Starting out - advice please...
 

Hi all

I've fancied doing some off road trail riding for a long time, and have finally bought myself an EC300. Possibly overkill for a debutant, but there you go.....it looks nice.

I am trying to line up some proper tuition. However, I am struggling a bit to find anything here in deepest rural France, and I am itching to 'just get out and have a go'. So, my question - can you far more experienced riders offer me some advice and tips re. how to get started? I have some fields I can ride in (grass), and I have some forest trails on my doorstep.

What would you do?

Over to you.... as ever, any help and advice very gratefully received!


Cheers,

Jerry
ps I am 49, so broken bones take a bit longer to heal than they used to :-)

Congrats jerry. That bike will put a grin on your face every time you ride it.

Best advice I can give is to spend as much money as you can afford on the best gear available. Like asterisk cell knee braces , sidi boots, leatt neck brace etc.

You need the equipment know not later

Start in the field and move to the woods when comfortable. Also find a riding buddy, if he is better remember to ride at your own pace or you will get hurt

Be patient. It takes a lot of saddle time to get better. Just ride and have fun

+1 sounds like good advice to me.

+2 excellent advice protect the body and have fun!!!! riding on a grass track
(open field) is terrific fun.

Learn the Fundamentals. Get Gary Semics Practice Manual. It tells you how to ride. Like holding on with your legs and not your arms/hands. Standing instead of sitting. Keeping at least 1 finger on each lever at all times, ready in a nano second to react. Huge basics that if you know about them early, make your experience much richer.

Also I found Shane Watt's Dirt Wise DVD Set very helpfull.

Get all the protective gear for your body.

Get good Tools.

Learn to love wrenching.

Learn how to Set Up your bike (jet it clean and suspension working for you, not against you)

Understand Arm Pump and learn how to manage it.

Become an expert on Hydration

Make Fitness a part of your life.

Ride everything. Open stuff, Tight Stuff, Technical Mtns, MX, Enduro, Dual Sport.

This is great advice, thank you so much... keep it coming :-)

The best thing is nobody has said how stupid I am to get an EC300 from the off!

So far I have

- ordered the Shane Watts DVD
- got some Alpinestars Tech 10s (second hand...) on their way
- found myself a really comfortable, reasonably priced (last year's model) Airoh lid

For now I will ride with my road gear (Rukka Gore Tex) which has built in CE armour.

I will check out neck braces.

Suspension and jetting will have to wait until I have a better feel for the bike.

As soon as the boots arrive, I'll be off for some rides - will let you all know how it goes!!

Cheers

Jerry

Run it on the soft or Rainy ignition map.

A G2 Throttle Tube with a 300 cam in it will chill it out some.

Terrain is key. Keep it simple.

The fast guys practice slow riding a lot. A good place for you to start.

My advice would be to get the jetting and suspension dialled up front. IMO the less skills you have to work around running and handling issues, the more benefit you will reap from a friendly setup. Pro riders seem to be able to do everything well, on just about anything.

As others have said, start easy with small challenges. Focus on just enjoying the ride and mastering techniques. If you can do this the pace will follow naturally. Pushing to try and keep up with others, or trying to go fast and riding on th edge is usually when bad things happen. Safety gear is worth its weight in gold. Bare minimum, boots and helmet, with knees and elbows following closely behind.

I fully agree with the safety gear and the slow riding recommendations!
1) You are going to hit the ground, trees and other stuff, so have your body protected.
2)Learn to ride standing on the foot pegs. It feels strange at first but becomes natural with time. It actually lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable. It also allows you to transfer your weight around the bike (front & rear) (side to side via pressure on individual pegs) to steer, increase balance and traction.
3) Riding slow teaches you balance and control. I would start with circles, and figure 8s on flat ground, then add in some small bumps or hills. (yes riding on the foot pegs)