The 9th of April 1998 I went to the Off Road Beginners Course - my birthday present from Karin. After 1 hour and 11 minutes on a boring Thursday morning motorway I got to the driving school of Henk Seppenwoolde former off road champion. Henk organises one day off road courses on behalf of the KNMV - the Dutch motorriders association. Course take place only with small groups, our group consisted of four. Two of us had absolutely no experience on loose ground, me and an other (later it came out that he already practised 900 km on his CR 500) had smelled dirt before.
Morning
After the usual coffee to meet one another ant to become
somewhat warmer we saw some slides how off road biking had and had
not to be done.
On the road nothing happens when you ride with loose hands. In the terrain you'll just hit a stone or something and lie with your face in the sand. How you sit in the saddle is also important. When riding away and accelerating lean forward so the front wheel keeps in touch with earth - when braking lean backward to enlarge pressure on the rear wheel. Everything has to be done with bend arms and sitting close to the tank. The slides with curve drifting OTR bikes were spectacular. Henk promised we could do that too within one and a half hour. He kept his promise!
Change of clothes: leg protection, cross pants, boots, body guard,
cross jacket, helmet and goggles. Just do not put on many clothes.
Within a few moments you'll sweat like hell - from working not of
fear (that makes other spots feel wet).
Outside we got our bikes: Honda XR600R with some 44 hp and 130 kg. I
got my first lesson in kickstarting - it's easy.Riding on knobbles
was something to get used to. It seems a little unstable but soon
I'll got used to it and rounded corners fast even on asphalt.
On to the first special: accelerating and braking on loose ground. On a sandy road (they have plenty of these in the east of the Netherlands) full throttle and first gear take off. Almost sitting on the tank and leaning forward is obligatory. On grass grip is remarkably better! On the way back we had to demonstrate a correct but firm braking and lean back. When one of the wheels blocked that is not really a problem - you even can hold the rear wheel fixed until you stand still. On to the next special. On the roads we had to give signs with our hands to give direction and look over our shoulders for traffic behind us - indicators and mirrors were absent. Before take off we got...
Later that day the other riders found out that I fully understood the importance of this :-)
Special number 2 was riding an eight shape on loose ground. It seemed that I was the only one that had to practice this exercise for my riding permit - the others didn't know the eight shape. The first few eights with proper looking, tilting the bike with my knees clung to the tank. When the track becomes more clear: stick out the inner leg and let the rear wheel spin. This is Cool! Important when sticking out a leg in a curve is to sit in front position, both knees to the tank and the leg as far forward as possible but never real stretched out. The benefit of sticking a leg out in the curve is to gain more self confidence. The difference in weight distribution is of less importance.
After some sandy roads and liaisons we did our third special: riding a curve with high speed. Henk demonstrated how it worked and then it was our turn. When taking riding lessons for my motorcycle permit I learned that speed, gear and slight accelerating engine should be ready before going into a bend. After some megametres on the asphalt you learn to follow these rules less strict. Off road the lessons should be remembered again. All should be ready before the curve and in the curve you must accelerate. If you got a clear view of where your bike will end up at the end of the curve it is possible to put on much more throttle and take the bend drifting. When doing this you should always try to end up on the high side of the bend. When something goes wrong underway you don't end in the ditch at the low end. After a few times practice all course members managed to ride the curves at rather high speed.
Now we had some basic enduro riding skills that we could try and improve on a circuit of about two kilometres. A couple of right angles, slight left bend followed by a more sharp one to the right, some grass and all sorts of other things to ride.
Afternoon
After a good lunch and some motorbike talks it was time to
do some trial. Because my XR600 didn't want to start at all I got a
XR250R. When riding trial this was an advantage. On a nearby motor
cross track several things were tried out: square over the course,
over a steep hill, deep potholes and a mudbath. Nice exercise was
changing direction halfway down a slope. By strong braking the rear
wheel when riding downward the wheel fixates and glides downward.
This way you get the bike diagonal to downward and you are able to
ride away - even without putting a foot to the ground. Further we did
some jumps and rode the curves in motor cross style. After a short
break we started our enduro-ride.
At high speed crossing sandy roads and small tracks through the forest on the Holterberg. Some parts were straight others went jumping upward over tree roots and of course through the deepest parts of muddy potholes. One of the dives even put a bucket of water into my own helmet. It was a pleasure to see that my pursuiters were much more dirtier :-) The small fuel tank of the 250 had to be put on reserve (the 600 had a bigger than standard tank), but I found the fuel tap short after the bike went dead... One kick and the show went on.
At the end of our ride we climbed a nice high and muddy
pile of sand. First a few times downward and then upward. It is
important to look far away to where you are going. Those who look at
the beginning of the slope never reaches the top. Before riding
upward the bike must have plenty of speed which means that you have
to put on throttle in advance. Downward and leaning backward the bike
can brake on the engine compression or with pulled clutch. On a long
slope downward I blocked my rear wheel easier than I expected and
found myself diagonal to the slope.
Very satisfied and a bit tired we arrived at the driving school of Henk. The young motor crossers that are coached by Henk cleaned our bikes. With this marvellous experience I rode home. The last bends I couldn't resist sticking my leg out...
The week I rode this course newspapers told that the sandy roads we had all the fun are to be closed for all traffic. I surely hope this superb course can go on despite of the exaggerated eco-lobby.
On the 21st of march 1998 an article on the MenK HomePage was published by a regional newspaper. Once a week the story behind a personal homepage on the internet is published. The journalist was interested in how I came to make a homepage - the combination of two of my hobbies: motorbiking and making beautiful things on my Macintosh. Somehow people that don't use the internet for a long time have the idea that time spent on the net and making things for it is thrown away. Well, surely in my case that is not true. Doing nice things and meeting people with alike interests is always fun and worth spending time.
The interviewer noticed that personal information is almost or
totally absent on my homepage. I told him that I found that of no
importance at all, being a motorcycle enthusiast is most important to
me. These things have (unfortunately) nothing to do with my ongoing
changes in what I do for a living. My reason for putting all these
pages on the net is that I want to share my experiences with other
people. At first the pages - MenK stands for Meine and Karin -
contained a few photos taken on our first trip to Spain and how much
fuel we used. A friend of mine asked for the real adventure we had
and wasn't much interested in how log I could do with this or that
tyre.
The long story about the BMW F650 is more or less to promote this
wonderful kind of motorbike. In the Netherlands the Funduro is mostly
aimed at novice riders and women - especially when they are also
short of length. In my view this is totally absurd. The F650 is a
very good companion on short and long trips through the world.