Wellington and Wairarapa Training Day?

Hi all been a few people showing interest thank you if you want to txt me feel free 021 711 887 cheers Dave

Cool i float a few dates and let’s see what will happen.

Basic plan

Start off at my place out side Greytown with some slow speed handling stuff, not wanting to teach people to suck eggs but get the basic stuff right and it goes along way to making your riding enjoyable and safe. Depending what the group want i might run a few training trips from basic, intermediate to full on big bike fun stuff thank you to all for showing an interest next thing let’s make it happen

Hi all thank you for all the Wellington and Wairarapa
riders for showing interest in the training/fun day given the response, i think it’s worth jacking some dates up to see who is available. The day will be about having some fun and hopefully learning from each other as i dare say there will be a broad
range of experience. Any idea about what you would like to achieve from the day txt me 021 711 887. For a starter Basic handling technics such as slow speed manoeuvres, getting on and off the bike whilst in motion, small hill climbs and descents, riding over technical terrain, picking your bike up on tricky terrain. once we have done that move onto and area, short ride from my place, that will allow various styles of riding, from gravel, sand, river bed, water crossings, bank descent and climbs, to farm tracks, rutted tracks to full on bog holes/ bush tracks, if you wish to have a go at them. Some of the riverbed stuff can be easy to hard depending what you are comfortable with some snaps of the various riding terrain see the facebook page

Hi all been a large number of keen adventure riders respond, given the feedback i think it may pay to do two separate days. Reason why, various wants and needs, therefore by splitting into two group it should be an enjoyable day for all.

For the bikes with road based tyres best we keep of the farm type tracks as you will be spending more time picking your bike up than riding it, we can still do the basic handling at my place albeit it will be on grass. From there we can focus on river bed, gravel roads and some sandy areas, it will still be challenging. Given that it will be a training day there will be a lot of repeat drills, but that is how we learn.

2nd Training day this will be for the bikes with a good rubber to tackle the slippery stuff, we will still start at my place however once the basic handling has been covered i ramp it up, trust me some might find the paddock test enough Lol. After that i can take the riders to a place with several tracks that range from good practice river bed riding, water crossings to full on technical stuff for the bigger bikes, parts of the track will be challenging, however that’s how we learn. i float some days within the next few days cheers Dave

Parts of it will be fine with the TCK 70 on, however the farm track stuff you will struggle with those tyres. having said that you can bypass those circuits, all depends what you want from the day. If you are happy with the riverbed practice, with sand and gravel you will be fine

Hi all we have the 15 July set aside for the training day.

overview of the day

Mainly for the bigger adventure bikes, Start at my place Greytown.

Slow speed control and approaching obstacles, from ruts, small banks, small climbs, water/creek crossings. this will take about 2 hours plenty of practice. You will be amazed what you might learn

After a tea or coffee head to an area that will have the following. Gravel, riverbed, stones and sand, water crossings with banks. For the more advanced riders rutted tracks and bog holes including steep climbs.

I all ready have three keen riders therefore two more at most. i will post this on facebook with some photos and a short video clip of the general area Cheers Dave

Hi all we have seven keen riders, pls can you e mail me on david.billington@xtra.co.nz i send you all the plan for the day cheers Dave

Hi All, apologies to all that have e mailed me that have not made the 15 July training day. It is at capacity.
I have sent e mails to all and the ones in first have the 15 July slot.

If the day goes well and the riders think there is value in the day, I will run another one and depending on the feedback possibly a more advanced one.

The up and coming training day, will be a challenge for the biker bikes, however it will be a safe environment to learn in and more importantly fun.

I try to take a heap of photos, hopefully those on the training day will too, and draft a report for this site and the Facebook site.

Thanks to all the Adventure Riding NZ members for showing such a great interest.

Thanks

Dave

The training day went well, the weather was first class, The ground was still soaking and the paddock work presented a few challenges as wet grass and mud always does regardless of tyres. The creek crossings went well, well apart from my epic dump in it. As it turned out it covered one of our goals for the day bike recovery in an awkward place Lol.
After a few hours of paddock work we headed to a local play area, which allowed plenty of practice on the river bed and water crossings. Amongst many other training items Neil Stodart did a great job of demonstrating a failed hill climb and recovery

Every rider brought a different skill and sharing the skills helped us all to learning something from each other. Thanks to Michael Hardy, Neil, Steve, Chris, Philip, and Mark for making the effort. A big hats off for giving it a go on the big bush pigs beyond the gravel roads. Apologies photos not the best, however i am sure the team will post a few more including the creek dump. Photos and hopefully extra video footage on the Facebook site

Plan to run another soon so keep your eye out also keep an eye on the facebook page easier to out the photos up there, plenty on the Sunday event

Wairarapa Beyond the Gravel Roads.

The training day was a success, great team of riders and the first time i had met them. Everyone slotted into the day well plus engaged with all the activities. It is not easy riding the bigger adventure bikes off the tar and gravel. It take practice, practice and more practice. During the practice sessions there were a few tumbles, another learning you will drop your bike at some stage if you are expanding your adventure bike horizons.

The team on the training day did a great job, pushing their limits outside their usual comfort zone and the reality of it is that is how we learn.

Here is the catch, once we have started to learn new skills they are perishable skills !! You need to get out and practice them. To do that in itself is a discipline as you need to put aside valuable weekend riding time for practice, not an easy balance. Do i head out with my mates for a day’s ride or do i find a quite area and spend 2 hours horning my new learnt skills? For me practice your new learnt skill because those skills will start to open up a whole new horizon of adventure riding in NZ. I plan to do a bit of polishing on the days training using the same team that attended the first pilot day, this will allow greater ideas from the team so the next time we jack a day up it will add some tangible training to the new riders who attend.

Any way enough waffle from me i posted a great video clip on FaceBook taken by Mark on the Wairarapa training day, as you will see the team was Beyond the Gravel.

https://youtu.be/320kpLQ0ii8

If you can muster enough interest you could always head down here for a long weekend

Wairarapa beyond the Gravel intermediate training

The basic day went well i have had a number of adventure rides contact me asking if i can run something above the basic course. Even a group from Auckland is considering a weekend. Any way back to the question. The answer is yes, however be warned intermediate will be an intermediate course, what does this mean. Well i will be making an assumption that you can do all the basic handling stuff that the basic course covers. The training day will be tailored to adventure bikes 650 or over, with tyres that are suitable for off road terrain. (Mud based tyres)

As a starter i will kick off in the training paddock just to see what skill levels the riders are at (sometimes the paddock is a good grounding platform to remind us of our true ability than perceived) from there depending on the group’s feedback we will head out to the “play areas” where we will cover, river bed, river crossings and sand, once we have completed that next step will be the off road tracks which will include tricky mud climbs, grasses tracks and some bush bashing. Depending on how that goes we will head to another area to ramp up the River bed/ sand work and crossings, which will include some steep bank/hill climbs and descents.

The day will kick off at 10 starting at Greytown and will end about 3 ist, by this time you will be starting to get fatigued. The day is not about covering huge Ks it’s about practice, practice and building on the basic adventure riding skills.

If your interested post me via the Adventure Riding Website or Facebook. We will see what dates we can jack up.

Cheers

Dave