body. This works similar to suspension on a car ort motorcycle, allowing the wheels to follow the ground while the body is semi-isolated, giving the vehicle a smoother ride. This works well in the case of light shaking or vibrations but it cannot handle any significant shaking or vibrations. OIS is commonly used in traditional video camcorders and higher-end smartphone cameras. OIS can also improve still image quality since the electronic image sensor in the camera takes time to capture the image, it is critical the camera stay in the exact same position as long as possible. This allows for a much crisper image. The same concept applies to video as the camera is collecting a series of images to make the video.
One key point here is that you never want optical image stabilization (OIS) for action video from a camera mounted on a moving object, like a car or bike. OIS works great for a human holding a camera but not for a camera mounted to just about any moving object. In fact, using an OIS camera on a moving object will eventually destroy the camera as the excessive forces make the OIS mechanism slam against its limits. This also creates horrible video. In the case where a human is holding the camera OIS works great since the person holding the camera is already compensating for shock loads, damping them out.
Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS)
Electronic image stabilization is a totally different approach. Instead of stabilizing the lens and optical image sensor, it captures frames very quickly and then aligns them afterwards (although pretty much in real-time). This can be done in post-processing as well. Think of it as a series of images while making a video. The shaking causes each image to misalign with the prior image which results in shaky video. EIS realigns image-by-image (actually using groups of images) to make each frame align correctly. In order to do this, you must sacrifice the edges of each image, meaning you must reduce the resolution of the images you originally captured. For instance the Garmin Virb I have drops from 4k to 2.7k when you turn ON EIS. It also zooms in a bit for the same reason so you loose field of view as well. There are limits to how much stabilization you can get based on the field of view and resolution of each image captured. This is where 360 cameras shine. They capture everything, infinite field of view. Of course you are also spreading those pixels across a much larger field of view, losing resolution. This is why you need very high total resolution when shooting 360 video, like 8k. EIS does not totally fix all the issues caused by high vibration. As each frame is captured, it still takes a certain amount of time. This requires a high-performance image processor (very high bitrate). Even then, high frequency vibrations will cause fuzzy images. Here is where a vibration isolating mount helps. While this will cause each frame to misalign even more, modern EIS can easily correct that.
For an action camera mounted to anything moving you must have Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS). All action cameras have only EIS. Cellular phones often have OIS and therefor cannot be used in harsh situations.
Bitrate and Frame Rate
Bitrate is a measure of how fast data can flow to create the video. Raw video would require a very high bitrate to be lossless (meaning not lose resolution due to compression). Modern video formats all have some level of compression (except certain raw formats generally reserved for high-end or professional cameras). The less compression, the better the video quality but the higher the bitrate required. When you watch a video, you are at the mercy of the slowest data rate between your device and the web server hosting the video. Many things along the way add restrictions and delays. When this happens the video will get more compressed. At some point the resolution will jump to the next lower (such as dropping from 4k to 1080) in an attempt to let you continue watching. If it still can't keep up you get the pause with the wait animation (buffering). Because of this you generally get a much better playback experience at 30 frames/sec (29.97) than you will at 60 frame/sec. To support the same 4k resolution at 60 frames/sec takes twice the bitrate, doubling the problems with playback and doubling the likelihood this bitrate limit will begin compressing your video or pausing during playback.
The higher the video resolution, the higher the bitrate required. For instance, 4k video requires 4 times the bitrate (typically 35Mbps to 68Mbps) as 1080 video (Typically 8Mbps to 12Mbps).
The biggest benefit of shooting video at 60 frame/sec is you can get good slow motion video at 30 frames/sec. This is useful when you want to capture something that happens very fast and see it in slow motion. Here you need that extra frame rate to capture more frames in a short time. If you upload it at 60 frames/sec, then the person watching can play it back in slow motion for the same benefit.
Most modern TVs have smoothing built-in. When watching a video at 24 frames/sec on an 80" big screen, you may start to notice the frames and see some shakiness between frames. The smoothing algorithms in the TV can smooth this back out by interpolating between the frames to create a higher frame rate. Generally 30 frames/sec produces smooth video even on a big screen. The bigger the screen, the more noticeable the frame rate is.
