Advanced Techniques

The fundamentals teach you to control the bike on flat, grippy ground. This course takes that control onto the terrain that makes hard enduro what it is. Each lesson solves a problem you will meet on almost every hard enduro ride:

• Pivot turns: changing direction on a switchback, between two trees or on a hillside, where there is no room for a normal turn.
• Logs and rocks: getting both wheels over a log, a ledge or a rock garden without stalling, bashing the engine or losing the front.
• Mud, sand, roots and slick rock: keeping grip and drive when the ground itself is the problem.
• Hill climbs and descents: getting up steep, loose ground with traction, getting down it under control, crossing off-camber side-hills, and bailing out safely when a climb fails.
• Water crossings: reading a river, crossing it without drowning the engine, and what to do if you do.
• Splatters: climbing a short vertical face by hitting it with the front wheel and driving the rear up after it.
• Picking up and unsticking your bike: lifting a downed bike without hurting your back, and getting a bike off a log or rock, or out of a hole.

Chris Hollis made the point to Transmoto that in technical terrain your mental approach "will only get you so far, and at the end of the day, it comes down to your throttle, brake and clutch control." That's the whole idea of this course. Every technique here is those controls, timed and placed.

The prerequisites are the lessons you should find easy before you start. If a technique keeps going wrong, the problem is usually in the prerequisite, not the technique.

One context at a time. Take one technique onto easy terrain and stay there until it is boring. Only then make it steeper, looser, taller or wetter — and change one of those at a time, not all four.

Scout before you ride. Walk the line. Look at the take-off, the landing and where the bike goes if it goes wrong. Most failures on hard terrain are decided before the front wheel touches the obstacle: wrong gear, wrong line, wrong speed.

Use a spotter when the consequence is high. A second rider standing where the bike would land or roll back turns a big mistake into a small one. On a climb or ledge, they stand to the side, never in the bike's path.

Use the STOP/GO framework. Before anything with a real consequence, run the STOP/GO criteria. Tired, cold, sore or rushed is a STOP. So is a line you can't see the end of. There is no prize for the attempt that hurts you.

Keep sessions short. These techniques are hard on the clutch, the bike and your body. Ten good attempts beat forty tired ones. Stop while you are still getting better, not after you've started getting worse.

Work through the lessons in the order they are listed.

1. Pivot turns first, because they happen at walking pace on flat ground and teach you to use both brakes and the clutch together while the bike is barely moving. Almost everything later needs that.
2. Logs and rocks next, because they turn the front-end lift into a real obstacle skill. Small logs are the safest place to learn timing. Then take the same control onto mud, sand, roots and slick rock.
3. Hill climbs and descents once you can stall, hold and restart the bike calmly, because every steep hill will make you do it.
4. Water crossings whenever your rides need them. The riding is simple; the judgement is what matters.
5. Splatters last. Dirt Bike Magazine's splat feature says "this move is all about timing". It needs front-end lifts, logs and hill skills working without thought.

Picking up and unsticking your bike is worth reading early. Every technique here will sometimes leave the bike on its side or stuck.

You will overlap them, and that's fine. The order is about where to spend most of your practice time, not a rule against trying a small log before you've mastered pivots.

Check these against the fundamentals before you start: