CaptCrash
Dazed and Confused
Took the mighty DRZ for a long ride on some of our fine US Forest Service roads and I came back thinking: everybody should ride a dirt bike once in a while. Honestly, if you haven’t been on a dirt bike you need to get up on one. The motorcycle is so alive under you that it takes a moment to calm yourself and get used to it. Both the front and the rear slip and slither, push and slide; it can be frightening but in the end you’re OK. I believe that a great many street accidents happen when a street rider has an issue that a dirt biker would see as a normal bike behavior. On a fire road as you transition from one wheel track to the other you often have to cross a bar of loose, pushed up sand; the front will deflect, you’ll steer back into it and the front may even slip and then hook up on the fresh track. A street only rider can find that front end pushing around to be terrifying, think it’s the beginning of a crash, make a big input and BOOM instead of riding through a rough patch they actively crash their bike.
As I rode I realized that a lively, slipping bike isn’t what a lot of people expect from their rides. “Riding on a rail” and “Railing around a curve” or “stuck like glue” makes some newer riders believe that a bike is some kind Disney monorail humming around the enchanted kingdom. In reality a bike is a living, breathing thing that’s reacting to the world around it, hunting for traction, slipping and regaining its footing…want to feel it? Get on a dirt bike, twist the throttle hard and even when you’re going 25mph the back end may spin up and then hook back up. On my ride the DRZ routinely spun up the rear on hard upshifts and then hooked back up without my easing up on the throttle. The little thumper is set up with Continental Trail Attacks which are a tire set up for on road and light off road service. On dirt they work but aren’t nearly as useful as a full on knobby and on the street they “stick like glue” but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the rear spin on the asphalt. A simple hard shift in an intersection with the back passing over diesel or spilled coolant and the rear tire will break loose—it lasts only a second and for guys like me it might not register a .3 on the motorcycle earthquake scale but if it’s something you’ve never felt you might just think “THIS IS THE BIG ONE!” and make an input you might regret; maybe the back steps out of line and you chop the throttle and the back snaps back into line. This is a highside and can potentially kick you up onto the tank, or worse yet, all the way off the bike. Maybe you think you need to slow down and you stomp on the breaks and the back steps out or the front lets go. Could be as you yank on the front brake you make a steering input on a locked front wheel—that would be bad, bad, bad.
On a dirt bike you learn that sometimes the best action is no action. Just keep riding. Problems can be transitory and letting them pass without big inputs is the best course of action. Remember, a forest trail or fire road is a low traction surface, that’s why knobbies are the preferred tire. Riding on the dirt isn’t required but I would recommend it as a valuable experience. I haven’t had the DRZ off pavement in a long, long time but as I zipped down the trail I felt things I’ve felt on the pavement, little slips and slides, loss of traction and recovery, as well as basic unsettled riding; the joy of riding a living machine.
As I rode I realized that a lively, slipping bike isn’t what a lot of people expect from their rides. “Riding on a rail” and “Railing around a curve” or “stuck like glue” makes some newer riders believe that a bike is some kind Disney monorail humming around the enchanted kingdom. In reality a bike is a living, breathing thing that’s reacting to the world around it, hunting for traction, slipping and regaining its footing…want to feel it? Get on a dirt bike, twist the throttle hard and even when you’re going 25mph the back end may spin up and then hook back up. On my ride the DRZ routinely spun up the rear on hard upshifts and then hooked back up without my easing up on the throttle. The little thumper is set up with Continental Trail Attacks which are a tire set up for on road and light off road service. On dirt they work but aren’t nearly as useful as a full on knobby and on the street they “stick like glue” but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the rear spin on the asphalt. A simple hard shift in an intersection with the back passing over diesel or spilled coolant and the rear tire will break loose—it lasts only a second and for guys like me it might not register a .3 on the motorcycle earthquake scale but if it’s something you’ve never felt you might just think “THIS IS THE BIG ONE!” and make an input you might regret; maybe the back steps out of line and you chop the throttle and the back snaps back into line. This is a highside and can potentially kick you up onto the tank, or worse yet, all the way off the bike. Maybe you think you need to slow down and you stomp on the breaks and the back steps out or the front lets go. Could be as you yank on the front brake you make a steering input on a locked front wheel—that would be bad, bad, bad.
On a dirt bike you learn that sometimes the best action is no action. Just keep riding. Problems can be transitory and letting them pass without big inputs is the best course of action. Remember, a forest trail or fire road is a low traction surface, that’s why knobbies are the preferred tire. Riding on the dirt isn’t required but I would recommend it as a valuable experience. I haven’t had the DRZ off pavement in a long, long time but as I zipped down the trail I felt things I’ve felt on the pavement, little slips and slides, loss of traction and recovery, as well as basic unsettled riding; the joy of riding a living machine.