In my experience I find better playback quality on YouTube with 4k 30 (29.97) frames/sec and 90Mbps. This lets you use the bitrate to produce much clearer frames than you would get with 60 frame/sec. At normal playback speed it produces smooth video. The case for higher frame rate is for viewing at slow motion.
Maybe when everything from servers, to internet service providers (including cellular data), and our devices all get much faster we will be able to reliably support over 400Mbps and have very smooth and high resolution 8k video at 60 frame/sec. I have Cox 1Gbps fiber and I still can get data rate issues on 360 8k video even at 30 frames/sec. Often it is back at the server end where they pay for bandwidth and are pumping enormous amounts of video data through a limited data rate connection. Some ISPs (especially cellular) will limit bandwidth on purpose.
SD Memory Speed
It is critical that you use memory cards (typically SD or micro-SD cards) that can support the bitrate you plan to record in. If you card is too slow you will end up with poor video quality or worse. Most cards proudly advertise their maximum data rates, not their minimum. The maximum is not important, you need to know the limit (worst case) data rates. Luckily there are industry standards for this now. Ignore the "up to" data rates and instead focus on the industry standard minimum speed class ratings. There is UHS speed class ratings as well a Video Speed Class (Vxx) speed ratings. Read this article from the SD Association for more details: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/sd-standard-overview/speed-class/ . I have also found that no-name SD cards are generally trash. Finding a V60 or V90 from a reputable company that is compatible with my cameras is difficult and expensive at the time I wrote this article. I have been using V30 cards so far with reasonable results. As soon as more V60 or V90 cards become available from reputable manufacturers I plan to upgrade. Follow the camera manufacturers requirements and recommendations for best performance.
In-Car Video
Originally I expected these to need image stabilization. I bought a Gamin Virb Ultra 30 back in 2017 to record in-car video. This camera, like most action cameras, have a trade-off between max resolution and image stabilization. You can shoot in 4k but if you want image stabilization you need to drop to 2.7k. I later found that if you firmly mount the camera to the vehicle body (like the windshield) the video is very stable and you don't need the camera to smooth the video at all. I switched to shooting in 4k all the time in-car. Since the car is a large suspended mass, most of the harsh vibrations and impulses have been significantly dampened. I would not use OIS cameras in a moving vehicle though.
Here is an example where I used a camcorder with OIS to record in-car video. I even had it on a vibration isolating mount.
You can hear the cameras OIS mechanism getting hammered against its limits. You can also see how shaky the video is. Lesson learned: never use OIS when mounting a camera in a moving vehicle. Use OIS when holding the camera in your hand.
Off-road video on a bicycle or motorcycle has severe vibrations and shaking. This is especially true for 2-wheeled light vehicles like a dirt bike, dual sport or adventure motorcycle, or a mountain bike. Here you do need electronic image stabilization. In most cases you also need a vibration damping mount. More on this topic in the mounts discussion below.
360 Video
360 cameras offer a shoot first and point later approach to video. This way you miss nothing. It captures spherical video. From this video you can produce framed video in any orientation you like. You can also zoom out to expand the field of view (although distorted). You can even upload the full 360 video to YouTube (and others) so the viewer can pan around while watching. However, this is very demanding on bitrate. 8k 360 video needs about 200Mbps. In the bitrate discussion above I explain how this can be hard to achieve in many situations, resulting in compression and resolution loss while watching. Since your field of view is infinite, you are spreading the pixels you capture over a much wider field of view. While 8K sounds really high resolution, in reality it has less pixel density than a single lens camera shooting 4k. You can export framed 4k from the 8k 360 video but it will not be quite as clear as a comparable quality single lens camera shooting at 4k.
You can create reframed videos from 360 video where you pan around, zoom in and out, etc. This is now my favorite approach. You can get good reframed 4k video from an 8k 360 video. The great thing here is you shoot in 360 and then you can easily create any views you want from it. I have no patience for video editing and I tend to mostly produce fairly raw video with very little editing. I typically spend about a minute editing the video in preparation for uploading. I may trim the ends, setup the GPS data overlays, maybe set a few key frames, add color boost, and then produce.
Some apps and websites have not engaged with 360 photos or videos. For instance, you might see a 360 photo that is flattened out like this.
