How to Ride Off-Road Motorcycles: Key Skills and Advanced Training for All Off-Road, Motocross, and Dual-Sport Riders

Yes, you’re a beginner like me this book is invaluable. If you want to do some off-road riding lots of lots of great information in there would definitely recommend.

I was looking up how much front brake you should be using when riding on dirt so I could help my brother in the right direction and I stumbled across a sample of this book. I was excited and knew I found something good when I realized the book was written by the founder of Motoventures, which is an incredible motorcycle school I visited a few years ago.I read a little further and had to purchase it because I was learning so much and was going riding the next day. I am almost positive I would have fallen on one tricky wet rock crossing if I hadn’t just read a tip about maintaining your momentum the night before.There is a lot of bad instruction out there on how to ride. This book is well written and is a great resource to get the right answers or for anyone who wants a good plan for teaching friends and family in a relatively safe manner.

I'm an experienced road rider, toured 45 of the 48, several Canadian Provinces... ridden big BMW highway machines at high speeds for long distance and logged thousands and thousands of miles. So getting on a little dirt bike for some off road fun after 35 years of being away from riding the in the dirt should be a cake walk, right?? Sure.... three hours later it looked like I'd been dragged behind that motorcycle rather than having tried to ride it, Yeah... I provided endless amusement for the experienced riders I was with... lucky to get away with no dental damage just some minor flesh wounds....Nothing to do but buy a dirt bike and start over from scratch with forgotten skills. This book starts with the very basics, recommends riding exercises to build skill with obstacles, balance, and fundamentals. This old dog is learning new tricks and this is the guidebook for that. My guess is that someone with a good grip on skills might use this more as a refresher, but for someone like myself on the climbing up to the bottom rung, it is great!!!!

This book provides a solid introduction to off-road riding in a clear, concise manner. I've been riding off-road for many years and we purchased this book for my teenage son who is just getting started riding. I was surprised to see the author put in print (in numerous places, in fact) the myth that standing up on the footpegs instead of sitting in the seat lowers the center of gravity because your weight is supported by the bike down low instead of up high. As an engineer I can assure you that this belief is entirely false and contradicts basic physics and mechanics. Changing how the bike and body are connected to each other does nothing to change the CG of the system. Other that that one glaring error, though, the book is very good and I recommend it to new off-road riders.

This is the quintessential book for riding dirt bikes. Gary's methods teach riders the core skills (many of which are counterintuitive) that translate into advanced techniques with practice. I started riding in my thirties, and as an occasional weekender have always felt a few steps behind in my understanding. This book breaks down all aspects of riding and, with practice, opens up all the mysteries that lead to more confidence and ultimately, smoother, faster more confident riding. My 11 yr old son and I have read through this book several times AND taken classes at the Washington State franchise of Motoventures, and had a blast. We will continue to use this curriculum and take more classes.

This gets a top rating for several reasons. First, it is built on solid, practical experience based on training thousands of riders to ride off-road or improve their off-road skills. Second, it is concise with easy to implement tricks and techniques that build skill and confidence. Third, it is as good for beginners as it is for super experienced experts. What ever dirt riding skills you want to develop, whether its doing wheelies, sliding, climbing hills or traversing whoops and sand, the author shows you precisely how to accomplish it - laying out the basic technique, showing some practice exercises and then how to evaluate how you're doing. This is just a great book!

I was expecting more advanced techniques and information that would be helpful for an advanced rider. Unfortunately most of this book was written for neophytes and people who had barely ever seen a motorcycle before. That's not to say that there weren't helpful tidbits for experienced riders but not enough there to justify the price of the book when compared to other choices like The Art of Trail Riding by Paul clipper.If you are new to motorcycling buy this book if you are an advanced rider buy Paul Clipper's book.

Good Stuff! Gary knows his stuff. I loved the book and then I went ahead and took the class on site in Anza, California. That was incredible! I've learned so much in 1 day (more than my entire life riding on my own). I have a 650 KLR and needed more confidence off-road. I'm a small guy (140 pounds) so that big KLR with 6 its gallons fuel tank can be challenging to keep up with. Now I feel like a champion. Up hill, down hill, softest sand you can think off. I go off-road almost every weekend now and I'm not afraid of anything anymore and I still haven't dropped that bike on the ground yet! This is the best investment any Rider should make (whether you go off-road or not). I sent all my friends to it and I will send my kids this summer.

Nothing.

New to Adventure riding, well motorcycle riding period. Great pictures, explanation, everything. Highly recommend. Probably good for not so new as well. It will be interesting how much faster I progress versus the "I've been riding since I was a kid." Time and experience will tell.I hope I am discipline enough to constantly go back to reviewing and learning more.

Lot of text but quite meaningless - just beats about the bush without really talking about what the book is supposed to. A lot images but the descriptive text is not relevant.I was quite disappointed.

Overall a great and informative book to read. Easily setout and VERY informative

The book is truly unique in the sence that it gives you detailed knoweldge that is normally saved for pricey in-person courses, and in my view, it is exactly those who are not afraid to openly share that knowledge in writing are the best in-person instructior.Dear Mr. LaPlante, my hat off to you on behalf of those of us who decided to try offroad when well-past the competition-prospects age, and if I was not on a different continent, I would have been one of your in-person students by now. Bought two copies of the book: one hard copy and one for my Kindle, and it is by far the best money I have spent on any information on the subject.