Originally Posted by Pepsi

You may find that standing up makes using the back brake a bit of a pain as your foot pushing down has to travel in a slightly awkward angle. I did off-road riding and training with the Army and the options were to adjust the pedal height upwards slightly or to fit an overlapping pedal on top of the original, a bit like a spacer to go under your foot. BMW make a specific item for their 'off-road' GS range.

Also, my chief tip would be to ride gently, (slowly) off road at first whilst learning to apply your front brake more and more progressively until you get the confidence in knowing just how much you can actually yank on that lever before it even thinks of locking ( UP RIGHT manoeuvres only! ). You'll be surprised, but best done on mud and grass surfaces and not rubble or gravel trails. Just don't jam on the front whilst standing. You will not be able to stop your 90Kg flying over the bars and your own bike running you over.

One more - when going down hills or drop-offs put your ass right over the rear axle and lean forward, keeping your weight at the back. On steep downhill stuff, use 1st or 2nd gear and no gas and let the engine braking control your desent with a touch ( A TOUCH ) of back brake to control direction. Never pull the clutch in on down hills, you'll brake the control of the engine braking an as Sir Isac Newton said " Gravity is unstoppable ". Going up hill is out of the seat and put your neck over the clocks whilst standing knees slightly bent and the hands and bars near your chest. A constant throttle ( no random grabbing, on/off, of the twist grip ) on the climb with a slight increase applied as the ascent goes on

Oh go on just one more:- Never ride up a steep incline to a blind crest with the intention of riding straight over. It could be a sheer drop on the other side of a 100 foot. The correct method is to always walk your obstacles through first, even river crossings. I know it sounds a pain and in theory you'd never get anywhere if you did this, but it's a case of risk assessment on the move.

Oh if I must:- Tyre pressures for off roading should be dropped slightly for better traction, but this is on a personal level matched to the terrain. Cinder track / fire trail don't really need this but mud plugging with gradients could use softer tyres. We used to drop our DR350's down to 12psi. The problem was that when we dropped back on to metalled roads we had tyres massively under pressure then. Doh !!!

It might be an idea to buddy-up too. There's nothing worse than busting an arm on a tree root and you're in the middle of nowhere where you're mobile has zero signal.

Last one honest;- Tree roots. If you're in the forest on a trail / track and it's wet, try not to lay on the gas whilst on a root as your back tyre will spin out, spitting you off. Wet wood is a nightmare such as wooden planks that make up small bridges. I broke two ribs in a fall as a tree root and my exuberance to catch a much better mate concocted together as a dealy pair of ingredients.

All in all.....take things slow, and watch for the legal stuff like not razzing past hikers on bridleways etc...But the main thing is enjoy..