Here is the video showing the 360 image being viewed properly. In the video I show how you can pan around.
On mobile phones there is another viewing mode where you move the phone around to pan around as if the phone is a window into the image.
Facebook and YouTube do a pretty good job with this.
Data Overlays
The Garmin Virb Ultra 30 was my first camera that supported data overlays. It has GPS built into the camera and captures the GPS data along with the video. The Ultra 30 also supported Bluetooth data such as from an OBD2 dongle but I never tried that feature. These overlays add context to the video. I now capture the GPS data with all the video I shoot with any camera that supports it. I don't always use it but for in-car, motorcycling, or bicycling video I really like it. You can always capture it and not use it but you can't go back and capture it. Another great use for this data is you can export the GPX file that shows the actual route in a map of where the video was captured. I like to have the GPS coordinates shown so someone watching can locate exactly where each frame was captured. Some video editors support GPX file import so you can use external GPS data to create the overlays. This requires time synchronization which can be tedious. I have never tried it.
Insta360 captures this data either from a cellular phone via the Insta360 app, or from one of the GPS remotes they offer. I use the GPS remote for the vast majority of my recording.
Here is an example of setting up these data overlays (Insta360 calls them "stats").
Here are my typical reframed export settings in Insta360 Studio.
Here are my export settings for 360 video.
I always use Insta360 Studio on the PC to edit and produce video from my Insta360 cameras. While the mobile app is about as good as it can be, editing on a phone screen is very tedious. While modern phones are pretty powerful, they are no match for a modern PC. I have also found limitations in the mobile app such as export resolution and frame rate limits that I don't have on the PC. The app is handy if you want a quick video short or reel maybe but it's not a great tool for producing high-quality video. Producing video will tie up the device for a while too, hogging it's resources.
My videos are landscape because it gives a much wider viewing angle which is better for my use cases. Personally I really dislike portrait video for all of my use cases. I can watch landscape format video on my phone by simply rotating it 90 degrees. Then the video fills the screen. I can watch them on a big screen TV which is my favorite way to view them. Portrait video on a TV is terrible in my opinion.
Microphones
When I first started recording action video (in-car) I realized the wind noise was horrible. After experimenting with several mic placements and wind protection, I found that you really need both the foam and the fuzzy mic protection. In the car I placed the mic behind the drivers seat in an attempt to find a less windy spot as well. This finally made much better audio, although not perfect. I really want to get the microphone from the Weather Channel dude. They can be in a hurricane and still get good audio.
I found the motorcycle the most challenging. In a very rough off-road situation, and with wind, as well as various rattles from zippers and such, it is very hard to get good audio. I started with the Insta360 foam mic covers but that did very little. I then tried a wired mic connected to the camera. I had both foam and fuzzy covers on it and this worked pretty well.
However, the vibration and impact the motorcycle takes off-road can be severe. So bad that the connector on the camera for the mic power would become disconnected at times. This video: https://youtu.be/UP2RGAUsSg8?si=IHo-W6ALhHxB6F_U&t=576 is an example of that happening (at 9:48 into that video). Insta360 does not recommend using the wired mic adapter in high vibration environments, like my exact use case.
I finally went with the Insta360 wireless mic (Mic Air) that is available for the Insta360 X5 camera. This comes with a fuzzy wind sock too. Now the mic can be mounted in a better location (which I am still trying to find). I started with placing it on the front strap of my backpack but that catches the rattling of various zippers and things too. The X5 camera has improved wind noise protection. The X5 records both internal mics and the wireless mic at the same time. There is a mixes in Insta360 Studio where you can use one, the other, or mix both. This gives options.
Mounts
Mounting of the camera in or on a moving vehicle is very important. In the case of a car (or truck) where image stabilization is not used, the camera must be very firmly mounted to the vehicle so there is no relative movement between the camera and the vehicle. In this use case you are depending on the large suspended mass of the vehicle body to stabilize the camera for smooth video, which generally works well. Avoid long, cantilevered mounts. A suction mount to the windshield is often a decent approach, other than the effects of shooting through the windshield. Use a large suction mount that has the least amount of flex as possible. Don't extend the camera away from the mount. The video will be better if you don't have the windshield between the camera and the view but this comes with trade-offs. If you do shoot through the windshield it is critical that you keep the windshield very clean.
