You recently invested in an adventure bike and are considering making your first off-road trip. Why not? It would be bad not to get off the tarmac since your bike can handle rugged terrain. But before you embark on your first off-road adventure bike journey, here are our top general tips to get you started.
Protect yourself
If you are an experienced road rider, hopefully, you have stopped falling off frequently. However, if you are new to off-road riding on your adventure bike, you will likely encounter a few surprise fall-offs. This is especially important given that the surfaces you will be riding on will be rugged. So, at the absolute least, you will need a good jacket with back, shoulder, and elbow protection, good riding pants with knee pads, off-road boots, gloves, and a fitting helmet.
Protect your bike
Again, preparation is vital, so before riding off-road, investing some time and, regrettably, money preserving your brand-new adventure bike is worthwhile. This is for the same reasons you protect yourself against potential disasters. Considering engine or crash bars to protect the engine cases and the upper fairing is worthwhile. You should also consider strong wraparound hand guards to prevent you from snapping levers or damaging pricey switchgear. Motorcycle decals also come in handy to personalize your bike, making it easier for other motorists to spot you and enhancing your safety on the road.
Be careful
There’s no need to rush through learning how to ride an adventure bike off-road because there is plenty of time to do so. Start slowly, gain confidence, and become accustomed to your bike. Your adventure bike is big, costly, and crashes poorly compared to a trail bike, so attempting to run before you can walk will probably have some adverse effects.
Find some long, free-flowing, and legal gravel roads, choose a nice day instead of a cloudy, muddy one, and don’t worry about riding too fast. Second, as off-road routes are typically shared access routes, there may be runners, dog walkers, or other people using them, so be careful.
Explore rubber options
The supposedly dual-sport tires on your bike may have given you less confidence than you had thought after your first forays off the beaten path, especially if it was raining. If a tire is 80/20, you may be sure that the 20% of off-road use it was designed for will not be tough.
A 50/50-based tire or rubbers with big blocks will offer you some excellent grip in several circumstances and a range of terrain, from rock to mud, as you ride your adventure bike for off-road riding more frequently. Most importantly, decide depending on the bicycle you are riding and the terrain.
You don’t want to be focusing on the ground when the scenery is so good.
Finally, there will inevitably be occasions when you need to choose a path for your front wheel, particularly when maneuvering in narrow spaces. It’s not complicated, like most motorcycle riding, and looking up also makes it easier to take in the scenery.
