Adventure Bike Warehouse Dirty Service - Victim 1 Speaks out :)

CuzGS

CuzGS

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Well having waited for what seemed like an age the day of the GSA mega big service and my off road day with SkyGod eventually comes around :)

Can I just point out that I am in no way afflliated with the ABW although I will cough to have stolen the odd cup of tea and crumpet from Jonos supposedly secret stash.

So the idea is that you rock up to the ABW and drop your bike off for service, disappear with SkyGod for a day off roading, then turn up to the ABW again princess like to collect your bike and merrilly ride off home, hmmmmm too good to be true.........

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The beloved gets dropped into Jonos loving (but minging) hands :D
 
Right so its briefing time with SG.

Essentially Gary will cover the legalities of the day from an insurance point of view, (Ill let him expand on the details), and then explain where you are going, what type of trails you will do, etiquette, area famil, etc etc. I felt thoroughly briefed and happy with what was going on.

Next up is a bike famil, again thouroughly and v professionally completed. My steed was a husky 610 which is v similar in feel to my KTM SM so the engine and gearbox felt familiar at least.

Right lets go and get wet, ah yes the weather, well due to the rain over the last weeks the whole of the Peaks was saturated, grip issues were discussed :)

First off after a bit of road work to reach the area and get used to the bike was some cone work. A great exercise in weight distribution, observation, eye lines and such like. Its bloody hard too especially when Gary moves the cones in and can still do it on his HP2, bastard :D
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Outside the cones please Cuz..............

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Now inside !! Come on youre in your own time now and all that:augie
 
OOps wrong pic.................now inside :)

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After Id managed to convince Gary that I was vaguely capable of wobblimg around without killing too many people we started on the training proper as it were. first thing was a wide trail where picking lines and general transit riding was covered. Id not been off road (deliberately) for ages so I had a big shit eating grin from 10 secs in.

We stopped every 5 mins or so initially to discuss various points and brief the next phase.

The braking exercise was a hoot. Front brake only and getting it to lock up under control is a great feeling, its genuinely worthwhile for any road rider to experience this phonomenon if you never have.

The rear skid test was equally entertaining. After a demo from Gary, he explained that I was to come along at 25mph and lock the rear to experience the handling characteristics. Having set up on the run in I look down to note that I have no speedo! Not wanting to appear pussy like I elect to err on the plus side of 25 judged visually. I end up blatting past the marker Gary set up and into Notttinghamshire before the bike stops :) Again an amazingly useful exercise for any road rider.

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Me trying to out Evel Knievel gary :thumb
 
Next up is cornering and again this is preceded by a thorough brief covering differing apexes, grip lines etc etc. Having spent a lot of time on tracks this was an eye opener for me as I would normally reasonably expect 1 or maybe 2 correct lines and a decent surface.

Now I was having to adapt and look at all sorts of other things such as surface, opposite direction traffic etc, not something im used to at Oscehrsleben and the like :)

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Ooh err missus, theres shit all over my racing line and a puddle of unknown depth at my gas point, I need to reassess things :)
 
A couple of hours in and time for the included lunch. Gary insisted on his favourite Peak cafe so off we popped, via a lovely green lane :)

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Not a bad effort mate but more work on the canapes next time please, piss poor really :clap
 
After lunch Gary debriefed the morning thouroughly and gave me a few pointers as to what tweaks to make as the trails were to get more difficult in the afternoon.

These tips were delivered in his normal calm and professional manner ;)

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What is your major malfunction off roader Curry !!!!
 
So the afternoon progressed with exercises such as hill starts up and down, picking up dropped bike etc. The lanes and trails got progressively more difficult with debrief and rebriefs between rides.

After following Garys lines I was encouraged to try my own and indeed lead on 2 trails, great fun, totally safe and again a shit eating grin for ages.

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Hill exercises

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Bigger hill exercises and minor wheelie landing :)
 
After completing the exercises we basically just rode and rode, with Gary again providing route tips and feedback.

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Gary displaying his artistic bent

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My fave bit of day, blatting through puddles :)
 
After a full 5 hours of riding I was utterly shagged (not including the man cave mini expedition), and we headed back to the ABW to see if the plan had worked. Indeed my GSA was there all sorted and ready to go, now just a 2 hr ride home through cat and fiddle and via gella. fuck me what a day :)

Right honest appraisal in 2 bits:

1. Servicing

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my bikes more than anything, (yes that includes that thing you did with the fire extinguisher in the man cave Gary), and thus am a bit precious as to who gets their mitts on them.

All I can say is that Jono is the only bloke who has worked on my bikes since I got back to the UK. Good prices, good service and a great place to be too.

As a small example, I had a MOTO Tool Tube fitted in a bit of a crap place as I couldnt be arsed to manufacture a better mount, it now resides in a better place on bike complete with bespoke mount, fitted whilst bike being serviced at no cost, OK it prob only took 10 mins but where else would you get that level of service ???

