by Admin
12. August 2010 08:24
Keep your hands on the bars
Short of showing off or trying some freestyle trick, your should always keep both hands on the bars at all times. This keeps you balanced on your motocross bike
and allows you to quickly turn or handle your motocross dirt bike at any time. It gives you increased stability and control.
Foot Position
It is recommended that you try to ride on the balls of your feet for the majority
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of the time. This allows you to better absorb the bumps on the track and aids the suspension. In saying this, you should also try and keep moving your feet on the pegs back and forward depending on what you are navigating. A
motocross bike is designed to absorb only a certain amount, your legs have to do the rest. Keep your feet centered on the pegs when landing big jumps to avoid
ankle damage.
Rear Brake Usage
A neat trick is to slightly drag the rear brake in ruts and around corners. This will help keep the bike railing around turns and also helps prevent the back of the bike
kicking over braking bumps. This technique requires a lot of trial and error over different terrain to ensure you understand how it affects the handling of your motocross dirt bike.
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Using the Clutch
It is common belief amongst standard riders that the clutch is an essential piece of equipment for shifting up and down gears. This is not necessarily the case.
Modern motocross dirt bikes do not require the use of the clutch when shifting up and down gears. Not using the clutch when changing down gears especially will increase
your corner speed and ability dramatically. It will do this because it forces you to use some throttle for stability and to negate engine compression braking. It is too easy to
coast into a corner with the clutch in and your exit gear selected. Stay off the clutch and ride all the way around the corner instead.
Body Position
When riding, either on a motocross track or in the bush, you should always try and maintain the attack position. This means standing up, elbows out, slightly bent knees
and leading with your head (chest over the bars). Maintaining this position will allow you to negotiate any obstacle you find without hesitation, and also will increase
your response reflex allowing you to avoid disaster instead of deal with it.
Weight Distribution
You need to understand how your motocross dirt bike reacts when accelerating and braking, and adjust your body accordingly. Ensure that you push your chest further over your
bars when accelerating. This will stop the massive strain on your arms and allow you to control your dirt bike with a lot more precision. It also helps keep some weight over the front wheel
and keep it near enough to the ground. The inverse is required when braking. Ensure that you still lead with your head, but you pivot at the hips and shift your weight behind the center of your
motocross dirt bike. This will give your arms a greater reach to the bars, allowing the to act as suspension to counter act the inertia of braking hard.
Keep your feet UP!
One of the most natural mistakes any dirt bike rider makes is dangling their inside leg out around a corner for that mental "balance". Dangling a foot to the side of the bike does very little
and can be more detremental for 2 reasons...firstly it can get caught up on an obstacle quite easily (like a rock or branch) and pull you down as the bike continues to move, and secondly, it is the
largest cause of knee and ankle injuries in motocross and trail riding alike. Keep your feet on the pegs, where they belong. It is actually more balanced that way. If you are going to put your foot out,
do it the correct way for it's intended purpose (which many people don't know). Extend your inside leg towards the axle of your front wheen, leading with your heal, slightly bend knee (to avoid hyper-extension). The
reason for this is to add some extra inside weight to the front of the bike to help it gain more traction.
Outside Peg
Our last little tip is to weight your outside peg whilst attacking a corner in the seated postion. By weighting the outside peg, you are pushing the bike harder into the ground and forcing it to gain more traction.
This is very helpful when you are wanting to get on the throttle early in a corner and don't want the back to step out too far. It also helps in railing berms, allowing you to lean a little harder and ensuring that
the back doesn't step out and stand you up (which will happen in a berm of the back breaks traction).
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