Off-road on a motorcycle or even a bicycle is a different story. I have a 700cc one cylinder motorcycle which is worst case for vibration, even with the engine having a balance shaft. The handlebar vibration is bad enough but when riding over rocks the shock adds to this. Here you need both a firm mount as well as a vibration damper for the camera. The vibration damper mount is a challenge here. The flex in the mount causes frame-to-frame misalignment to increase. However it also keeps the image sensor and lens still longer to allow for better image capture (less fuzzy). The vibration damper mount is great for 360 cameras where you are capturing an entire spherical image. The 360 camera does not lose field of view at all. A single lens action camera is a different story. The vibration damper mount causes larger frame-to-frame misalignment which can exceed the field of view.
In the case of mounting the camera to off-road motorcycle handlebars, you also need a vibration damping mount. This is especially true for large single-cylinder motorcycles such as my Husqvarna 701 Enduro. The vibrations and impulses can be severe. This causes a fuzzy image. The engine vibration frequency can make this worse. Here is an example video with an Insta360 X3 mounted to the handlebars of my Husqvarna 701 Enduro.
As the engine rpm rises the impact of the vibration starts to blur the video. About a month later I bought an Insta360 X5 and rode this same trail again, still with the same rigid mount.
The X5 has several improvements that made this video better but still you can see some of the effects of the high vibration.
This (Wheeler Pass) was a much rougher trail too, and a similar climb.
This next video was shot with the Insta360 X5 and the vibration damper mount but up a very rough trail.
At some points in the video the vibration and shaking become so violent that even this X5 plus the vibration mount are not enough and some frames are misaligned. This is the downside of handlebar mounting. Here is where mounting the camera to your helmet or a chest mount will make a huge difference.
Here is my latest mount for the motorcycle.
I use a special USB cable with a thin flat end. I also strap it in so it can't come out. The this cable gives easy flex around the vibration mount. I also secure the cable to the mount at the bottom.
Like the large suspended mass of a vehicle, our body is a great vibration damper. Our body is an even better vibration damper because we basically have active suspension (primarily our legs). This is even better than the best OIS since we use our balance to actively keep our body in position in real-time. Our head is where most of our body's inertia sensing is so mounting to your helmet will be the smoothest place. The camera will have a much easier time creating clear, high resolution frames. The camera will move far less as each frame is being captured. We actively keep our body aligned between frames as well, making the job easier for EIS. This really helps with single lens cameras as the frame-to-frame misalignment will be less.
Everything comes with different trade-offs. I like the perspective from the handlebar mount. I also like not having the camera on my helmet since it is heavy and branches can hit it. You may not notice the camera coming off and lose your camera with a mounting position where you can't see it. I used a chest mount before but it is not well positioned as you can't see the trail as well. Chin mounts can put the camera in your visible area addressing the lost camera issue but now you have this camera hanging off your chin in a position that is generally a bit too low.
Extended mounts are great for shooting 360 since you get almost drone-like video. However, I have not seen this work out in off-road situations. These mounts cantilever the camera at the end of a long rod. Off-road the shaking is far too violent and there are too many branches and things the camera will hit often ending up with a broken mount and a lost camera.
Light Balance and Focus
In the case where a camera is mounted inside the vehicle and shooting through a window, light balance and focus can be challenging. In this situation is is very important to use center weighted focus and light balance. If you don't, the camera will try to balance the light for the average across the entire viewing area and bright sunny days will entirely wash out the video since the interior is very dark in comparison. In some cases the camera may focus on the glass instead of the view through the glass. This gets much worse if the glass gets dirty or if the glass has a heating grid like many back vehicle windows do. Set your cameras focus to infinity in this case so it does not attempt to focus on the glass. I always set my cameras mounted inside the vehicle to center weighted focus. In the case of the rear-facing camera I also have it locked to infinity.
Externally mounted cameras will not have these problems in most cases. Passing through things like tunnels can cause these same types of issues, even when mounted externally, and you will need to make the trade-off as to which portion of the video you value more. A center weighted focus and light balance will bias towards seeing through the tunnel versus seeing inside the tunnel.