I know of nowhere personally.

You can also rip the piss out of Jono for free as long as you throw him a donut every 30 mins :)

So servicing big tick VG :)

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Tool roll fitted, what a top bloke
 
2. Off road day.

Again this was simply brilliant from start to finish.

You are getting one to one guidance from a bloke who knows the area, the bikes and the trails well. Not only that but he happens to be a top man and has a great laid back professional approach which I know would be adapted to suit the customer of the day. I think I got on OK so Gary pushed us on a bit, but at any stage I was comfortable to call a halt and either have a pitstop or indeed go back to easier trails.

The bike was superb too, having a whole day on that husky has me on the hunt now for a KTM Enduro for Morocco next year :)

So in summary on the whole day;

This is quite simply a great idea, and was delivered professionally and competently.

I cannot recommend it enough, I do a shit load of miles on my GSA, loads to alps corsica etc etc, but have not enjoyed a day so much for a v long time.

Regardless of whether you ever intend to ride off road again, go and do it.

Your road riding will be all the better for it. There is a reason that Stoner, Hayden Etc are road gods, its partly due to their flat track and off road past.

All this and the servicing cost is less that a main dealer and the off road day in its entirety including insurance, fuel, bike hire, lunch, photos emailed to you, and instruction is................................

125 QUID:D:D:D:D:D

I recon that that means in realistic terms its free !!!

No brainer, go and do it :)

Anyone wanting more info or chat then the guys at ABW are all on side or feel free to PM me if you like
 
Excellent.. :thumb2

i luv jono me, he's just a big cuddly animal. :D
 

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Looks like a great deal to me. Having met Skygod (and Mick db1??) last year when I asked if he could take myself and 3 Swiss pals round the Peak District, he did us proud and created some great memories for my Swiss buddies. Top bloke.:thumb
 
Thanks to Skygod (and another plug for Rudiemoto)

I had a go at the trail riding tuition courtesy of Gaz Skygod (off of here and Adventure Bike Warehouse fame) Friday before last. It was qualiteeeeee :D

As CuzGS says above, all very professional but very easy going and catered to the rider's abilities.

There is also a choice of steed for the day (within reason) within Gaz's current stable. My choice was a lowered DR650 or ickle SL230. I thought the DR may be a bit heavy and my trail riding is likely to be limited to lightweight 200 to 400 cc beasties, so opted for the ickle SL230. I tried the DR for size/weight when we got back at the end of the day and that would have been fine too (it's no heavier than the SL as far as I could tell), but the ickle Honda was a belter. I'm 5'8 and nine sixteenths (give or take:D) and could get both feet flat on the floor. It's like a wee sewing machine but with enough go to make reasonable progress on the road sections. Very forgiving on the trails as well, as Gaz says.

The day panned out roughly along the lines mentioned above by CuzGS. No pressure, very laid back. Gaz said I'd made enough progress in the morning that we may as well have a trail ride in the afternoon so after lunch we joined up maybe half a dozen different lanes, some in both directions. Great fun.

I definitely went up (and particularly down) some trails I would have wimped out of at the start of the day, but your confidence just builds as you go along. There was a narrow steep (to me anyway) downhill trail with trees and dry stone wall all around and nowhere to stop which we tackled in the wet in the afternoon that I was well chuffed to get down intact. I was kacking (sp?) my pants most of the way down, but in a good way and it was definitely a highlight of a cracking day. We only stopped as the light was fading, but we were out from 10am ish (may have been earlier if I hadn't got held up on the way there :blast) to after 4pm.

Bike hire, insurance, fuel, tuition, local knowledge, lunch all provided as part of the package. All for £135. Excellent stuff, and thanks again.

I didn't go for the service and trail ride combined thang as I didn't have a bike that needed servicing at the time, but Jono rudiemoto did a few jobs on my 1100GS before I sold it (supply & fit HIDs, fit light bar, full service, fit heated grips) and it was always a cracking service, so another big up to the Adventure Bike Warehouse posse :cool:

I am now on the lookout for a smallish trail bike preferably electric start (CRF230/TTR250/XR250(the leccy start one)/DR350 or similar) and plan to head out with Gaz again at the earliest opportunity. Much recommended :clap
 
Great thread this , and good to know as its not to far from me ... i,ll certainly be giving them my business ... oh dear ..that just sounds rude !!!!!!:beerjug:
 
Blimey the thread jumps to life again :)

Addendum, Ive got the bug again and now own that very Husky I trained on !!

Been out every spare moment and have taken more lessons from Gary, top top instruction and another free chance to abuse Jono, cant be missed, my god they were even giving away Klim gloves last week:augie

As an aside, dont sweat the weather, its rained every day Ive been and it just makes it even more fun, fantastic to get home after a good hosing down :D

Would someone buy my 690 SM please so I can get a KTM Enduro :)
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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