With more and more off road riding and trips to Baja it was time to stop relying on my more experienced friends for advice and get some professional help. So who better than Jimmy Lewis, right!? There are a few schools out there that teach skills on the big ADV bikes but Jimmy takes everything to another level. Just being around him makes you feel more confident in your 800-1200cc dirt bike.
So I packed up my gear and headed out to the Nevada desert. As I rolled up I noticed I was one of the only ones on a big big bike. A lot of new F800's and smaller bikes. My struggle with the GSA 1150 is sand and cornering through loose gravel. I'm not saying that I can't ride it, I just don't ride it with a ton of confidence. With that said I wasn't sure how much I'd be holding up the group in these sections.
Jimmy rolled out his GSA1200 and the pressure started to let off a bit. He makes that bike roll around like any other and seems like size isn't an issue. It's all about balance and using the bikes controls correctly. We spent quite a bit of time just working on the basics. By having the right basic tools everything else comes so much easier. Tight turns, fast stops, etc. Once broken down we had the right tools for the job. You could see the class as a whole getting more and more comfortable on their bikes.
A big help was being able to practice over and over again so you could not just do the drill once correctly but over and over again so it became hard wired into your riding. If anything happened, dropped bike, etc, help was right there and usually the whole class would come over to learn how to deal with the issue properly. Steep grades either going up or going down are not so much of an issue any more. It's incredible what a huge GSA can go up.
The second day was a day of sand, rock and navigation. Perfect! Not only were we in sand, Jimmy, Heather and crew took us out to a huge sand dune. I thought to myself, "ok, how many times am I going to get stuck and frustrated?" I remembered what Jimmy taught us and I couldn't believe that this elephant of a bike was going over the sand the way it was. Sure I had some bobbles and dropped it but the level of comfort I had was amazing. It was a small sand playground!
From there we rolled up into the local mountains where the roads/trails were pretty rocky but nothing too gnarly and after being in the sand we all zipped along nice and relaxed, smiling the whole way.
At the end of the second day I was less beat up than the day before even though we had ridden more. Funny how skills and confidence can help! There is just too much to put into a little trip report so all I can say is if even if you are a great rider, Jimmy can make you better. Thanks Jimmy and Heather, the boys and I are already planning another trip to Baja now
