Enduro and Dual Sport Motorcycle Riding Tips: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Started

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the dork side. It is I, your friendly neighborhood dork in the woods, and today we're going to talk about five things I wish I'd known before I started riding dual sport, which I'm doing right now. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. I've been riding dual sport two years now, two plus years, and in that time I've learned a ton of stuff. Now, I am by no means an expert. Please don't take this as I'm an expert. There are way better and more knowledgeable dual sport riders out there than me. Everide is a great example of that. There are people that are far more skilled than me, but if you're a beginner and you're interested in advice from somebody who is not a beginner, but was very recently, a few things that I wish I'd known, maybe I can accelerate your journey just a little bit. First thing I wish I'd known before dual sport riding is you need gear. Now, that applies to all types of motorcycling, but, oh ----, look at this. Now, all these side roads, there are so much downed trees up here this year. Obviously, if you have a motorcycle, you understand that you need to have gear. You need to have a helmet at all times. That's obvious. There are different types of helmets for dual sporting, but you can start with your street gear. We did. That's fine, but there are advantages to specific pieces of gear that I wish I'd known about earlier. For instance, this helmet that I'm wearing is an adventure helmet. It's a Bell MX-9. The cool thing is it has a peak, which is helpful when you're riding into the sun, for one, but also for deflecting roost and things if you're riding behind someone and rocks and stuff. It has a visor that flips up all the way so you can use it with goggles, so it's very versatile like that. I'm wearing goggles right now because when you're riding around at slow speeds, you don't get so much airflow and it kind of sucks to be wearing a huge, a regular street helmet. So a dual sport or adventure helmet or even a motocross helmet is super helpful. The second most important piece of gear, and this is something that I did not know right away when you are dual sport riding, particularly on trails, is boots. You need motocross boots if you're going to trail ride. I've been saved by my motocross boots, I can't tell you how many times. The most common injuries are to the lower leg. Second most common after head, and I think that's on the street and on the trail. I have pinched my foot between the bike and rocks countless times, smashed it, run into stuff, had the bike fall on it, and those motocross boots hit me up and running immediately every time. I've never been seriously injured to my ankle, but I know I would have had I not been wearing those boots. If we're riding like this, I have a pair of dual sport boots, they're a little bit heavier duty leather, but they're not full motocross boots because I like to get off and walk around, and I'm not trail riding as much. It's not narrow, it's not dangerous, it's not as dangerous, I'm mostly just on roads like this. And checking out some side roads too, but it's not as necessary as it is when you're riding trails. Trail riding, it's super important to get those motocross boots. And also when we're trail riding, I wear knee pads, elbow pads, chest armor, jersey, motocross pants. That stuff is not essential, but it is nice to have. It's nice to have a little bit more airflow when you're riding around on the trails. So if you're just going to do logging road stuff, you can definitely start in your street gear, but I wouldn't go trail riding like that. If you're going to do combination stuff, they make great gear that's hybrid that does both adventure gear. You need specific gear, that's the thing to know about dual sport riding. Number one is gear. There's gear that you're going to want. I'm not saying it's essential, other than motocross boots for trail riding, I wouldn't go out without them. But just imagine falling down on a rock at 10 miles an hour directly on your knee. And then imagine you spent $10 on a pair of cheap knee pads before that happened. And I'd go with the knee pads personally. So that's one thing. Number two, and this kind of ties into what I just said, but when I first got this bike, I had visions of doing this, riding forest roads and exploring around up here in the woods. And that's awesome and I love it, but it's about a third of what I do on this thing. So another thing I wish I had known or thought about ahead of time was just all the different types of dual sport riding. It's really not just two sports, despite what the name says. It's a misnomer, it's misleading. You guys, you can do this, you can also go trail riding. Now these bikes aren't as good as the Purpose Built Dirt Bike for trail riding, but they're perfectly fine. Doug Bannon and I do just fine. And you can also do urban exploring, because these things will go pretty much anywhere. This bike never lets me down in terms of capability. So if you're riding around your hometown and there's like a random dirt road or empty lot you've never actually ventured into, that's dual sporting too. You can go check that stuff out, because you're equipped to handle whatever you come across. They're great for exploring. That's why I'm using it right now, because I'm looking for camping spots, and I want to find ones that I can drive my truck to so I can take my kid and my wife, but I don't want to just drive my full-size truck down these random ass roads, because I might get into a spot where I can't get turned around and have to back down or something, and that would suck. This phone has been on this whole time. So I like to scout with this, because if I get into a place where I need to turn around, it's no big deal. It's really easy to turn around. So, number two is there's lots and lots of different types of dual sport riding, and really it's fun to discover all of them. Uh-huh. Well, that road is promising, but also blocked off. What's this? What is this? Is this just a spot? Oh, dude. This is not a bad camping spot. I hate that it's right on the main road, but you carry your ---- over those boulders, I bet it's pretty cool. There might be a way through over there. Minimum damage. Well, I don't know. Actually, this is a little sketch. Now I feel like I'm committed, because I've got to turn around. Oh, ----. Caught my leg. This thing sucks balls. Huh. Okay. I don't know if I'll be able to get back through here. Well, that