Just had a great couple days doing Level 1...
Decided as I'm on my third GS I better find out what these things were designed to do, rather than just riding them on the road... And I'm very impressed...
Took a 1200 for the day as I have a GSA and thought the familiarity would help me relax into it.. Never really worried about the weight, and after having a quick go on the Serato and 800 GS I think I made the right decision... Being a big lump I matched the bike well..
Took me a long time to get used to the bike moving around so much, but eventually just gave in and stopped fighting my reactions and let the bike get on with it. Kept having "ohfuck" moments as we were shown a slope or obstacle to tackle, but really good step by step instruction, and demonstration, and suddenly I'm doing it! As soon as I relaxed it became so much easier, and even started to work out what I should be doing when it did start going wrong.
My main tip, though it might just be me, is to stop if its all going wrong and take a couple minutes to wind down... I didn't after getting it wrong up a simple slope and started panicing about keeping up.. A minute later on the next slope I come over the ridge too hot, narrowly avoid a tree and end up lying in a deep puddle cuddling my bike.. Thankfully it's been great weather today and I didn't get too cold.
Im so impressed how well the 1200 does offroad... It was always me messing up... If I just let the bike chug away everything worked.. And the bikes really took a battering.. The only mods are some different hand guards. No other protection, no crud guards, or metal blingy things.. If it falls over, just spin it round on the cylinder head, wack the bars over and pick it up...
Many thanks to Simon Pavey who was a great instructor.. I would recommend the course to anyone who has a GS.. Go find out what they designed the bike to do, and learn some skills in the process. Need to get some knobblies now so I can ruin my own bike..
Here's a few bad quality phone pics
All shiny and ready to go on day one
An awful lot of bikes
After I lay down in a puddle
Don't fancy the cleaning job
Decided as I'm on my third GS I better find out what these things were designed to do, rather than just riding them on the road... And I'm very impressed...
Took a 1200 for the day as I have a GSA and thought the familiarity would help me relax into it.. Never really worried about the weight, and after having a quick go on the Serato and 800 GS I think I made the right decision... Being a big lump I matched the bike well..
Took me a long time to get used to the bike moving around so much, but eventually just gave in and stopped fighting my reactions and let the bike get on with it. Kept having "ohfuck" moments as we were shown a slope or obstacle to tackle, but really good step by step instruction, and demonstration, and suddenly I'm doing it! As soon as I relaxed it became so much easier, and even started to work out what I should be doing when it did start going wrong.
My main tip, though it might just be me, is to stop if its all going wrong and take a couple minutes to wind down... I didn't after getting it wrong up a simple slope and started panicing about keeping up.. A minute later on the next slope I come over the ridge too hot, narrowly avoid a tree and end up lying in a deep puddle cuddling my bike.. Thankfully it's been great weather today and I didn't get too cold.
Im so impressed how well the 1200 does offroad... It was always me messing up... If I just let the bike chug away everything worked.. And the bikes really took a battering.. The only mods are some different hand guards. No other protection, no crud guards, or metal blingy things.. If it falls over, just spin it round on the cylinder head, wack the bars over and pick it up...
Many thanks to Simon Pavey who was a great instructor.. I would recommend the course to anyone who has a GS.. Go find out what they designed the bike to do, and learn some skills in the process. Need to get some knobblies now so I can ruin my own bike..
Here's a few bad quality phone pics
All shiny and ready to go on day one
An awful lot of bikes
After I lay down in a puddle
Don't fancy the cleaning job
I went last year n had SP as our instructor, a top bloke
