This is a great introduction to adventure riding if you want to become familiar with handling capable bikes in rugged terrain. This isn't a training manual to cover all the fundamentals of dirt riding because nothing can replace actual training. Adventure riding is demanding physically, and mentally, this book is a great walk-through for general riding skills on adventure bikes such as the GS, KTM, and Tenere.
The book walks you through how to choose a bike, price, range, load carrying ability, handling and weight characteristics to begin with. The book covers basic information about gear, tools, ride qualities, and has some resources to help you find a riding school for large bikes.
While some people have been riding since they were young, other's have not, and the book introduces fundamental riding skills such as riding position, how gear load changes the center of gravity in ride; there are pictures to demonstrate body positions for ascending, descending, braking, cornering, and sliding on gravel roads. The writing style of this book is informational, I am using this book as a reference for riding in different terrain, while some of the information is pretty obvious, there are riding tips covered for every type of terrain.
I myself, am not a dirt bike rider, but the fundamentals of dirt riding is emphasized in the book, and Simon Pavey covers riding in gravel, sand, dunes, rocks, mud, water crossing, and road riding with an emphasis on large bikes. The book is really easy to read, and it includes snippets of valuable advice to help you the information you want. For example, in the water crossing section, a small snippet guides to the pages for getting out of trouble.
70% of this book are picture demonstrations on the 1200 GS, KTM's, 20% of the pictures show riders in Iceland where some of the demonstrations take place due to it's geography. In “Braking on descents,” it has 3 picture stills (in color) narrated by bits of instructions as the picture zooms in on the front wheel to demonstrate front braking effects in gravel. 10% of other technical pictures show sequential demonstrations of body positioning at slow speed steering through terrain.
This book will probably cover what riders will learn in most top adventure riding schools, topics include mounting, dismounting, balance, clutch control, braking, speed control, tight cornering, hill recovery, ruts, and obstacles, and a few advanced riding techniques such as power slides, jumps, brake slide turns, and riding camber along hills. In the recovery section, detailed instructions are conveyed to the reader, and picking up the bike by the handle bar is demonstrated on a cambered hill. I like this book because it provides many useful advice from the field, things that I need to realize on trails such as spotting a line when approaching a muddy rut; and this book has a section covering that important information as well.
Other sections in this book highlight the importance of fitness, nutrition, navigation, personal safety, and has small sections on bribes and payments, communication, first aid, group riding dynamics, and awareness of cultural differences in different countries.
Overall, the book makes the effort to introduce riders who are new to adventure riding, covering essential riding techniques. Not only will the information in the book help build my skills as I ride; I use the book as a reference to make small improvements in the future, riding safely, and enjoying the ride.
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