Doc Wong's Dirt Riding Clinic notes on Technique

[Tumbleweed]

Doc Wong’s Dirt Riding Clinic Highlights:
(Disclaimer: For DIRT riding – attempt at your own risk! These are NOT skills for the street, but they will come in handy when traction is lost on the street.)

Here are my class notes from the Friday Jan 6th evening session at Doc Wong’s Dirt Riding Clinic held in Redwood City Ca. It is by no means a complete list of the skills that Doc Wong and friends teach,
Simply the information I captured, and I was a little late to class. The actual riding was held on Sunday the 8th, at the Clear Creek Management Area, 50 or so miles S.E. of Hollister. I got a flat on the way in and unfortunately missed the practice portion of the clinic.

Riding Drills

1. First, Foremost: RIDING POSITION
When SITTING, sit in the dip of the saddle, forward up near the tank, in an attack position. Elbows should be up. From here it is a quick and relatively easy movement to weight the pegs fully and stand up slightly, which is the actual riding position for success in most off-road conditions. When riding your trunk (back and stomach muscles) and legs should be maintaining your position on the bike. Your arms are for controls and steering input, not weight bearing. Grip the tank with your knees, always keep some weight on the pegs when sitting, and don’t lock your elbows. Also adjust your controls so you can stand comfortably and work the clutch and brake. Most of off road is standing and the attack sitting position allows you to stand quickly.

STANDING: Legs should be bent, knees in contact with the bike. Weight on the pegs, not the handlebars. This is tough position for new riders and requires strong leg, back and stomach muscles, which develop with time. Your controls should be adjusted for comfort when in the standing position, there should be a straight line from the top of your hand on the grips, along your wrist and up to your bent elbow which is inline with your shoulder, not dipped at your side. Kinks and bent wrists lead to pain and possible damage.

2. BALANCE Drill. With the bike parked and off, turn the handlebars to full lock in one direction, and hold the front brake. This will stabilize the bike. Now try to stand on both pegs and balance the bike. Try this for 3 minutes, you’ll be exhausted. Doesn’t matter if you do it with a small dirt bike or a big GS, it’s a workout. This is a Trials skill and will improve your riding regardless of discipline. The key is not to actually balance, though eventually you will be able to. Simply attempting to balance will cause thousands of neurons to fire in your brain and all of your minute muscles to react, improving your balance as well as providing a significant total body workout.

3. WHEELIES: The key here is controlled wheelies. 6”, 12”, and 24”. If you can already wheelie, learn how to bring them down with the rear brake.

4. Sliding: Stab the rear brake, lock the rear wheel and stop. Advance to shifting your weight and steering the slide. Work up the length you can slide the rear wheel and release the slide to continue riding.

5. Front Brake: In the Dirt the front brake does most of the stopping, just like street riding. It’s physics, weight transfers to the front axle when braking in most conditions. For this drill apply the front brake, working to identify the friction zone. Front brake until it the front wheel just starts to lock up, the LET IT GO! You will dump the bike if you simply lock the front at low speeds initially.

Once you’ve found the Friction Zone, lock the front and try to steer it a little, with time you may be able to drive forward with a locked front wheel. Take it easy. In theory if you did not apply force to either grip, with a locked front the bike would simply stop straight. Realistically, force is applied to lock the front and control the throttle and maintain balance, with practice you can use all of the friction zone and control a locked front tire.

6. Accelerate Drill: This is a Body position exercise using your trunk and legs to maintain position, see #1. Often on the trails (and street) the rider is thrown back as the bike accelerates. Seeing as the rider is initiating the acceleration, it is easy to “predict” the coming event and prepare. Tighten trunk and lean forward when accelerating, maintaining position without weighing the handlebars.

Braking Drill: This is also a Body Position exercise, work to eliminate the forward movement of your body when braking by using your legs and torso to control position, leaving the arms to work the controls and provide steering input.

7. Turning Drills
A: Turn by weighing the outside peg. Keeping the bike upright for the most part. The bike will turn just by shifting weight to the outside peg. Try shifting your weight to each side, feel how the bike responds. This is steering the bike with the back tire.

B: Slide it: Weight the outside peg, weight forward, push the bike under you by straightening the inside arm, and apply some throttle.

8. Up Hills: The hill is made at the bottom, you need momentum. Keep the handlebars straight and steer with the pegs and throttle. Weight forward, an observation I’ve made is that the really great riders always seem to know where straight up is, and always keep an upright position relative to flat land, if the hill is steep this may mean leaning well over the handlebars, always with the weight on the pegs.

9. Gracefully bailing on the Uphill: Turn to the right and stop. This keeps your brake on the outside and weight on the outside wheel relative to the hill. To turn the bike back downhill, swing the handlebar left and right, the front tire will walk downhill. When pointing where you want it, release the rear brake and head down the hill for another try. If you do want to continue uphill, you may from a controlled stop such as this.

10. Down hills: Shift body weight back, Grip the tank with the knees, move rear back, keep the attack position to maintain control, steer straight, and try releasing the brake to save it, the gyroscopic effect of the bike will help stand it up and straighten it out.

11. Recovering from a dump on the hill: Drag the front tire to get the bike sideways to the hill, then stand it up from the uphill side. Get the bike on it’s right side preferably so you can use the rear brake.

12. Ruts: Ruts will steer the front wheel for you, Refer to #1. With weight on the pegs let the front follow the rut until you can ride out of it. For down hills, you may need find riding the rut is a necessary skill.

