For those new to off-pavement riding I wanted to post a few thoughts and tips. A little background on my riding. I had dirt bikes in the 20's and early 30's. I started with a DT100 I revived from the dead. A friend gave it to me to junk it and I decided to ride it instead. I moved on to a 1982 XR250, then XR500, then a 1986 XR600. My last dirt bike was a 1989 KTM500MX 2-stroke I sold in 1997. All my riding was in Eastern Washington State which is mostly desert with sand but we also rode in the Eastern Cascade mountains which is proper forest with mud. Fast forward to 2023 when I bought my 2023 Husqvarna 7012 Enduro. This was the first street legal bike I owned.
I am by no means an expert. The best thing to do if you want to ride off-road is to get professional instruction. I am just sharing the tips I have learned off the internet, and from other experienced riders. For those new to off-road riding I suggest you start with some sand riding tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sand+riding+techniques. Road riding does little to prepare you for off-road riding. Technique is more important than the bike choice or things like tires and pressures (although those can certainly help).
Street riding does little to prepare you for off-road riding
On the street you have smooth pavement and your tires can handle side loading since they have traction. The technique you learn riding on the street does not apply off-road since your tires have little traction and cannot handle much side load at all. Off-road riding is rough and violent. You can find smooth gravel which is not too bad but most unmaintained dirt roads here in the desert get torn up by storms. This leaves deep ruts and exposes rocks. Here is an example of a storm damaged desert trail.
The ride is violent enough that the Insta360 X3 camera could not keep it in frame at times. It is also exhausting to ride. You are up on the pegs the whole time to improve control of the bike and to smooth out the shock loads to your body. Your quads get a serious workout as they are basically active suspension. Your wheels get kicked out from under you by loose rocks and ruts. Steering is done more with weighting the pegs and leaning the bike that it is with the handlebars. Slow down too much and the bike goes down. The slower you go the less momentum you have and the required reaction time gets shorter. Speed up too much and the pain and damage of the crash just gets worse.
Too often I have taken newbies out to Mormon Well Road (one of the easier rides around) only to have them turn back and sell their bike. This is after a deep investment in the bike and gear only to find it is just not for them. Often it is people who have ridden on the street for decades and want to try off-road. I am not sure how to advise newbies on this. You just have to try it to see if it is for you. I also have friends who rode street only for decades and took to off-road very well. A good friend of mine went to Colorado and rode the Alpine Loop (and many other passes) with me on a Triumph Scrambler 1200. He has only ridder off-road a few years now and he is about my age. That is no beginner bike for off-road, and the Colorado passes are not beginner trails either. So I don't want to discourage anyone from dirt riding. I just want them to be prepared for what they are getting into.
Off-road challenges
Loose rocks
Here is an example of losing momentum and dropping the bike.
One of my biggest mistakes here is letting the bike slow down too much. This reduced the momentum which made every rock I hit push the bike around leaving me with little reaction time. This was a mild hill, nothing too steep though. It had loose rocks everywhere. You simply can't avoid all of them. Once I lost momentum, I sat down on the seat in preparation for putting a foot down. This made things even worse since you have less control when setting on the seat. Often it is when you put your foot down you have just committed to dropping the bike.
The fix for this is to go faster and stay up on the pegs. This is counterintuitive as the faster you go the worst the crash will be. However, if you keep the bike over about 15mph, you gain momentum and reaction time. If the bike becomes unstable, ease into the throttle. This removes weight from the front wheel and adds it to the rear. It also increases the gyro effect where the increase rotating mass of the back wheel and engine tend to lock the bike in the upright position.
Loose sand and gravel
Here is an example where I lose momentum on sand in a turn at the end of this clip.
