By 
- It’s what we do
- KTM Rallye NZ
- Charley Boorman
- Generation Next
- TomTom Rider 550
- Picnic Run
- Braidwood On Royal Enfields
- Trans-Labrador Highway
- BMW F750GS/ F850GS
- Zac Speed: Shaun MacKenzie
- The Arafura Track
- All Class
- West Of The Ridge
- X-com
- Following Dakar
- Wet Road with Andy Strapz
- A Couple Of Firsts with Karen Ramsay
- Checkout
- Fit out
The end of 2018 marked the first year of Adventure Rider Magazine Off Road Training. Now we know what everyone’s been raving about.
Rider training may seem a little old hat, but with the explosion of adventure riding in Australia and around the world, there’s a multitude of riders, usually quite mature riders, who’ve discovered their confidence in handling a motorcycle gets a little shaky when they take a big bike off road.
At the start of 2018, Miles Davis, Adventure Rider Magazine columnist and probably one of Australia’s most experienced motorcycle trainers, kicked off a series of adventure-riding schools along Australia’s east coast.
Miles is a busy bloke, and it’s not easy to nail him down for a weekend, but when he did put out the witch’s hats, the result was overwhelming.
Hot and wet
In December Miles assembled a group for his final coaching session of the year.
The venue was Canungra in Queensland, and the headquarters for the event was the incredible Café Metz in the town’s main street. It’s a bike-friendly café, and around the reserved area in the carpark high-performance street bikes mingled with the adventure bikes of the training group. Models varied from DR650s and V-stroms through BMW 800s and 1200s to Triumph 800s and KTMS. The Panigale-, 1000RR- and custom-painted-Sportser owners didn’t feel there was anything unusual about the dualsporters, and a great deal of friendly chatting had to be cut short in order to ‘get on with things’.
Miles had organised a free coffee for everyone in the class as well as the catering for smoko and lunch, and the service at Café Metz was brilliant.
In the midst of weeks of storms and extreme meteorological events, the weather turned on sunshine and high humidity. In fact, the combination of high temperatures and humidity posed a potential threat to participants, but Miles was once again prepared and had a big supply of chilled water in jugs and bottles to get everyone through the weekend.
Just as well, too.
It’s always very rewarding to watch riders at coaching sessions take big leaps forward in tech-nique and confidence.
Fire down below
After the usual introductions and a light breakfast, the real instruction started.
As always, there was a discussion on riding apparel and bike set up. That led to the bit everyone was waiting for, and the crew headed a few kilometres up the road from the café to a private property made available for the session.
The vast, grassy paddocks and bush trails couldn’t have been more ideal. Gentle hills through the pastures made for obstacle-free venues to practice figure eights, braking manoeuvres and the other drills aimed at helping otherwise experienced riders come to grips with riding heavy, big-horsepower bikes off road.
The first potential excitement for the weekend came about when someone smelled smoke. The longish grass was in contact with low-slung header pipes and the possibility of a fire was very real, especially for Bazza Rasmussen.
His V-strom was a little lower than some of the bikes, and his bashplate was holding a fair scoop of kindling in contact with the front header of the V-twin. A little prodding with a stick at odd intervals cleared the hazard.
As the riders gained in confidence the drills became slightly more technical and interesting. Miles was as colourful as always, preaching his ‘stay loose’ philosophy and bellowing, “Float like a butterfly!” at riders wobbling past with fixed grimaces clearly visible through their visors.
The Canungra riders. A great bunch they were too. Back row from the left: Anthony Holzwart, (big bloke right at the back) Marcel Marinus, Greg Willis, Shaun Poschich, Peter Brickland, Mal Alroy, Tim Neale. Front row, from left: Barry Rasmussen, Greg ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, MD, and Warwick Pretti.
Take five
Each set of exercises culminated in a trip back to Café Metz for welcome cold drinks, snacks, and at the appropriate time, lunch.
This was an excellent arrangement, giving riders plenty of time to recover from what had become crushing heat, and to talk among themselves about their experiences as the coaching progressed.
They also spoke a great deal to Miles, who helped riders with bike set-up as their off-road skills advanced and their understanding of control position and ergonomics improved. He was even on the tools a couple of times, helping get things sorted.
Inevitable
Any time riders are challenging them-selves there are going to be falls, and this group was no exception. In general the grass made for soft landings and the only result was a ribbing from the rest of the class. To balance that, even Miles dumped his F850GS in the dirt at one stage, so everyone felt things were fairly even.
There were a couple of more serious incidents, though. One involved a quick trip to the medical centre for some stitching. It was dealt with in a calm and professional manner, and Mal Alroy, the victim of a nasty whack from the tall screen of his Triumph, was back on his bike and had recovered his mojo after a lunch break.
What a champion!
The other potentially serious incident was Greg Willis leaving the trail and finding a hole the size of Mack truck hidden in the long grass. He and his 1200GS all but disappeared head first into the cunningly camouflaged excavation, but both emerged smiling after a little co-ordinated heaving from classmates.
The vast, grassy paddocks and bush trails couldn’t have been more ideal.
Success
It’s always very rewarding to watch riders at coaching sessions take big leaps forward in technique and confidence, and with good coaching the results are often spectacular. The coaching at the Adventure Rider Magazine Off Road training sessions is clearly of that calibre.
Miles has an extraordinary empathy with other riders, is enormously competent, and has a wealth of experience. He also has the gift, despite his obvious talent, of not intimidating other riders. Somehow his incredible riding talent seems to infuse into the riders around him. There’s lots of ribbing, laughing and, most of all, learning going on, all the time, even when it seems the conversation is rambling along about very general principles. Somehow Miles manages to have the riders arrive at important individual points without apparently steering the conversation.
The rain belted down overnight and into some of the second day, but the riders who were a little unsure of things 24 hours before carved up the slippery grass paddocks and rocky hills with hardly a blink of hesitation.
Job done.
Hands-on help was available for set up as riders’ off-road skills improved.
More to come
The coaching sessions have undoubtedly been a success in their first year, and they look set to continue in 2019.
“In 2018 we ran five Adventure Rider Magazine training courses,” said Miles, frantically trying to keep up with the editor’s requests for more coffee. “We did two in NSW, two in Queensland and one in Victoria. They’ve all gone really well and had a great mix of interesting riders – some new to riding, some returning after bit of a break and others just looking to keep improving.
“There’s been a great mix of bikes too, including BMW, KTM, Triumph, Husky, Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki and a Beta 480,” BMWed the super coach, casually leaning back on his F850GS while onlookers drooled in the background.
“It’s always a buzz to see riders improve and reach levels they didn’t know they could achieve. I’m not teaching OH&S or Powerpoint here. It’s riding bikes and it’s people’s passion, so the energy is always amazing.”
For 2019?
“The plan is to roll out a similar number of courses in 2019 and, due to the amount of questions I’ve fielded, maybe add in a sand course.
“I think it also makes sense to run a course before the Northern Congregation.
Green Valley Farm is an ideal location.
If you’re interested in receiving some information on the 2019 program, email your details to advridertraining@gmail.com with your post code and mobile number.
Hopefully we’ll see you at a session during the year. There’s always something to learn, and Miles is The Man when it comes to handling adventure bikes.
Greg and his 1200GS all but disappeared head first into a cunningly camouflaged excavation. No damage or injury. All good.
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