It's been a little over two years since I first swung a leg over a trail bike (under the guidance of Dave Haines at Lot Valley Enduro) in the South of France. Somehow I managed to make it through a couple of hours on the trails upright, despite Dave leading me down a few that he'd 'forgotten' were a bit steep for a novice. The next day, we set off for the 2009 HUMM, two full days in the Spanish Pyrenees which also saw my first crash - parking one of Dave's DR-Z400S' in a tree, which seemed better than the alternative of throwing it off a 20ft drop. Since then, I've ridden in two more editions of the HUMM on the T�n�r�, had a go at racing Hare & Hounds on a DR-Z400E and latterly a GasGas EC300, and done quite a lot of mileage on the byways of the UK.

After all that, I've come to consider myself a fairly competent trail rider. I don't often fall off or get stuck, and if there's no particular hurry, then there's not much that I can't pick my way through. What I've never been particularly good at is 'pressing on' over rough ground, even while racing on a small bike. This is compounded when I'm on a big bike by the sheer weight of the thing.

Having never really gelled with the GasGas, but still thoroughly enjoying the T�n�r�, my thoughts have naturally drifted to running the Yamaha as my sole dirt bike (and as of last Saturday, that is the reality, as the diminutive Spanish stroker was dispatched to its new home with a friend in rural Gloucestershire). Not a problem for general trail riding, where I'll always gravitate towards the Ten' anyway, but it begs a couple of questions: "How do I scratch the racing itch?", and "Will I be able to keep up on rides with the East Mids TRF group, who all ride small trail/enduro bikes?".

Actually, the first question isn't phrased quite correctly, as I already knew what I would need to do. For a while now I've been glancing inquisitively towards the Big Bike Rally Challenge, a racing series designed for big bikes, and assembled by piggybacking on to the various long-distance rallies run by different clubs around the UK. The question is really "Can I manage to finish these rallies aboard the Ten'?".

I have no doubt that the bike itself is up to both these tasks (with a few choice mods paid for by selling the GasGas, more of which at a later date), but the 'nut between the handlebars' could definitely do with a bit of improvement. So when I heard that the BBRC organisers were teaming up with Black Desert Training (Dakar Rally finishers Craig Bounds and Tamsin Jones) to put on a weekend of training at the start of September focused on racing big bikes in rallies, it wasn't long before my deposit cheque was in the post.

Friday night came around and the Tenere went on the back of the truck, riding and camping gear was piled up inside, and Sarah and I set off for Aberystwyth where we'd booked onto a campsite. This put me about 20 miles from the Sweet Lamb Rally Complex, where the training was being held, but meant Sarah wasn't stuck in the middle of nowhere while I was out having fun. Besides, aren't you supposed to expect an early start and a bit of 'liaison mileage' when rallying?

On Saturday morning, I geared up and rode back inland to the Sweet Lamb venue, which we'd passed in the dark the night before.


The turning off the main road. The Rally Complex itself is a mile or two up a gravel road, providing a nice 'warm up' to get back into the swing of loose surfaces.

After a cup of tea, introductions and the obligatory disclaimer-signing to acknowledge the inherent danger of motorsport, we moved out to the training area adjoining the 'Rally Shed' (a fairly accurate description of the main building) where, led by Craig, we would work on the basic elements of bike control before moving out onto the rally course itself to put them into practice. Beginning with how to get on and off the bike, and our riding position once aboard, we moved on to riding round one-handed and steering with our feet, then riding a slow, tight slalom course - requiring full lock while stood on the pegs, and emphasising the effect that where you look has on where the bike goes.


Dakar legend Craig Bounds does a good job of hiding a look of despair as some muppet on a T�n�r� manages to stall and nearly fall over in the middle of the slow slalom course.

The final area for focus was braking, and getting us used to feeling for the limits of grip on both ends of the bike - firstly by locking up the rear completely from high speed to a standstill, and then by riding along in first gear (with some throttle on) and trying to keep the front wheel on the verge of locking up.


I think the 'take home message' here was that if you just put the back brake on, you will take a really, really long time to stop.

After a break for lunch, we split into two groups. One group would go off with (BBRC series organiser) Robert 'Burt' Hughes and (HP2 riding, ex-BMW-school-instructor) Mark 'Moly' Molineux to work on high speed riding, my group was with Tamsin and Craig to work on more technical sections. They led us a mere couple of hundred yards before stopping on a fire road within sight of the Rally Shed. I'd have to admit the words "this doesn't look very technical" passed through my head before Craig pointed out the five foot deep drainage gully full of loose rocks alongside the road.


Craig demonstrating the ride up the gully for the other group on the (sunnier) Sunday.

We were to drop in from the side at the downhill end, and ride uphill for a hundred yards or so before climbing out again (although the precise exit route was modified slightly when Tamsin couldn't get out at the planned point even on her lightweight two-stroke KTM). In hindsight, this was probably the hardest exercise for me to get to grips with. I'd thought beforehand that my biggest issue was being scared of the high speed stuff, but it later turned out (see further down) that I took to that fairly quickly once I knew what I had to do. Although I was more successful at this exercise with each run up the gully, it was still a bit of a messy scramble rather than precise riding. Something to practice more I think.

(Of course my concentration at this point wasn't exactly helped by a screw-up while packing for the weekend which meant I was wearing glasses rather than contact lenses. With all the stopping and starting I inevitably ended up with the fine, misty Welsh rain coating both sides of my goggles and my glasses. On balance though, it was probably best that I was doing the slow speed stuff, rather than the fast riding on the day I couldn't really see where I was going!)

The next technical section was a mixture of slippery surfaces (wet rutted grass, piles of loose slate chunks, and wet rock) and awkward corners, with a short climb up a steep rock slab to finish. The emphasis here was on building up the right amount of momentum to carry the big bikes through or up a given obstacle, but again, the importance of both looking in the right direction and the judicious application of the correct amount of weight to the correct footpeg was reinforced.


Opening the throttle here simply fires bits of slate back down the slope. Need to have enough momentum beforehand.


Tamsin making the slab climb look easy.

We then moved on to another area to work on climbing and descending progressively steeper slopes, and perhaps as importantly, how to safely recover your bike if you grind to a halt half way up.


Serious 'body english' to try and thread the bike into the rut at the top of the climb.


Recovering safely from a failed attempt

Here's a video of Jase (in the other group) making it up the slope (just) when we swapped over the next day.

One of our group didn't quite manage to remember (or at least make his body comply with) Craig's instructions for what to do if you get stuck. A mere bike length from the top of the climb he ground to a halt and instinctively pulled the clutch in and tried to hold the bike on the front brake. This doesn't work on a 40 degree gravel incline, and we were treated to the alarming sight of a KTM 950SE accelerating down the slope backwards before slipping sideways and finally flipping itself upside down into the long grass at the bottom. Fortunately the rider was thrown clear and largely unhurt, and the only damage to the bike was bent handlebars which were swapped overnight. I was next up to attempt the climb, and needless to say I was muttering "don't touch the clutch" inside my helmet like some sort of religious incantation. I made it to the top - just! In the words of Craig "You were about three foot off-course at one point, but because you had your eyes on where you were going, it all came back into line".

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I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400