was interesting. Number three thing I wish I'd known about dual sport riding before I started doing it is that it's a gateway drug, and that's a cheeky way of saying that it opens up all kinds of possibilities. So I thought I would just be riding in the woods, right? And one thing I've discovered that I really love doing is driving up to OHV parks, such as Brown's Camp that you've seen videos of us riding at, and camping there. So you can dual sport ride and camp. So I can do two things I really love together. I take it camping sometimes when I go with my family, and I can hop on it and just go dink around in the woods for the day. So it's not just about the riding. You can attach it to other activities. This thing, I want to go moto camping on it. I need a better bag set up before I can do that, but it can do that. Down a road like this would be a perfect place to go moto camping because no car is getting down here based on the tree I just went underneath, and it opens up possibilities like that. So it's a gateway drug. What I mean by that is it opens new possibilities that you hadn't considered. And I realize I said that about the different types of riding, but there's all kinds of activities that you can get into because you have a dual sport motorcycle. Yeah, that looks like I'm turning around down there, but I'm going to go down to the bottom and do it. So that's exciting, I think. Yep, tree. So many trees, you guys. Lots and lots of ---- has fallen this winter. It was a pretty crazy winter when we had like record flooding and ----. Number four, and the last two are more skills based things. Skills that I've learned since I started riding. Number four is don't be lazy. Stand up. You got to stand up a lot. Anytime you go into a deep hole, you got to stand up. If you want to take a jump, you got to stand up, but you got to keep your knees bent. And I avoided that for a long time because I was lazy and overweight. But it just severely limits the speed you can ride if you sit down all the time. You have to stand up. It's also the way you absorb sudden bumps that you didn't see coming. You have to be prepared and make it your reaction because otherwise the seat will bounce you up and then come back and hit you in the ass and it hurts. You're going to break your tailbone or get thrown off the bike that way. So learn to stand up, practice riding standing up. It feels really unnatural at first. You got to get used to bending your knees and you can't do it in first gear, which is spoiler alert part of number five. Really standing up increases your capabilities. It seems obvious, especially if you've seen anybody ride, but people, I avoided it forever and I shouldn't have because it really slowed my progress. It made it so that I didn't progress as a rider at the speed that I would have. And that was done. That tree, I have bumped that sound like 15 times. I really hope it's still working. Really hope. Oh, that was fun. That's a neat little spot. That's number four. Stand up. And as an example, here's some bumps I'm going to go through. I'm going to stand up because like the camera doesn't even move because my legs absorb the shock, right? Which leads me to number five, which is something that took me way too long to figure out and it has made a massive difference in the smoothness and speed with which I can ride trails. And that is second gear. Again, I know it's obvious. I know it's obvious to those of you who have ridden for a long time. See, standing up again. But second gear. On the trail, I used to ride in first gear because I wanted to go slow, but it's stupid for a bunch of reasons. One, it makes your throttle super twitchy. So anytime you give it throttle, it jerks out from underneath you. And anytime you let off the throttle, the bike goes forward, or you go forward and the bike doesn't. Okay? Which makes it impossible to stand up because you're constantly fighting the bike back and forth. Second gear makes all of those roll ons and offs much smoother. You can start out in second, I just wouldn't do it on a hill. The other thing is, second gear and just keep your revs up. Pull the clutch in when you need to slow down around a corner or a tight turn and then immediately re-engage it so you get power coming out of it so you don't lose your momentum. So important. Hitting the brakes or letting off the throttle, you lose a lot of momentum versus just pulling the clutch in and then having that power available if you need it. So learn to ride in second gear. It feels weird at first, especially because you're going at slower speeds and you will lug your bike. But if it's a dual sport, it's built for that. They tractor really, really well at those low RPMs and so you probably won't get into too much trouble. If you do, you just pull the clutch in, put the revs up. I wouldn't do that all the time, but pull the clutch in, give it some revs and you'll get a little bit more power. Ride in second gear on trails, anything where you're riding between 10 and 30 miles an hour, I like to keep it in second the whole time. It has made a huge difference. It's doubled my speed and comfort and my ability to adjust because momentum is everything in off-road riding. It really is. And so if you're going slow and trying to pick your way, it is much harder to stay upright. You will fall and drop your bike a lot more. Trust me, I know. But when you get your speed up, get a little confidence, the front wheel on these things are massive and it'll roll you over most obstacles. The traction side to side is fantastic as long as you have decent tires. Trust it. What's up there? Is that even a road? Except for when you're trying to stop and then the rear brake, you know, you skid like that. But seriously, second gear, it's your best friend. You can even start out on it like I just did. This is second gear. You can start out in it in a pinch and it's not the end of the world. Those are my top five things. Those are five things I wish I'd known before I started dual sport riding. That's not everything you need to know before you start dual sport riding. It's just five things that took me a while to figure out. Oh, someone's shooting up here. So if you have additions or ideas or things that you wish you'd known before you started dual sport riding, please let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear it. And thank you for watching. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. And as always, do not forget to be excellent to each other. I thank you. Excellent! Somebody literally poured a cement fire pit up here. Thanks for watching!