13. Off Camber: This is where the trail is traveling across a hill. Think of this as the same conditions as a turn, the bike is angled relative to the surface. Keep your weight on the outside peg and power through it.

14. Water Crossings: If you don’t know the terrain, get off and Look, wade in maybe and see what you are dealing with. A lot could be written here, and the Doc didn’t really go into much of it. The riding at Clear Creek required shallow water crossings in mud and cement spillways. Lighten the front end, straight through the water with an even throttle.

The key to good riding is keeping your weight off the handlebars. Use your legs and trunk to maintain a centered position on the bike, stand up when the going gets interesting. Hands and Arms are for control input and dampening, always maintain a smooth controlled throttle, especially with a two-stroke due to a peaky power band. Four stokes are a bit more forgiving.

TRAIL ETTIQUETTE/LOGISTICS

1. Bring water and food and be ready to take care of yourself and the bike. Have a plan if something goes wrong and take care of yourself by keeping hydrated and fueled.

2. When riding in a group, always keep the person behind you in view. Stop at intersections and signal for the proper direction, wait for confirmation before proceeding. If you get spread out, stop and let your rear catch up. If they don’t then go back for them. Signal to the person in front of you, if you can, that you are heading back.

3. Lost? Stop, or return to the last place you met up if you know where it is. Establish an agreed upon meeting place when you begin the ride. Do not wander around, it is extremely hard to find a moving target.

4. When passing other groups on the trail raise a finger for each person behind you in your group. The last person signals with a fist that he is the last.

That’s about it from my notes. Like I said, I was unable to do the drills in the dirt because I was fixing a flat rear tire. I’ve got a story about my day, which I’ll post in the trip report section.

Hope this is helpful,

Tumbleweed

[Redne Dab]

Great stuff!

Have purchased two books. Both books feel inferior to what you've typed up.

Must take that blasted MSF dirt course!

[Tumbleweed]

Naw, the MSF Dirt course is REALLY basic, like how to get on the bike and start it, then finding the clutch friction zone and getting the bike moving.

The MSF Dirt course is now available on DVD for less than $15. I got it, watched it with my family and will use it to help others get into motorcycling, but really it is too basic if you already can shift and not fall over.

It seems to be a Great course for Kids and those afraid of bikes, and the course does normally provide a dirt bike to practice on.

Tumbleweed

[n8]

Wait - the MSF dirt course doesn't cover any of that stuff? hills, ruts, obstacles, anything? It's nothing but the first morning of the BRC on smaller bikes? Thanks for the heads up.

[Tumbleweed]

Wait, wait, wait. I am not that knowledgeble about the Dirt Riding school and encourage everyone to take any hands on training to improve their skill. Regarding the Dirt course, I knew it was basic, and will try to get my kids into the class, but I am beyond that level.

I have not taken the Dirt bike course, but I do have the official DVD. The exercises it shows is what the course covers, the most difficult stuff they do is climbing a small hill, turning and traversing across it, then turning down the hill. This involves shifting weight to the outside of the turn, then shifting weight to the downhill side of the bike while traversing then shifting again for the downhill turn. And just like the Basic Rider Course, crossing a 2x4 is addressed.

I also have a copy of the Dirt Riding Technique book the MSF puts out and it covers the basic material and drills.

I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from going to training they think would be of benefit. Go to the MSF website and check it out for yourself.

Peace.

TW

TW

[Bicycle Phil]

Tumbleweed,

Great re-cap of the material/skills that Doc and his crew taught us!!
Your note-taking was thorough and you didn't miss a thing.
Thanks dude

One other idea that courses through my brain while riding(dirt or street) is to constantly look for the "solution" of any given "line" that you have chosen.
When a problem/obstacle/rut is encountered, I try to shift my attention from the problem, to the solution.
Example:
On numerous occasions when riding trails on Sunday, ruts would present themselves
as an obstacle. I train my reaction to acknowledge the "problem"(the rut) and shift all my attention, instantly, to the "solution"(avoid rut).
In other words: "Where you look is where your bike will go".
Dont stare at the rut, stare at the line around the rut.

Of course their are times when the problem is part of the solution, you may have to wheelie over the rut. Once again in this case attention shifts from "problem"(rut) to "solution"(get front wheel to clear and safely land on the other side of rut).

I know this sounds pretty obvious,.. and I always spend a little time when riding to think/practice this concept. It has really saved my butt street riding, coming around fast corners and encountering sand or oil patches.

Another GREAT book that all serious riders should have in their library is "Twist of the Wrist" by Keith Code. Written by a street racer for racers, this book includes many riding concepts/techniques that are universally applicable to any riding surface.

I cant imagine a better dirt course than Doc's dirt seminar, especially considering the $20 he charges, which by the way goes to the Clear Creek legal fund to help preserve off-roaders right to ride Clear Creek.

happy trails,

Phil

www.docwong.com
Check it out for future clinics.

[Boshar]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Phil

On numerous occasions when riding trails on Sunday, ruts would present themselves as an obstacle. I train my reaction to acknowledge the "problem" (the rut) and shift all my attention, instantly, to the "solution"(avoid rut).

In other words: "Where you look is where your bike will go". Dont stare at the rut, stare at the line around the rut.

I remember this from skiing: look at the spaces between the trees, not the trees themselves!

This is the second time I've read this posting, and it has really helped. I tried out some of the techniques on Sunday (all day ride). Some of the info must have stuck in my brain, because I don't know exactly how I rode some of the terrain... I just did it.

I'm going to try to make Doc Wong's clinic at least once this year.