What I've personally learned from other riders (word of mouth & trying it out):
- Gravel road: Look up, Stand up, Open up!
- Look up - After driving a car for so many year, I've taken for granted the power of where you look. Your body naturally tends to follow where you look. When you're trying to miss that rutt in the road by looking carefully where it is...you will always end up riding in it! Force yourself to look at the smooth parts...where you would rather be looking.
- Stand up - I was encouraged to ride on the "middleman" (the rough part between the car tracks)...SCARY thought at the time, needles to say it tooks some encouragement :) I build up some speed (so the steering dynamics of the bike can take over stability) and rode on the middleman while sitting. The bike becomes loose VERY quickly (especially if you're not used to it), BUT as soon as you stand up the bike becomes very settled. It is important to remember to allow the bike to move below you. If you clench the bike between your legs, you are looking for trouble.
- Open up - Going faster while things seem to start to get out of hand, is not a natural reaction and it doesn't make sense to most people. But, it is a tried & tested method of getting out of trouble. The way I understand it, instability in the bike is caused by the front wheel trying to follow small rutts. When you open up, it lifts the front wheel just enough to reduce the weight on it. This allows the front wheel to ride above the small rutts and not follow them. Standing and moving your body weight to the back of the bike has a similar effect.
- Turn you beast! How do you turn on a loose surface when all you can think is "IF I TURN TOO SHARP, THE BIKE WILL SLIDE OUT FROM UNDER ME"? I spoke to a ex-enduro rider about how he takes corners on gavel roads and here is the summary:
- Straighten inside arm: The arm that is in the direction that you want to turn (inside, relative to the turn). The more you straighten/push, the sharper you will turn.
- Put your weight on the outside & Remain upright on the bike: It is not your weight on the side of the bike that makes it turn, it is its geometry. When the bike leans, it turns. So, start by literally sitting on the side of your seat before the turn. As soon as you start the turn (by straightening you inside arm) the bike will lean (and thus turn). Now it is important to remain above the bike, don't lean with the bike! Should the back slide out, the bike won't slide away from you (which will happen if you lean with the bike).
- GENTLY steer with your outside arm: I must emphasies that you are not to try and change the direction of the bike by steering it! Hence....GENTLY. Only actively steer the bike when it starts to slide.
- Keep you weight on the outside peg: I never did this conciously, rather it is more a result of the above steps. I would say this is more of a personal check to see if you are doing it right.
- Why do they call it an Iron Steed? I’ve always wondered about this, besides the obvious similarity of mounting and seated position. It appears that bikes and horses have more in common than this. A horse has a mind of its own and you need to allow it to do its thing, while nudging it in the right direction. A bike is very similar. When riding off-road, allow the bike to move under you, so don’t clench it with you legs. It will sort itself out as long as you Look up, Stand up, Open up!
- How do I tow a bike? ....with another bike???
- You can't tow a bike by towing it by the handlebars or forks. If you do, the bike's natural steering dynamics (that stop if from falling over) don't work!
- Tie a rope securely onto the side towing bike. In this example, on the left of the bike.
- Wrap...DON'T TIE...the other end once around the right foot peg. The rider keeps the rope from slipping by pressing on it with his foot. If there is some trouble, just lift your foot and the bike being towed is free!
- Ride slowly, keeping the rope tight at all times.
I asked my buddy Stav, who did a couple month trip with Jo, what his views are on luggauge & spares.This is what I wrote him:
What are your views on luggage?
Do you think this is a good/bad way (super light) to travel with a bike? (I’ve seen photos of guys doing serious touring with mountains of tools & spares. They can pretty much overhaul their bike at the side of the road).
What stuff did you & Jo take on your trip? and what type of roads did you ride? Did you guys have a website, and is it still running? (might help to check out what you guys got up to).
This was his reply:
I could write a book on all this info - but i'll try to cover the main points.
Nothing wrong with soft panniers, Jo use soft, I used hard...and as you say security wise hard is the way to go, but try and keep as LIGHTLY packed as possible!!! We were way overloaded, esp in terms of clothes. The soft worked out and they are quite generic, if you buy some here, you should be able to get them to work on most bikes....I had to hard panniers, and a 50L backpack which I loaded with essentials when we went hiking in the Simien Mountains.
- Spares....Always have tubes and patches and a pump, and maybe try and change a tube on your own here in SA. you'll need tyre levers...i'm sure you can google the method. Obviously if you have no center stand you'll need a rock or so to lift the bike...you will always need someone to assist you with this....the lighter the bike the easier..also a valve puller makes this process a lot faster. Also always REMOVE the cause of the flat...I know its obvious but one can forget. Also store spare tube such that it doesn't chafe. I got my first flat after 8 000km or and the spare i chose...which was in the dark at 5 a.m in winter had worn from all the rough roads!! Pack with care.
- Other spares...linkers for your chain (take a couple, these are specific to the chain type so you'll only be able to purchase this stuff when you get the bike)...in case the linker clip comes off...once again, no chain and you stuffed. You'll also try this at home before you try it for the first time in the middle of nowhere...where you under pressure.
- Distribute your cash in multiple places, so that if you get robbed you don't lose everything.
- Send scanned copies of NB documents to your gmail account so that you can access them everywhere.
- International license for the AA.
- Chain lube, you could probably get here.
- Check the 2nd hand bikes battery before you leave, you don't want issues with this along the way.
- Depending on the state of the bike when you buy it and how many KM you'll do you could have a spare sprocket/chain which get replaced at the same time...every 10 000km or so.
- Same with the basic air/oil filters....learn to do this at home maybe under a mechanics eye....
- Ever heard of locktight - we did not have this..but would recommend every bolt that gets loose have this applied so it never gets loose again, beware of the bumpy/rocky roads, stop to tighten/check EVERY bolt on the bike so you don't lose any. You'll soon find out which ones get loose more often then others. Maybe take a few extra's.
- Make sure you have the right tools to take pretty much everything of you bike apart or to undo any bolt...
- I think thats pretty much all the bike specifics we took..also spare light bulbs (break/flicker)...
I've covered the bulk - but there is more...for example if you drop your bike in a river crossing and water gets in the air intake...in the engine...how will you get out of that....will have to send a separate email on that....
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Thats it for now. Will update it as I go along.