Picture-In-Picture
I often use picture-in-picture (PiP) for in-car video. I have one camera face forward and the other face out the back window. Here is an example.
In this example I used the Garmin Virb Ultra 30 front facing and also capturing the GPS and accelerometer data. I used a cheap action camera to capture the rear view with center weighted focus and light balance. I edited the Virb video first in Garmin Virb Edit to apply the data overlays. Then I take the video produced from that and edit it in Cyberlink PowerDirector to add the PiP video. In order to give the video the perspective of a rear view mirror, the rear view video must be reversed left-to-right. I also place the rear view image up beyond the video border a bit to leave a narrower video strip mimicking the narrow view of a rear view mirror. You have to manually align the videos. I do this by finding a place in the video where I am either passing or being passed. Here is an example with multiple PiP's and data overlays.
I was riding Lucky Strike with a friend, climbing up toward Angel Peak when the bike lost all power, display, everything. I had been running it hard with loads of throttle when it happened. I thought it might have overheated so I let it sit for several minutes, still dead. I removed the batteries, reinstalled, no change. Luckily the route from where it stopped to I11 (I95) was all downhill.
It was an easy coast down. The guy I was riding with picked me up at the bottom. Great to always ride with someone!
When I got the bike home I removed the motor and found the negative power lead to the controller melted and open circuit.
I replaced the bad connection with a simple set of ring terminals bolted together for a firm connection. Problem solved. Quick easy fix.
The bike just passed 1,800 miles at the point it died. Of course I rode another 7.7 miles from there to I11.
Many people go in search of that magic unicorn, either with 2 wheels or 4. In reality, all motorcycles and 4-wheeled vehicles are just different mixes of trade-offs. For a specific person and their desires, there is the right set of trade-offs but they are still trade-offs.
Let's start with 4-wheels. The very things that make a great handling road car, make it absolutely useless off-road. A road car will handle and perform best with a very low center of gravity, stiff suspension and sway bars. Take the extreme example of a Formula One race car. They literally hit the ground at times since they sit so low. This optimizes cornering and downforce through aerodynamics. An F1 car can't even navigate many driveways as it will bottom out.
Now consider the other end of the spectrum, a competition rock crawler 4x4. Aerodynamics is not even a thing here as they don't move very fast. They have no sway bars at all. They require large amounts of ground clearance and suspension travel so they sit very high.
Both of these examples are very focused on the one thing they do really well, and nothing else. In both these cases neither of these vehicles can even attempt what the other can do. Sure, the rock crawler could drive around an F1 track, but at a relatively glacial pace. The vehicles normal people buy generally need to span a wide range of use cases unless you can afford and have the room to store that perfect vehicle for every situation. Even then, you would be making a trade-off every time you took one out. Both of the competition vehicles above must be hauled everywhere they go as they are not legal on any roads. In fact they are only allowed in very specific areas. When it comes to competition, you build a vehicle very focused on that one thing.
We all make trade-offs. If we can only have a single vehicle, and we want to do a wide range of things with it, we will be making major trade-offs. If you enjoy proper off-roading on rugged trails, you will likely get an off-road focused vehicle like a Bronco Raptor or Jeep Rubicon. Both are great off-road, but nowhere near the competition rock crawler in the real technical parts. Both can be driven from your house to the trails, which the rock crawler cannot. Both can be your daily driver as well, but they don't handle very good on the road. While they are not optimum in many cases, it is the right trade-offs for those who enjoy proper off-roading often and also need a daily driver. They have flexibility.
I have 3 vehicles (4-wheeled road vehicles), all with different trade-offs. I enjoy performance driving on road courses so I have a Porsche Cayman S for that. For most of our daily driving we have a Porsche Cayenne. I have a Ford Ranger 4x4 to haul my bikes, and other things. I have a Husqvarna 701 Enduro motorcycle. These are my trade-offs that fit my use cases reasonably well. They are not right or wrong trade-offs, just trade-offs I chose.
The Cayman S rides very low, handles fantastic, and is a blast to drive on pavement. It has very little storage space and only seats 2 people. It cannot tow or haul anything. I can use it to get groceries, as long as I don't have too much to get. I can take it on trips, as long as I pack very light and only want one other person with me. I would avoid even gravel roads in this car and off-road is not an option at all.
