Learn what the 10 deadly sins of riding off-road motorcycles are #MotorBikes
The greatest sin of all is not using Motul engine oil in your bike! If you are guilty of this don’t worry Randburg Midas stock the full range!
- Running out of oil
Easier said than done sometimes, but remember that dirt bikes are hard to push, especially over any sort of distance. One time in Lesotho we pulled into a town thinking that there would be fuel available and they didn’t have any petrol at all. This guy with a big smile on his face pulled some fuel out of a barrel. I got about five kilometres down the road and the bike started to belch smoke. It turns out he’d sold us lamp oil. I discovered that a two-stroke will run on lamp oil – but not very well. It was enough to get us to the next town where they had some proper fuel. If I close my eyes, I can still see the black cloud billowing out the back. We used up three spark plugs as well. - Forgetting to bring your tools
I have this one kid that I coach and I’m always trying to teach him to be self-reliant. On one particular ride he hadn’t bothered to bring his tool bag. When he fouled a plug I thought it would be a chance to teach him a lesson: rather than just fix his bike for him I made him sit there and wait for us. As it turned out it ended up being a really long ride, by the time we got back he had been sitting on the same rock for nine hours! Let’s just say that kid never forgot to bring his bum bag again. Even if you don’t know how to use the tools, if you have a spark plug and a spanner that fits your bike, you can usually find someone who can fix it. Bringing food is also important, especially if you are a skinny guy like me – once I get hungry it’s game over.
- Failing to check tyre pressures
Having your tyres set at the right pressure is your first line of defence. As soon as the terrain gets slippery or horrible, you need to let some pressure out. That gives the tyre a bigger footprint, which gives the bike better grip. When I am on a group ride and someone asks me to push their bike up a hill, I always air the tyre down first and tell them to give it another go. But starting out on an any ride with low tyre pressures can backfire: do that and you are just inviting a flat.
- Leaving the group
I was out trail riding once and a mate of ours fell off the back of the group. Before we noticed he was gone, he was lost. If you ever decide to leave a trail ride, tell someone first.
- Putting your helmet down on a hill
I’ve seen this happen a few times: guys take their helmet off and put it down on the side of a hill and it just rolls away. You have to be careful where you put it down. Hang it off the handlebar or the foot peg where it is not going to roll away.
- Jumping over something without looking
In the forestry near where I live, they often dig a big ditch and pile the dirt up on the other side in an attempt to stop four-wheel drives from going through. At first glance it looks like they have made you a perfect jump. When I was a kid I launched off of one of them without thinking where the dirt had come from and tossed my XR100 into this huge hole on the other side. The old saying ‘look before you leap’ applies here.
- Admiring your own skill
This is the classic rookie error: you come out of a corner and give it a big handful, turn around, look behind you and say, ‘This is sweet!’ only to ride straight into a tree. What is behind you is in the past. Always look ahead; that’s the way you are going.
- Riding alone without telling anyone
This is a basic rule of survival: tell someone where you are going. I have had some of the biggest crashes in my life trying to be careful. You have to tell someone what area you are riding in.
- Using the wrong tyres
You should always use the right tyres for right conditions. You have to think of the bike’s tyres as its shoes: you can’t go dancing in bowling shoes, if you know what I mean.
- Forgetting that riding dirt bikes is fun
Riding motorbikes is supposed to be fun. People start getting carried away with trying to find the right sponsors, trying to win, beat all of their mates and all of that. You have to remember why you got into dirt bikes to begin with. It’s all about the joy of riding the bike and ripping around in the bush. Emergency room nurses don’t like dirt bikes because they don’t ride dirt bikes. The occasional broken arm here and there is totally worth it. Sure, it sucks, but if that’s the price you have to pay, then I say no problem.
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