Kawasaki Sponsors Dirt Bike Class Hot

Beginner Dirt Bike Class sponsored by Kawasaki

Kawasaki sponsored morning and afternoon “Learn to Ride” sessions for beginner riders at the 3rd Annual Ride for the Cure held in Anza, Calif., on October 3rd.  The class was open to anyone, but women and girls from ages 6 and older were encouraged to attend.  Kawasaki supplied a number of KLX140s for new riders to learn on.

Although I’ve been riding on the street for many years, I had never ridden a dirt bike and quickly signed up for the course. I was excited to learn to ride, to get on one of those green machines and start jumping hills and flying around corners with the tires sliding through the dirt. With the riding experience I have under by belt, surely it couldn’t be that different or difficult. In the first ten minutes, I quickly realized that dirt riding was a completely different sport than riding on the street.

They seemed to have taken all the rules and normal habits of riding on the track and street and turned them all backward for dirt. For example, riding track this summer, I learned to slide my butt way back in the seat to enable my body to get lower against the bike and my head under the windscreen to cut down on resistance. I practiced leaning into the turn, sliding my body and backend off the bike in the direction that I was leaning and to push the bike away from me and more upright.

Now the instructors are telling me the exact opposite for dirt riding. My body was supposed to be as far forward as possible. In turns, I was to shift my body off the bike away from the turn, push the bike down into the turn and weight the outside peg opposite of the way I was turning. I had it ingrained in my mind how to ride a sportbike and it was not easy to get my head and body to cooperate when it had already been programmed opposite.

I watched a couple new riders go down, and with my recent shoulder injury from my street accident, I was a little nervous about going down myself, although the sand looked less painful than the pavement I had recently hit. I had trouble controlling my throttle hand when I felt my back tire start coming out from under me each time I hit deep, loose sand around a corner. This would later prove to be a skill I wish I had focused more on. If you start to lose control, you do not want to develop a “death grip” on the hand that happens to have the throttle controls in it.

The class itself was extremely well organized, and as we learned each new skill, we practiced over and over driving in large circles, learning how to shift gears and use both brakes, and in smaller circles practicing the aforementioned cornering techniques.

I couldn’t wait to leave the small circle and head down to the mini track where there were small hills and turns to really practice what we were learning. We soon headed down the hill to the mini track and I was excited when we pulled up to the course.

The course started with a few short, steep hills in succession where you could get the feel of your bike coming off the ground a little. You then climbed a little farther up where you then had to take a sharp turn left to descend down an intimidating hill. At the bottom of that hill, you turned a right corner leading back up a small mountain. Coming back down, the course wound around a few turns on the flat area and then ended up at the straightaway leading to the small steep hills again. The instructor led the group for the first couple of laps so we could become familiar with the course and we were then released to practice on our own. The entire course gave the opportunity to practice a wide range of the skills we had learned in the beginning.

I quickly learned where I could pass the slower riders on the course so that I would not end up behind them on my favorite spot; the small steep hills where you could feel the bike come up at the crest. With my desire to jump exceeding my skill level, I learned the hard way that coming back down on the suspension needs some skill also. At one point, I was not able to slow down enough coming off the first hill and I’m not clear on what happened, but I believe I jumped from the second hill to the top of the third, which thankfully was only a few feet. I came back down on the bike hard and must have hit the shifter and the bike immediately stopped dead and died. I managed to not go over the handle bars but then heard someone cheering for whatever I had just done so I quickly restarted the bike and continued on my way, with a smile on my face.

I did end up going down a couple of times and learned that going down on a dirt bike happens fast. That may have to do with the sudden “death grip” my hand developed on the throttle when I felt the bike sliding, therefore making the back tire slide out much quicker and accelerating the speed at which my body and bike headed toward the dirt. Both times I was able to jump up, get the bike upright and get back on and moving in seconds. Again, it’s very different than a street bike.

Eventually I did get the hang of shifting my weight around turns when we were on the mini track. I was a little more hesitant than I would have liked since both times I went down I jammed my already injured shoulder. If it hadn’t been for that, going down wouldn’t have been that big of a deal and I would have been able to take more chances to grasp the cornering skills better.

All and all, it was an amazing day attending a great class conducted by very knowledgeable instructors. I met some fascinating people from all over the states and the Kawasaki staff members were friendly and extremely helpful.