The Most Important Off Road Motorcycle Riding Skill

The most important off road motorcycle riding skill isn’t clutch control, balance, or braking. All of those are important and helpful skills to master, but none of them matter if you don’t have one thing: confidence. Without confidence, it's virtually impossible to be successful riding a motorcycle off road. It's the most important dual sport riding skill to have, because if you can't picture yourself successfully navigating an obstacle, be it a hill climb, water bar, tank trap, technical section, etc… then the chances of you doing so are minimal at best. Conversely, if you believe you can get through, over, or around something hard, chances are your bike will do the rest. Confidence is one of the most important off road motorcycle riding skills because it is the skill that allows you to be successful, and being successful while riding a dual sport or adventure motorcycle off road is the best way to build more confidence and therefore more skills. Of all the dual sport tips, off road motorcycle riding tips, and adventure motorcycle tips I've ever heard, none has been more important than building confidence and the ability to know that you can tackle any obstacle that you encounter. But how do you build confidence? There are several ways to build this most important of dual sport skills. First: repetition. Find a section of trail or road that is challenging but not impossible and use it to practice your adventure motorcycle or dirt bike skills over and over again. Successfully navigating it will build your confidence. Second: do some trail riding on OHV trails. Lots of chances to build your off road motorcycle riding skills all at once. Third: fail successfully. Wear your off road riding gear so that when you do crash, it isn't catastrophic and you can learn that the consequences of failure are minimal, which will give you more confidence as you continue to build your off road riding skills. Fourth: ride with someone who is better than you (but not too much better). Watching a competent off road motorcycle rider and seeing what is possible will help you improve your own dual sport motorcycle skills, adventure bike skills, or dirt bike skills.