Jimmy Lewis Off-Road Riding School [Archive] - Motorcycle Philippines - The #1 Motoring Enthusiast Community in the Country

Rene Ybardolaza

June 27th, 2003, 12:00 PM

Jay,

The XR650R would have been the ideal bike for the school, but I felt very comfortable with the bike already after I learned how to stop it from killing me. I just bought the BMW Adventure at the time and wanted to get to know it better, so I chose the 600 pound dirt bike. I paid the price for its weight by dropping it a number of times. Another student who flew in from Ohio and rented a bike from Jimmy was very envious. He also has an Adventure, but riding it from Ohio to Las Vegas was far long for him. He was envious that I was getting very intimate with my Adventure while on the other hand, I was drooling over his rented XR400 because of how light it looks and how easy it is to pick when lying flat on the ground.

Jimmy was riding the same bike I have. Same color too. The big difference of course is the rider. Jimmy made riding the Adventure look like child's play. He can make that bike skid from left to right, like a form of dirt bike ballet, only this dirt bike looks like a black hippo.

Our first day was spent on drills, the fundamentals that if practiced often, will make the rider and the bike as one. We practiced locking the rear brake - accelerate the bike and slam the rear brake hard - to know what it feels like to skid the rear so there is no panic when it happens in the real world. We had the whole dry lake bed to ourselves and we were slamming that rear brake all over the place. Soon, I can make that rear brake slide sideways to the right, then to the left. Whee!! This is fun.

Then we went to slamming the front brake (only) to get to know what it feels like to skid the front wheel. To prolong the skid, Jimmy asked us to stay on the throttle, while keeping the front brake locked. Talking about boiling the brake fluid... By the way, if your locked front brake is about to fold underneath you, the quick escape is to release the front brake and all will be well. Do not do the same with the rear brake or it will highside. Just keep on the rear brake until you make a full stop.

Braking front and rear while standing up and putting most of your weight in the back, came next. This one takes some getting used to especially when both tires are locked, skidding across the tarmac. Don't forget to flop your butt down on the seat and your feet on the ground when the bike stops. One guy forgot to do this and found his bike at full stop while he is still standing on the pegs. A fraction of a second later, he was on the ground with the bike on top of him.

Throttle control is next. How well do you control that throttle, especially when negotiating rough terrain. We practiced this by doing full lock turns. That right, turn as tight as you can by locking the front forks. Right then left, tight circles. It means hanging your butt outside the turn and loading the outside peg as you try to control minute input of throttle to keep the bike moving. In addition, we did slow speed races. This teaches the rider how to manage the clutch and throttle. Standing up makes it really easy to balance the bike especially when its crawling as slow as you can.

For more fun stuff, we did wheelies. As an off-roader, you must be able to lift your front wheel to overcome obstacles. To show us how easy it is, Jimmy lofts the front wheel of the Adventure by going no faster than 10mph. I could wheelie my Honda easily, but the Adventure was just too heavy. Jimmy comes over and tells me its all in the technique, not so much on power. He hops on the back of my bike and takes over the controls while I hang on for dear life. He pops a half a dozen wheelies with the two of us looking up to the sky. Scary at first, but lots of fun later.

One of the guys on another GS popped a wheelie at 40mph and lost his grip. His bike landed hard and went into a wicked tankslapper. He flew over the handlebars and landed on his chest on the desert floor at 40mph. His bike continued on and gouged a foot deep trench on the lake floor with its cylinder head. I got to him first and found him unconscious. He turned out okay later, but his weekend was through. The GS was damaged, but ridable. These bikes are tough.

We did acceleration and braking runs and worked on techniques on how to ride sand, ruts, up and down hills and how to extract ourselves if lodged on a hill.

Jimmy and his wife Heather, treated us for dinner that night and told lots of stories about riding the Paris/Dakar race. This race is so competitive that many of the riders don't even bother to stop to make a pee break. They just do it on the fly. At night, the teams have to protect their equipment from the natives who make it a sport to steal whatever they can from these rich foreigners who are racing across their land.

The following day was spent on applying what we learned the day before, by riding all over the desert. Hills, open sand, rocks, dry lake beds, sand dunes, you name it. I've been to other riding schools before, but this one was the most demanding physically. Riding the XR650R would have been a lot easier and a lot more fun than the Adventure just because it is the right tool for the job. Taking the Adventure gave me the opportunity to get to know the bike and give it a few battle scars. After seeing what Jimmy can do with the darn thing, I know I can travel the world with the Adventure and not worry about coming back. I just have to keep practicing and working at the skills learned.