How to gain confidence?

Hi King Rat,

Our local (Wiltshire) TRF group organises runs especially for larger bikes and also for beginners or those who just want an easier time of things. If you join the TRF and put Wiltshire as one of your groups you'd be welcome to join one of the gentle runs that my partner leads.

We also have an annual TRF weekend event 'The Wessex Wanderer' that has 'gentle and scenic' options.

Nothing much going on at the moment though for obvious reasons.

I would also suggest that a smaller bike like a Serow would be good to start out with.

Kind regards,

Ian.
 
My advice would be to ignore all advice you read on the internet and book yourself in on some off-road training days.

There is absolutely nothing that compares to on the job training by people who can.

They aren't that cheap but you can learn more in a day with proper guidance than a year of messing around teaching yourself bad habits.

And start off on a smaller, light bike and work your way up.
 
Well, my advise would be to ignore advise :D but go and ride the bike more ;)

The average normal trail ride for off roaders is around 6 hours in the saddle for days weeks and years.
 
Fear of falling off when off road is a bad place to start.
 
My advice would be to ignore all advice you read on the internet and book yourself in on some off-road training days.

There is absolutely nothing that compares to on the job training by people who can.

They aren't that cheap but you can learn more in a day with proper guidance than a year of messing around teaching yourself bad habits.

And start off on a smaller, light bike and work your way up.

Sorry, not an option. I have what I have.

I would love to be able to afford to go on an off road learning experience - they are way, way out of my price range, sorry. These people probably spend more on lunch than I could afford for the entire day.
 
TRF??

Tossers require Friends?

I'll hazard a guess that it's something to do with trial riding/ green laneing ??


Wankers ;), you meet them everywhere.

I started out on an old TY50, and my mate on an XL125, we cut our teeth on an old army range that was open to the public at varying times

One thing i am surprised at, is you using a brand new or new bike to start out on . The fear of dropping and cost is holding you back -

Buy a shitter that if you drop / crash, the repair costs are minimal ,

Once you drop it and take of a few levers , bent pedals etc, you wont worry any more, and you confidence will grow

Back to the wankers - one bloke in our group ATGNI - he had a Gasgas or something , bought new by daddy, as he ponced round on weekend in some amateur display group.

So one weekend were working through some trenches, dropping in from the top and using features in the trench to jump out -

Anyway No Idea, decides he can jump the trench and decides to show us - except he didn't, all he did was drop on top of me as i was going through the trench.

Net result he had a busted lever and mirror -

he got right arsey because he wanted me to pay fro the busted mirror & lever - his expectation was as he has the newer bike, it was correct etiquette that the lesser bike

rider paid as they had the older / smaller bike lol .... he got told to FRO.

He never came back after that :)


My ability ran out with sticking your foot out going round corners .... still cant see the logic to this day of sticking your foot onto the deck at 30 + and using it as a support..

so thats where i stopped .

Good luck i hope you find a better group
 
Nothing like making life difficult for yourself! It is where I am at, what can I do about it?

Find a suitable lane, stick in 4th and pin the throttle

You will either love it and stay on


.....or fall off & it’ll hurt
 
TRF??

Tossers require Friends?

I'll hazard a guess that it's something to do with trial riding/ green laneing ??


Wankers ;), you meet them everywhere.

I started out on an old TY50, and my mate on an XL125, we cut our teeth on an old army range that was open to the public at varying times

One thing i am surprised at, is you using a brand new or new bike to start out on . The fear of dropping and cost is holding you back -

Buy a shitter that if you drop / crash, the repair costs are minimal ,

Once you drop it and take of a few levers , bent pedals etc, you wont worry any more, and you confidence will grow

Back to the wankers - one bloke in our group ATGNI - he had a Gasgas or something , bought new by daddy, as he ponced round on weekend in some amateur display group.

So one weekend were working through some trenches, dropping in from the top and using features in the trench to jump out -

Anyway No Idea, decides he can jump the trench and decides to show us - except he didn't, all he did was drop on top of me as i was going through the trench.

Net result he had a busted lever and mirror -

he got right arsey because he wanted me to pay fro the busted mirror & lever - his expectation was as he has the newer bike, it was correct etiquette that the lesser bike

rider paid as they had the older / smaller bike lol .... he got told to FRO.

He never came back after that :)


My ability ran out with sticking your foot out going round corners .... still cant see the logic to this day of sticking your foot onto the deck at 30 + and using it as a support..

so thats where i stopped .

Good luck i hope you find a better group

My bike is a tatty old insurance write off that I bought and did work on... it is still tatty though. I still can't afford to drop it.

My limit is a rough farm drive, that is my idea of off road at the moment. We have a track that joins one farm to the other, over the hill (hill in lowland Derbyshire terms, not Cumbria terms!) more of a gentle gradient slope really. It is muddy though and I just freeze if the bike slides because I know I can't pick it up if I go down. I don't have the strength - it is already a lightweight single. I know I am limited, I can't put an empty coffee mug up on the shelf with my right hand now - it won't lift it. Left is fine.