What happened: I slowed down too much for the turn, lost momentum, and dropped the bike. In this scenario by the time I reacted to the bike starting to drop, it was too late to recover. As you slow down you have less time to react and the bike lacks the momentum to stay upright.The fix is to stay on the pegs, weight the outside peg in the corner, lean the bike into the corner, and keep enough speed (momentum). When entering the corner, lean the bike into the corner and weight your outside peg. Some start the turn by briefly weighting the inside peg to lean the bike but by the time you are turning you lean the bike into the corner (you staying more upright) and you put you weight on the outside foot peg. If you start to loose control, throttle out. I tried to throttle out but it was too little too late.
Sand riding has almost nothing to do with traction. It is more like riding a jet ski. Forward momentum is created by a combination of the sand resistance to being displaced (spinning), and the sand being propelled in the opposite direction. In deep soft sand, some bikes will do better starting in second gear with heavy throttle to propel enough sand to move the bike forward. If you try to ease away in first gear, it will just dig down to the frame. Sand paddle tires optimize the thrust but optimizing both the engagement with the sand, and the mass of sand that can be propelled in the opposite direction. Adventure tires are a very poor choice for sand as they do neither very well. Lowing tire pressure can certainly help but tire choice is more important.
Hill climbs
Climbing steep hills, especially on loose terrain, requires momentum to help overcome the loss of traction. Not making the climb means you have the challenging task of turning the bike around on a steep hill. I find it is best to have good momentum by the bottom of the hill and stay on the throttle all the way up. Commit to making it over the top. The engine should be high in the RPM band at the bottom so you have plenty of room to drop rpm if needed. You also want to have plenty of power to make it up the hill.
Obstacles
If your bike has good ground clearance and suspension travel, you can make it over more than you may think. I used to try to avoid more obstacles and now I tend to go over more of them. Here is an example of a storm damaged desert trail with deep cross ruts (deepest around 42min). I throttled though this up on the pegs.
I leveraged the momentum and throttled into it to move the weight off of the front.
Here is another example of a rocky climb with a rut across the trail (4:30).
This one carried a wheelie for a bit after the rut.
Tires and pressures
Tires are all a trade-offs. The best street tire is useless off-road and the best off-road tire is useless on the street. There is no unicorn that does both great. There are only trade-offs. I prefer the Anakee Wild or TKC80 for the right trade-offs for my riding. They are decent at both pavement and dirt, but optimum at neither. There are better off-road tires, and better street tires, but these tires give a wide range of usability in both.
Lowing tire pressure can smooth out the chop and improve traction off-road. However, it also increases the chance of bent rims and pinch flats. It is also important to air back up for high-speed pavement riding. I used to lower the pressure off-road but I no longer do. To me the incremental improvement is not worth the risk. I hate having to change a tube on the trail. No fun at all. Around Las Vegas we often have embedded rock mixed in with the sand and gravel. Here is a photo from a rim after hitting an embedded rock in sand.
Often the rock is about the same color as gravel and sand so you don't see it coming.
Motorcycle choice
Like tires, the motorcycle itself is a bunch of trade-offs. There is no unicorn. I chose the Husqvarna 701 Enduro since it is decent at both on and off road riding, but it is not the master of either. If you have only one motorcycle (like me) and like mostly riding off-road but ride plenty of pavement as well, I feel this is a good choice. Rider skill is more important than motorcycle choice, but both matter.
The lighter the bike the easier it is to maneuver and pick up when you do drop it. Optimizing for this might land you a 2-stroke dirt bike. This will be great off-road on technical single track and challenging off-road riding. The new electric motorcycles might be even better here. Some of these bikes can be around 225lbs. Most of these bikes are not legal on most roads. Your routes will be restricted to designated off-road areas only. This can be very limiting. These motorcycles also have very small fuel range as the fuel tanks tend to be tiny (often under 2 gallons) often leaving less than 100 mile range. Electric motorcycles generally have even less range.