The Cayenne has plenty of utility for most of my needs. I can tow with it, and I can get a full grocery run or pack for multiple people on even a long trip. It seats 4 people comfortably, and a 5th in a pinch. It has a modest ride height and firm suspension so it handles very good for an SUV, but these trade-off off-road capability. I might take it on a gravel road, or I could even go light off-roading but I would not take it on anything challenging off-road. These are the right trade-offs in my case and given my other vehicles.
The Ranger handles by far the worst of my vehicles on the road, but also has by far the most off-road capability. It also has the most cargo space, but much of that is in the open bed. I can haul multiple bikes or motorcycles in it.
The same idea applies to motorcycles. If you enjoy a spirited ride on pavement, you get a sport bike like a Ducati Monster. However, this would not be so great on that long road trip where you would chose something like a Harley Road Glide. Neither of those could go off-road at all so you might want a BMW GS. But that BMW is big and heavy for the more technical off-roading where a Husqvarna 701 would be better. But that 701 is also big and heavy for the more challenging off-road trails where you would want a KTM 500. The KTM 500 would be very unpleasant on any long pavement rides. So they are all various trade-offs.
I have the Husqvarna 701 Enduro motorcycle. I like being able to ride to the trails generally and not have to haul it. I prefer off-road riding primarily. I thought this was a good video explaining an example of trade-offs and bikes versus riders.
On his scale, I would be in the 4 to 6 range. Keep in mind his ranking is just for "adventure" riders. It does not span to road-only bikes or even dual sport bikes.
No magic unicorns. A jack of all trades is a master of none. If you get the flexibility of a Husqvarna 701 Enduro, you also made many trade-offs. While it is decent on the highway, not for very long. It can do adventure riding, but with limited luggage, fuel, and comfort. It can do single track, but it is a bit heavy for that.
There is not really right and wrong, only trade-offs. For example, the Husqvarna 701 Enduro is not the wrong adventure bike, but it is not as good as a BMW GS for road trips or long rides. It is not the wrong dual sport, but a KTM 500 is better on the more technical trails.
There are many things to consider when planning a group motorcycle ride that includes off-road sections, or is all off-road. These rides are a great way to meet people, and group rides improve safety for all. I began organizing group motorcycle rides about a year and a half ago. I created this post to share my lessons learned over that time, and after many great rides.
Weather
While many don't consider season or weather before planning rides, I do take these things into account. At some point it goes beyond just comfort and enjoyment, and becomes an important safety consideration. For instance, I live in an area where flash floods can be deadly. Many rides include wash crossings, or even long section riding the wash itself. Often these washes are in deep canyons or even slot canyons. A slot canyon is a complete trap, where there is no exit on either side.
Safety
The most important weather consideration is safety. The weather related safety risks vary by region and season. Here in the Southwest flash floods are the most dangerous, followed by lighting and fire. The biggest flash flood risk is in Monsoon season. The challenge here is that the probability of heavy rains during Monsoon season can be very low, yet end up producing deadly flash floods. The situation can be very dynamic and hard to predict as well. Lightening and fire risk follow the flash flood risk and the thunderstorms are responsible for lightning which causes most of the fires as well. OnX has a feature that shows current fires on the map.
Comfort and fun
We all have different tolerances to things like temperature and humidity. Personally I prefer cooler weather in general. I would rather ride in 40F temperatures than 100F temperatures (presuming low humidity). Wind also plays a role. It is not much fun to ride in strong wind. Wind also drives the direction of dust.
Here in the Southwest, I plan around weather. In the summer, I plan very early morning rides, and go to high altitude. NOAA has some great maps views for this. The weather map below is an example showing apparent temperature in the region. Apparent temperature takes wind chill and humidity impacts into account.
The color shows the various temperatures. In the summer, head for green areas. In general for each 1,000 feet of elevation gain, the temperature drops about 3F to 5F. In the winter, ride the lower altitudes and start later in the day. They also have maps for storms, wind, precipitation, etc.
