3 top myths for riding offroad on an ADV bike 

Perhaps the over thinking is that folk confuse COM and COG, and that this is further complicated when talking about singular vs coupled objects. Even further complicated by the differing levels of articulation between two objects (rider vs bike) and the rider’s ability to continuously and dynamically adjust their unique COG/balance during the ride - whether seated or standing

@@mattbgbr wait till you tell an already confused rider that the center of mass can in some instances be located outside the physical body, and watch their mind explode.

Better to just say, 'center of mass,' and avoid confusion.

It's like people don't even grasp the very basic laws of physics. How can you raise yourself up and LOWER the CG. It's the exact opposite that happens. Unless by some dark magic your density changes and your feet turn to lead or something xD I've never ridden offroad but I immediately thought that standing up position was to dampen the impacts of rough roads on your body. Hell on some bad roads I'll do it briefly and let the bike move under me. What do they even teach in school ?

i think your daughter should stick with mechanical engineering... look into why motogp riders stand their weight fully on their pegs to keep their front wheel down from wheelying... fact!... consider a long pendulum vs short pendulum & youll understand what standing up loose coupled, does... youre bodies mass center line of force channels directly through the foot peg centerline of force... standing isnt a ridgid action

Well, not completely true. Reason for offroad tires being more narrow is to change the shape of that contact patch to be more elongated to cut trough sand, mud, etc. but you still need certain amount of contact area to support the weight of the bike and have traction. It is allways a game of compromise with other requirements of different surfaces and different machines.

And that's why also the old 1920 vehicles have narrow and tall tires and wheels, in that times roads were bad and they needed like you say cut to the surface below to get traction!

In desert I have hard time to find solid ground under the sand and deflating tyres work just fine.

It's about traction. Anyone that rides technical off road fast knows this. Most adventure riders don't ride fast or hard enough to find the limits so airing down is unnecessary. If you ride extreme terrain on these big bikes as I do occasionally you find airing down becomes necessary. I also run narrow stronger dirt bike rims and full knobby tires. But I agree, running my 50/50 tires on mild trails I don't find the need to air down.

@@endurofly Same with the sandy field tracks in my place. There is no hard ground under the sand. Sometimes a bit harder sand with grass in the middle but with less grass driving in the middle will make your front wheel slide off to the side or better said the sand under your tire will collapse and with catching the heavy bike from falling you might slide off from the other side right away. For normal gravel or dirt tracks you dont need to lower tire pressure but then you get a stretch of half a mile bottomless sand...

Complete agree. So much internet content isn’t consumable due to background music.

Yes, I am also tiered of background music. It makes it so much harder to concentrate on what the video is about. Many even have the music so load that it is hard to hear what they are saying. Get so tired when watching shit like that.

Absolutely. However, you still need to remain aware that thje front is much more likely to tuck under when it hits a large obstacle on a descent. I tend to try to let off the front a little just before I hit a root or rock as that tends to lift the front slightly. Also worth bearing in mind is that, with the front brake on, you're also shortening the wheelbase which also makes the bike more reactive/less stable. Like any of these things, there's no substitute for experience, so keep practicing.

@@davemarshall9322 Scary stupid steep! It's ALL about maintaining a controllable speed. Crawl down at 1 mph under complete control using both brakes, and it's easy. Let it get away from you, and you're in trouble.

You can go down a very steep hill slower than walking speed, in complete control, using a single finger on the front brake. Occasionally a student will argue, and I let them try it using the rear brake. Then I walk down and help them pick up the bike, and ask them to try it with the front brake on the next attempt...

Always air down on rough terrain, but never as low as 10psi, 25-29psi is fine. It gives more grip and a smoother ride. Stand up when it's needed. Heaps of front brake!!

Thanks for giving back as an instructor.

Seems to. much for such a little suspension travel.

I agree with doing something with Ryan after the north border opens up

Also I had no idea you were supposed to be scared going over metal bridges....

Only air down when the bike is fitted with tyre clamps going through the rim

I’ve aired down on my ADV bike and found it to be quite effective on forest service roads. However I don’t air it down anywhere near close to my dirt bike PSI. I’ve gone from about 40 PSI for street to around 25 for off pavement. It seems to handle better for me. But most often I’m too lazy to bother with it and just take a bit more care when I ride on lose gravel since I’m going to end up on pavement sooner or later.

@@user-vf3gf4xq3v Exactly!

