Kawasaki Taught Me How to Jump a Dirt Bike and Survive
I’ve been riding dirt bikes for more than a decade. Despite the truth of that opening statement, it is the most misleading string of text I have ever written in my life.
You see, in that decade or so I’ve only mounted a dirt bike a handful of times. I place emphasis on the word “mounted” because when I get on a dirt bike, things get awkward … like, kangaroo-mounting-zebra weird. This is why among my small tally of dirt bike rides, three have ended in falls.
My experience riding two-wheeled vehicles on dirt began with an invitation by a friend that went something like, “Hey, give it a try,” followed by my “Oh sh*t” reply. I was used to riding ATVs. In other words, I was spoiled for never yet having to worry about keeping a machine upright in the dirt.
Keeping a two-wheeled vehicle upright on asphalt was not a problem for me. At the time of my first dirt-bike-riding experience (I think it was 2004), I was already a licensed motorcycle rider. Keeping yourself upright on the dirt, however, is a completely different animal.
I actually think having been formally trained for two-wheeled riding on asphalt hindered me. Riding a road bike is a graceful man-and-machine tango. Riding a dirt bike is like grinding on the dance floor with a pissed-off Nicki Minaj; it’s all fun and games until a penis shatters. Considering the spirit of dirt bike riding is the “thrill” of always being moments away from a crash, you really have to be a daring soul to entertain the thought of doing this kind of stuff regularly.
If dirt bikes supplement your ATV ownership, undoubtedly you are a daredevil. If you tell one of your inexperienced friends to jump on and have a go on your scare machine, you’re setting yourself up to see a laugh-inducing crash.
Every time after jumping on, I’d slowly putt around, feeling the bike’s outrageously high center of gravity already working against me while riding in a straight line, so once I’d try to take a turn, I was hopeless; I’d just drop the bike. It felt so limiting. I wish I could have received some training prior to dropping my friends’ dirt bikes.
And then Kawasaki came to the rescue.
Recently they invited me to a media training event that taught me some important basics I wish I could have known from the day I was born.
Accompanying me were members of the automotive media, who, like me, are more accustomed to testing Ferraris and McLarens, or evaluating the latest from brands like Lexus. Some of these folks had never manipulated a hand clutch in their entire lives, let alone ridden anything with a motor and two wheels.
As a result, Kawasaki’s MSF-approved instructor started us from the very beginning. Despite being one of the more advanced beginners in the course, I learned some things that helped fill holes in my knowledge base. For instance, we were taught how to walk 125s when I was training for my road bike license, but I had never been taught to lean the motorcycle on the hip while walking it. That really would have come in handy during the years I was riding full-dresser Harley-Davidsons.
I also really enjoyed learning how to properly stand on foot pegs to obtain optimal balance, and was surprised that with dirt bikes, you have more control while standing than when sitting.
Starting all the way from square one really helped me advance my skills. Before Kawasaki’s Learn to Ride event, my foundation for dirt bike-riding knowledge was a gopher-infested dirt floor supporting an abandoned bank. The Learn to Ride event was the rebar-laced concrete slab I had always wanted.
As a result of my fortified knowledge, I was able to take my dirt bike enjoyment to the next level: jumping.
Alright, so I’m no Ryan Villopoto, nor do I ever plan to be, but for someone who has a history of dropping his friends’ dirt bikes, getting a bike almost a foot in the air after a day’s training is a pretty big deal to me.
Kawasaki plans to offer more advanced training events in the future, and I plan on raising my hand for them — I still need to learn how to properly put my foot down in the turns.