So you want the flexibility of being street licenses but you ride almost exclusively off-road. Now you move to a dual sport. This is basically a dirt bike with speedometer, lights, horn, etc., to make the bike legal. Generally, you are now in a 4-stroke bike. This bike is typically over 250lbs. Still pretty light compared to adventure bikes and now it opens up much more riding. You can make large loops that include some paved sections connecting them. Even many gravel roads require street licensed motorcycles. These motorcycles often come with a bit larger fuel tank, but often have many much larger fuel tanks available aftermarket. Some 5 gallons or more giving closer to 200+ miles of range. Like the smaller bikes, these bikes generally lack cushion drive (rubber damped rear sprocket), better displays, comfort features, and most of the electronic features like traction control and ABS.
Maybe you want something more comfortable for longer rides. True adventure riding tends to be much longer rides with a mix of pavement and more mild off-road riding. It is more about the fun of casual riding and seeing the world and less about challenging yourself. Those light dual sport bikes are generally unpleasant on the road. The smaller displacement bikes (300cc or less) also struggle climbing hills at highway speeds, or riding into strong headwinds. Cross winds toss them around more too. The seats are very uncomfortable on long rides. If these things are negatives for you, you probably want an adventure bike. Adventure bikes are generally multi-cylinder. Adding a second cylinder generally adds about 100lbs to the bike. However, it makes the bike much smoother (both engine smoothness and power delivery), the engine sounds much better, and the powerband is wider. This is better for long rides. Adventure bikes also have much larger more comfortable seats. They come with larger fuel tanks for longer rides. They can handle more luggage for camping as well. These bikes can make great daily riders too. Many comfort and convenience feature are often on these bikes such as heated grips and cruise control. Weighing in at 450lbs or more, these bikes are a challenge to pick up when you drop them. The stock tires are generally adventure tires which don't work in sand or mud.
I don't agree that we all need 2 bikes. I just prefer to not do the more challenging enduro stuff nor multi-day camping trips. I have an electric mountain bike for the hard enduro stuff. Many I know have 2 or more bikes. There is no wrong answer. We each have our own preferences.
The rider
By far rider skill dominates where you can ride well. Chris Birch can ride a KTM1290 or BMW 1300GS where us mere mortals struggle on a dual sport. Put him on a KTM890 and he can tackle challenging single track. For the rest of us, we need a bike that fits both our skill set, and where we desire to ride. The bike choice will absolutely impact where you enjoy riding too. Get an adventure bike and you will prefer proper adventure riding. Since rider skill is the dominant thing impacting your ability to keep the bike upright and enjoy the ride, this is this thing you should focus your effort on improving first.
There are many training classes for adventure riding. While I have never done one of these classes, I would advise those interested in riding off-road to take one. Most who have taken them will say it was totally worth it. Too much off-road riding technique is non-intuitive. If you just try to learn by trial and error, you may reinforce incorrect riding technique. At a minimum, watch some videos on off-road riding technique to at least learn the concepts. Chris Birch has a great page here: https://saynotoslow.nz/ to get started. He is the legend of adventure riding. He offers coaching clinics worldwide. I know people who have attended them and all were very happy. However, there are many others that offer free videos that teach the basic concepts. Here is a YouTube search that will show many options: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sand+riding+techniques. Many others also offer regional clinics that are a great choice for those getting started. You don't have to be Chris Birch to teach those getting started.
Where to ride
You bike choice and rider skill level will heavily impact where you enjoy riding. For instance, I still avoid sand. I can ride sand but I don't enjoy it. Many would agree with me here. If you like a challenge, mastering sand can be fun for some. If you ride around Las Vegas (like a 300+ mile radius) you will encounter sand. There are not many places around here where you can completely avoid sand and loose gravel. The same is true for rock. I created this page with many local trails and YouTube playlists of each of them so you can see what you are getting into: https://sites.google.com/view/las-vegas-dual-sport-adventure.
I found that as I get older I prefer more adventure type riding. The injuries, bike damage, and healing time just take too much of a bite out of the fun. Dork In The Road has a good summary of riding types:
I think he did a great job summarizing this. Maybe there are more dimensions than just 2 but this is a great start. I was maybe a 5 or 6 when I was young. Now I am more of a 3 on his scale. I just don't find pushing it hard in challenging terrain fun anymore. I am no longer a thrill seeker.