@@user-vf3gf4xq3v I'm going to have to agree with you on this one. On my ADV bike I normally run between 32-36 on the street for best handling but anything offroad at that pressure has me fighting crashing constantly. Mainly the front end washing out on me. I will air down to somewhere between 20-25 psi (After years of testing different pressures on various offroad conditions, 22-23 is my preference) and the front end washing out instantly goes away. It is an incredibly noticeable difference. This is using TKC80 tires riding moderately to aggressively on anything from gravel to singletrack dirtbike trails on my 2016 Aprilia Caponord Rally. On my 2-stroke dirtbike I normally run about 16 psi but that varies based on the terrain of the area I'm riding also.

@@dracer35 I use Heidenau K60 scout and had them originally with 36 and 42 psi with full load. Me 130kg plus luggage. I found it hard and uncomfortable. Even jumping from block to block in the front in turns. Reduced it to 30 and 36 psi and find it much smoother. On gravel its good but for sand i think it is still too much. I will try with lower pressure on sand. Maybe 25 and 32 ps (without luggage). I will see. The sidewalls of the Heidenau seem to be quite strong.

Airing down definitely helps. Riding at street 25 psi, my dual sport cannot climb anything in the terrain I ride in. At 12-16psi it makes all the difference in the world, easily climbs and takes bumps much better.

Absolutely true

Without a doubt

Yeah. That's what he said. In the video. Up there ☝️☝️

I've been riding motorcycles for years, but I've been riding wave runners/jet skis even longer. The very first thing I learned was to stand up off the seat when the water got choppy. Otherwise it was going to wreck my spine, hurt my butt, and possibly send me flying off the vehicle. Using the legs as shock absorbers and "floating" saved me a lot of pain and made rides more enjoyable.

Delectable is such a creepy word.

Yep, what you said

Thanks Nick...

I was going to ask what Air Compressor that is ?? Do you know if that is in a previous video ?? Or maybe it’s a Family Heirloom 😉. Either way…. Small and light. I need it

I would also like to know about the compressor. Which model is it?

It's a Motopresser Pocket Pump, it's sold that way with a battery connector.

But even when sitting, you should still be moving body weight from foot to foot and even moving your seated position backward and forward depending on conditions. This then allows you to spend more time resting in the seated position, ready to stand for the trickier stuff Some of the very, very best riders I've known rarely stood at all, they'd only do it when things got very rough. An awful lot can be done by moving around on the bike and still staying seated. That DOES come with experience though, so newbies need to get the basics right and then adapt with experience.

I think I need to do an unpaved trailbraking lesson.

You've never had a conversation with me, then. I've never aired down, even on the 600 ex-factory Enduro that I have, unless grip was going to be super slippery As for only using the back brake; literally the first time I off roaded I was disabused of that idiotic notion. Nor would I have ever thought that standing would lower the CoG. I'm a scientist, so tend to be very cautious when using these types of description. The scientific explanation for standing up is that you're de-coupling yourself from the bike, which is what Bret said in non-scientific language. normally, de-coupling a part from an already de-coupled (suspended) object can lead to all sorts of problems with waves intersecting and can actually MULTIPLY the forces as well as cancelling them out. This is why it's not a good idea to have spring mounted mirrors, for example. At some speeds they may work fine, but at others they'll be not only bad, but possibly even dangerous. The exception to this ule of not adding a spring on top of a spring is when the upper spring is able to react to the lower one. In this case, your limbs are springs, but your brain makes those springs reactive, you can adjust and even prepare for big shocks. And all of Bret's advice is absolutely solid. However, I would say that standing all the time is not a good idea (I believe Bret has already posted on this subject - certainly others have) standing should be reserved for the trickier parts of trails, while you can sit down on the smoother parts that have little to trouble you. You can often even use the traits of the trail to reduce the fatigue of standing up, just let the first bump in a trickier section lift you onto your feet. One thing I don't think is given anywhere near enough attention is body placement. Even when seated, it is possible to significantly affect the behaviour of the bike just by sitting further over the tank or more towards the tail. But that'll have to be for another time. Oh, ajnd the last thing he says, "Keep smiling" is very valuable advice.

If people get flats from airing down they are too low for the given terrain... airing down really low for gravel roads all day might be fine, but take too low a pressure into the rocky and rooted terrain and you will be fixing pinch flats all day and banging up front rims.