I have to say, when we started this process I was hoping I could create videos for y’all to enjoy. That’s proving to be very tough, but I don’t want to keep delaying the story, so let’s ignore the videos for now and just get right into the goodness. Part 3 checks in after we bought our bikes – now it’s time to ride.
Nathan and I figured it would be best to get some help/advice for our first ride, and we were lucky to get two volunteers to help us out. Dennis from Beach Moto and Glen Irani both came to help us on our first ride, and it was fantastic.
The original plan was to go to Gorman, though our sages suggested Rowher instead so we could get some practice with hill climbs. Before that day, I had only ridden a dirt bike once before, and it did not go well:
My confidence was not high as we set out. It didn’t help that Dennis had no mercy on us beginners – he didn’t let us stay in the wide open flat areas and instead pushed us to immediately tackle hard trails. I have to say that it instantly changed my perspective on riding in the dirt, and that having Dennis around accelerated my development by months, simply by not letting me be as timid as usual.
Unfortunately, Nathan had a bit of bike trouble (mainly a dead battery) that gave him some fits. But in general, we had success with basic trails and hillclimbs, though there were still plenty of drops:
With all that said, by the end of the morning I was able to get up to the top of Rowher. Seeing the lack of momentum and my choice of lines now is a bit amusing, but hey – it was my first day!
It was such a fun first day, thanks to Glen and Dennis, and it led to an almost-weekly routine for Nathan and I:
Typically we’d go to Gorman and explore the variety of terrain, find weird things like abandoned side by sides…
…and then fall some more:
Don’t worry, there were also brief moments of competence, though that’s less entertaining to watch:
Hooray for good protective gear. After a few weeks of this we decided that the next step was to get some more formal instruction. Until next time…
Need a reminder of what’s happened so far? Go back to Part 2.
Clearly, we needed some more help. We decided to start taking some classes – first was Socal Supermoto for Part 4.