Ride Planning
Ride difficulty level
As all riders have different skill levels, train preferences, and motorcycles, it is important to communicate as much as you can about the nature of the ride and the difficulty levels. It is less about the bike and really about the combination of bike and rider, and this is very subjective. The term "big bike friendly" comes up often. However, Chris Birch could ride a Goldwing in places others would struggle with a TW200. I tend to think it is about 70% rider, 30% bike and tires. Because of this I find the best way to share what the trail looks like is with a video. I record all the new trails I ride and post them as playlists on my YouTube channel. I created this https://sites.google.com/view/las-vegas-dual-sport-adventure/home website where I have information about the various trails with links to the related YouTube playlists. The goal is for people interested in the event to preview the trails and determine if the ride fits there skills, bike, and desires. I post a link to the playlist showing the trails we will ride for the event (if available). If I have not yet recorded the trail, I try to find a video from someone who has. I have had mixed success with this but it seems to be the best approach. Too many will ignore the video but at least I have provided them with this information ahead of time. If they chose not to use it, that is up to them. Some off-road mapping applications such as OnX have difficulty levels for most major trails but most are 4 wheeled vehicle based. They are also subjective. If the trails are in one of these mapping application, and that application can share deep links to the trail(s), share those links in the posting. OnX also allows sharing your planned route as a link. Since I post the rides as events in Facebook, people in the group can ask questions and get replies from others. This is another way riders can ask about difficulty and crowdsource responses from other riders.
Ride details
It is very important that you post a map link and details of the starting location. People need to know exactly when and where to meet. I use a Google Maps link as well as a good description in the event post for this. The time should reflect the design ride start time. I found it is best to have at least a 15 minute buffer for this. If you want the ride to start at 8am, post the meeting time at 7:30am or 7:45am. Or, post the start time at 8am but don't leave until at least 8:15am.
Different bikes have different fuel ranges. Fuel economy is somewhat hard to predict since the terrain causes big changes. My Husky 701 can get as good as 65mpg or as bad as 35mpg for instance. Adding to that many off-road focused dual sport bikes can have rather small fuel tanks. Some (like my 701) has no way to know how much fuel is in the tank until the low fuel light comes on. This creates range anxiety. I post the longest distance between gas for the route we plan to ride. I use a mapping application such as GAIA or OnX for this. I have this post: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2024/02/off-road-trails-in-southern-nevada.html describing those apps. After ring my motorcycle for a couple years now, and tracking the fuel economy, I have a good idea of my range. If there is a risk of not having enough fuel, I have a 1.3 gallon add-on gas can I can attach to the bike. I prefer to plan rides with less than 100 miles between fuel stops when possible.
I like to create the route in OnX or GAIA and share the link with the group. Ideally also create a GPX file of the route and share that for download. This is tricky since I use Facebook to post the events and they do not allow attaching GPX files. I use a Google Drive public folder to host the GPX files, and share the Drive link in the event details. This way people can download the route into their favorite GPS navigation device. I use a Garmin Zumo XT2 for this myself. Some use phone apps, some of which allow downloading maps for offline use. I use both. If I am unfamiliar with the area, I download offline maps on Garmin, Google Maps, GAIA, and OnX. Never get lost!
Some riders have tire/tube combinations that are not good on pavement, or just avoid pavement. These folks will want to haul and meet to minimize road riding. Some rides can facilitate that, others less so. Ideally consider this when planning rides. This is a tough one as suggesting a place to park is risky. I avoid this instead pointing out the route and where we start, and let them decide where they want to haul to and meet us.
Some people don't have street licensed motorcycles. Generally all the rides I plan include roads and trails that require a street license. Mention this in the event post. While the roads may be obvious, many trails are not.
Creating a route
I start with some of the ride mapping and routing tools available. This post https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2024/02/off-road-trails-in-southern-nevada.html covers that topic. Finding and connecting trails with gas stops takes some time. Understanding what each trail segment is like can be the hardest part. I use web searches and YouTube searches as much as I can. OnX and some others offer good reviews and explanations of many trails, but not all. I find GAIA to be a good choice in some cases as it is very crowd sourced and detailed as far as trails but it does not have difficulty ratings. For the most part, OnX and GAIA have trails mapped and you can simply create routes by mapping through and between them. This uses a snap to map feature that tries to route you between points by following defined trails. At times, none of these apps have certain trails covered and you may need to improvise. OnX and GAIA for instance, offer custom routing/mapping tools. In this case you turn off the snap feature and instead draw point-to-point yourself. Often I will build a route mostly with the snap feature ON, and switch to the point-to-point approach only for small segments between defined trails. I use a satellite view while doing this to validate the route appears good. This is of course risky. Watch out for things like gates and fences, large deep washes, etc. I use Google Earth at times to show the profile of the terrain as well as view the satellite imagery. OnX and GAIA both have similar profile features. If you try to add points too far apart, most of these might reroute you to highways and paved roads. To avoid this, add a close point instead to ensure the route stays where you want it.
