Haters Said It was Too Big So We Did This

These are some of the tallest, top heaviest bikes I've ever ridden. Both of these bikes belong to her, BMW GS Trophy Champion winner herself, Jocelyn Snow. This is a dirt bowl, but to a motorcyclist it contains a combination of some of the most challenging obstacles and booby traps that even an advanced street rider would certainly go down in. And everything you see is an attempt to build the skills to be able to ride in it, on these ginormous bikes. But hey, if you can handle a bike that's already a challenge for a 5'3.75 inch tall skinny girl to handle in the most difficult terrains, you can handle any ride, right? I never thought I'd be looking for the biggest bikes I could find and making myself learn how to handle them. But comments like these and moments like these can just make you feel defeated and come down with a case of the I can't. But seeing people doing things like this and this, all by people who are shorter than me, made me remember that if there's anything you want, anything you apply yourself for, you can do just about anything. If you don't want it to be, size doesn't have to be a stopping point. It's just a hump that needs riding over. I don't want to be limited on the kinds of bikes I can ride or where I can ride them. I always want to be improving my skills as a rider. That's where Jocelyn Stowe comes in. A 5'1.5 BMW GS Trophy champion winner. Thanks to a subscriber who told me to check out her videos two years ago when I was complaining about struggling on taller bikes, she's been my inspiration ever since. She's who I would think of every time I came down with another case of the I can'ts. The craziest part is, she's only been riding adventure bikes for five years. When she walked into a dealership and tried to buy her first adventure bike, the GS 1250, the salesmen laughed at her. They wouldn't sell it to her. She wasn't going to tell them that she had been riding since she was 12, or that she has already owned and ridden 39 motorcycles, participated in road racing, flat track, hair scrambles, motocross, and supermoto. They didn't know they were dealing with someone who never gives up. And apparently, they thought the year was 1916 instead of 2016. For the ultimate test, riding the dirt bull, Jocelyn was going to have me practice skills with the obstacles she created in her backyard. Yes, you heard that right. This is not a public adventure park. This is her backyard. This is where she practiced for countless hours to train for the GS Trophy Championship, dropping her bike dozens of times. The first thing to tackle would be, like any good Jedi master, 90% mental, 10% physical, the mental aspects. Getting to know the bike, getting comfortable, getting over the fear of how big it is. We go over a 13-inch deep sand pit. So sand is the kryptonite, which may look easy. What happens to a motorcycle when it hits sand is, one, it starts dancing around and wobbling, and two, the front wheel starts digging into the sand. So if you apply proper technique, reserved for street and even dirt, on the sand, this happens. Then would be the gravel pit, a similar challenge to the sand, creating loss of traction and more wobbling. And then the penultimate challenge before earning the right to ride the dirt bull, logs. Riding between two tight logs can cause the rider to tense up, which makes the front wheel move in a curving line, which, as you can see, would be a problem here. And then finally, the log pile, an obstacle that messes with the feeling of traction, stability, and your mind. And if you don't stay smooth, well, that's quite a bit higher from the ground. So finally, we started the first exercise. Balance. Little tricks you'd need on a powerful bike you can't touch the ground on, which you'll see here in this 20-second training montage. Pause a second. Watch Jocelyn, how comfortable she is on this big bike on the dirt. She turns completely around to look at me. I'm so proud of you. Oh my gosh, I just did stuff I watched Jocelyn Snow do. And then finally, this is the part when I started to think Jocelyn may be nuts. Learn to use all senses. Can't even see, how am I supposed to fight? Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them. There seems to be a pattern here. I think Jocelyn, Obi-Wan, and Mr. Miyagi discussed this. I was focused, totally focused. So wait, my mom, my Jocelyn Snow, my Jocelyn Snow. What did you just do? What is what you did? Well, you know, I'm basically a GS Trophy Champion now. So what's your goggles? Blindfolded. Blindfolded. Blindfolded against my will. And look where the bike ended up. Right by the barrel. That's exactly what I wanted it to be. We're gonna do a pick-up bike exercise. All right. What you do, you've got the wheel locked like this. You've got a grip here. You're gonna push against the seat. You're gonna look up. You're gonna find a good spot. It's a little slippery here. It's a little challenging. You're gonna grab the bike and you gotta push back and just walk back. Now here's the situation. See how little we are? I can't get the bike all the way up. Yeah. I don't have any more leg. So what we have to do is let go, grab lower, finish. This is the part where the first time in my life, I decided I was gonna start working out to build muscle. Noodle on the motorcycle. Mom, doodle. Other options. Has to be zero alternative. All right. I gave you this to get you like an inch. We could do it again. Man, that first inch is hard. That first inch is hard. No clutch. That's absolutely necessary. And a good positive throttle. And all your weight back. That's Steve. Jocelyn's riding buddy that helped her build a lot of these obstacles. Sorry. Oh, okay. Ready? Okay. Whoa. Oh my gosh. That looks cool. Uh-huh. So you came at it a little bit to do on crooked and you're still turning. Okay. So then you add a little bit of a bump, bump, bump. Baby chicks or butterflies? Baby chicks. Okay. Hold your hands out. Okay. You have baby chicks in your hands. So now when you're hanging onto your handlebars, go ahead and hang on to that one. Don't crush them. Don't crush them. Just cuddle them. Okay. All the way across that obstacle. Okay. That's going to help you get to the other side. Okay. Screwdriver grip. Very delicate. Okay. One of my favorite parts of these couple of days wasn't just being able to ride a GS 1250 surrounded by beautiful mountains, but meeting Jocelyn and some of her friends. Nice to meet you. Welcome to the Recycle Garage. Now, just because I practiced riding these bikes for two days with Jocelyn Snow, doesn't mean I'm riding like her. Remember the 80-20 rule. I've now done about 20% of the work. And if you don't use it, you lose it. As I listened to Jocelyn's stories about the adventures her Swiss army knife of a bike has taken her to, it really got me thinking. In America alone, 32% of roads are unpaved. And what about the roads and paths that no one has made yet? The ones we make ourselves, the ones only some of us are made to discover.