I see videos of people with the back sliding around and the wheel spinning.... same as Gary Rothwell et al doing their stunts. Worked with them for years but I have no idea how you keep balanced with that going on. I just want to be able to ride down tracks to fishing spots and the like without falling off and breaking my rods before I even get there. Or go for sightseeing rides with camera gear on the bike - so same deal. I can't get past that fear when the bike so much as moves a bit.
 
Find a suitable lane, stick in 4th and pin the throttle

You will either love it and stay on


.....or fall off & it’ll hurt

I was after help, I don't need ridicule. I already know I am useless and stupid. That is why I asked for help.
 
I was after help, I don't need ridicule. I already know I am useless and stupid. That is why I asked for help.

Then you're question on how to gain confidence is probably best asked elsewhere ;)
 
OK - I know when I am not wanted.

Woe is me.
Have you been trying out the suggestions to help with your specific question? I hope so and let us know how it's going after lots of practice :)
 
That is very useful, I am a little down on what they recommend for the road. 30 and 32 I think, instead of 33 and 36. They don't half feel strange on the road, wanting to go straight on at every bend... and the bike wants to stand up all the time too. I am fighting it to go round a roundabout, so I am pottering about even more than usual. I am also conscious that I think these tyres might disappear much faster than normal tyres.

Which part of the Peaks do you go to? There is a cafe somewhere on a road that joins two main roads. I went to it once doing a photoshoot of one of the Trucks (a new Volvo model) Alan someoneorother.. dark green livery. But I have never been able to find it again - big car park outside and I think there was a truck wash there too.

I doubt it would be yondermans the guy at the truck wash is ERF and Foden; and still is. Now the bulk Hauliers on the right hand side as you go into Tideswell ; i think he's a Volvo man; or perhaps the Haulier on the way to Grindleford; he has a few Volvos. That's just a few i can think of at the mo.:beerjug:
 
You may find that difficult. To learn, you have to "experience" the situation. I think the best advice I can give is to get some training, using their bikes, or buy a cheap bike that you don't care about and won't mind dropping.
Mark


Training !!!

I have never ski'd before. I dont know how to do it. if I pitched up on the slopes, it would be utterly ridiculous to think that I could just start skiing like everybody else. I'd break my leg in minutes :D

Its no different on an off road bike. Have a professional teach you from scratch. Body weight, how you stand, some exercises and drills, braking exercises ... etc etc.

I promise you this is the answer! Asking on a forum for tips and tricks is not the answer (no disrespect to all the tips given .... :D ).
 
Woe is me.
Have you been trying out the suggestions to help with your specific question? I hope so and let us know how it's going after lots of practice :)

Not yet, because I haven't been out of the door since. One of the requests was how to find lanes you can ride without having your bike crushed.
 
I doubt it would be yondermans the guy at the truck wash is ERF and Foden; and still is. Now the bulk Hauliers on the right hand side as you go into Tideswell ; i think he's a Volvo man; or perhaps the Haulier on the way to Grindleford; he has a few Volvos. That's just a few i can think of at the mo.:beerjug:

Alan..... ???
 
Training !!!

I have never ski'd before. I dont know how to do it. if I pitched up on the slopes, it would be utterly ridiculous to think that I could just start skiing like everybody else. I'd break my leg in minutes :D

Its no different on an off road bike. Have a professional teach you from scratch. Body weight, how you stand, some exercises and drills, braking exercises ... etc etc.

I promise you this is the answer! Asking on a forum for tips and tricks is not the answer (no disrespect to all the tips given .... :D ).

I know what you are saying, but they are so expensive. Totally out of my price range.
 
Not yet, because I haven't been out of the door since. One of the requests was how to find lanes you can ride without having your bike crushed.

Well you were given the answer with joining the TRF, you claim when you tried to join they told you they didn't want your sort........hmmmm, if I was impolite I'd say your talking bollox :D perhaps try finding all the reasons you CAN achieve something instead of why you can't.:beerjug:
 
King Rat, I think you need to alter your way of approaching this a tad.
You say you can’t afford any training so that only leaves stuff like the TRF, which you say don’t want you.
I’m crap off-road as don’t do much, but I do know that much of it is in the mind.
When I used to have a KTM EXC some years back I went with a mate to Brittany for a few days and rode stuff,including deep mud that I never thought I could ride in.Much of it involved sitting back and keeping the power on,which seemed quite alien initially.
But I was doing it on a bike that I wasn’t bothered about dropping.Doing the same on a bike that was too expensive to drop would have caused me to me much more tense and I probably would have dropped it.
If you can’t afford to drop your bike,can’t afford any training and may just possibly be a ‘glass half empty’ kind of guy then I’m not sure what else to say....sorry.But I do know that much of it is in the mind ...
 


Back
Top Bottom