Here is an example of a powerline service road that does not show up in any off-road mapping tool I have found.
See the "elevation profile" showing how this route follows the terrain. Here is more details about this route: https://sites.google.com/view/las-vegas-dual-sport-adventure/home#h.7ghyi74fpgfg with video. This is a great connector route I often use to make a loop through Goodsprings and Potosi. Powerline service roads can be great trails and too often they are not mapped.
This video shows basic route creation with GAIA.
and route building in OnX.
There are many others but these 2 have been the best for my uses.
Once you have the route planned, I take a screenshot of it to use as the image in the Facebook event (as shown above in this post). This way people can see the overview of the ride.
Creating an event in Facebook
I am no Facebook fanboy but it seems to be the best one for rider groups and creating events within the group. Here is a tutorial on creating the event in Facebook. One tip here: don't use any web links in the event description! Facebook often hold these awaiting the group admin approval. Instead, create the event using just text. Make sure it posts and is not stuck at "pending". Then put links in the event "discussion" tab. I often want to share the OnX trail link (obviously) and Facebook seems to think these are nefarious or something. I also share links to a Google Drive with the GPX files, and YouTube playlists. These all work better as individual posts in the "discussion" tab and not on the event description.
Rider Communication
Rider-to-Rider
I posted a separate blog post on this here: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2023/11/rider-to-rider-communication.html . Rider-to-rider communication can help safety and fun. Off-road riding in the Southwest almost always includes dust. Heavy dust can be a safety risk since it impedes visibility similar to fog. It can be worse than fog since the dust coats everything between your eyes and the trail. When riders can communicate, the group can stretch out to provide bigger gaps, helping to reduce the dust issues. This also reduces the likelihood of a rider hitting another rider who has an accident. If a ride at the back of the group has an issue, they can inform the riders ahead. If a rider at the back has a minor issue and has to stop, they can let the other riders know so they don't have to worry or ride back. See my blog post for details, but at a high level I recommend using both Cardo PackTalk (or similar) helmet intercom along with a GMRS radio for longer distances. I have a GMRS radio I keep on my bike, and I carry a spare that I often give to the last rider in the group in case they don't have their own. There are 3 major brands of helmet intercom: Cardo, Sena, and all the rest. Cardo PackTalk is currently the biggest and best choice in my opinion. Sena is a strong competitor and functionally very similar. Both have mesh communication in their higher end units (PackTalk for Cardo, DMC for Sena). You can even bridge between them with Cardo PackTalk. Both also can pair with all the rest and each other via standard Bluetooth intercom mode. Each rider can bridge one rider outside their brand as well. Theoretically 6 riders can have either Cardo PackTalk or Sena DMC can each bridge in one additional rider so 12 rides can all talk. In reality setting that up is difficult and time consuming.
Emergency Communication
In case of emergency, you need a way to call for help. While cellular phones may work in many places, there are far too many places where they don't. Cellular providers and device makers are adding satellite services for SOS which can help. I prefer Garmin InReach as it has an industry leading rescue service and even an insurance plan. I use the simplest Garmin InReach Messenger for this. I also have a Garmin fenix watch that integrates with InReach so I can trigger an SOS even if I can't reach the InReach device. The InReach also lets you message people via SMS for emergencies and non-emergencies. The messages can include your GPS coordinates by default too. I find it handy for non-emergency messaging. InReach can also be setup to track you on rides. You can share this location with a person or group of people, such as a spouse. They can track you on a map so they know where to find you if things go badly.
The GMRS radio mentioned in rider-to-rider communication can also be used for emergencies and to help coordinate rescue. However, I would not depend on this.
