Logs & Rocks

Logs and rock gardens are where hard enduro stops being a trail ride. They reward timing and line choice far more than horsepower, and they punish the rider who tries to power through. Get it wrong on a log and the bike lands on its bash plate, the rear spins on wet bark or you go over the bars. Get it wrong in rocks and the front deflects, the engine stalls and you're lifting the bike out of a hole.

Good technique does two things: it keeps you moving and it keeps the bike in one piece. Both matter when the next log is two hundred metres away and the finish is six hours off.

Everything here builds on the front-end lift and clutch control. If you can't lift the front a few centimetres on command and put it down with the rear brake, go back there first.

Most log and rock failures are decided on the approach. Before a big one, stop, look, and if it's taller than your knees, walk it.

• Angle. Transmoto's log guide with Josh Green starts with one rule: "The golden rule with log crossings is to hit the log as square as possible." A log hit at an angle kicks the front sideways.
• Size. Compare the log with your front wheel. Below the axle, the front rolls over. From the axle to about the top of the tyre, the front has to be lifted onto it. Bigger than the front wheel, you need the big-log technique below, a splatter or a different line.
• Surface. Wet bark, moss and mud turn a log into ice. Look for dry patches and bark that's already been scuffed off.
• Landing. Check what's on the far side. A drop, a hole or a rut can flip a bike that cleared the log itself.
• A better line. Antoine Meo's rock advice for Transmoto: "Why ride up a six-foot step, and risk getting stuck or damaging your bike, if there's a much easier line only a few metres to your left or right?"

Gear choices follow Transmoto's log guide: third for small logs at speed, "second, or even first" for bigger ones. Adjust for your bike and the grip on the day.

This is the core log technique, also called a wheel tap. Dirt Bike Magazine describes the timing in two bursts: the first lifts the front onto the log, the second drives the bike up it.

Big logs. On a log bigger than the front wheel, a lifted front just puts the bash plate on the top. Green's method is the opposite: aim lower, "so the point of first contact is about two-thirds of the way up. Push hard forward on the bars to drive the front wheel into the log." The impact lifts the rear so it meets the log in the air. It needs commitment.

Wet and slippery logs. Drive where the grip is and coast where it isn't. Fahringer told Dirt Rider to "apply throttle in areas where there is good traction so you have enough momentum to coast over the slippery parts." Push too hard into a wet log and "the front wheel will slide down the face of it", so he uses a "'shallow' double-blip".

Logs across a slope. Square up to the log even if the trail runs across it. On a camber, "If you smack the rear tire into the log, you'll cease momentum and the bike could follow the log down the hill."

Downhill logs. Fahringer slows "nearly to a stop just before the log" and blips the front only just far enough to clear it. The danger is the frame landing on the log: "If you case out on a log going down a hill, you could endo."

When you land on the bash plate. Sam King's RidersWest guide says imperfect timing "will most likely just put you on the sump plate of your bike, which is not a high consequence failure". Rock the bike forward with your body and a little clutch, or get off and lift the rear over. Cross Training Enduro's log video launches it instead: balanced on the plate, lean back, and as the rear suspension compresses, drop the clutch in a controlled way with some throttle. Keep your weight back until the rear hits the log, then roll off and let momentum ease it over. Then go back and practise the second blip.

A rock garden is dozens of small obstacles in a row. You can't hop each one. You pick a line, keep the bike moving and let it move under you.

• Pick the big, solid rocks. Dirt Bike Magazine: "I usually look for the larger rocks to ride over instead of the smaller and looser ones." Big, bedded rocks don't move. Small loose ones roll under the tyre.
• Keep the front light. Cody Webb, talking to Dirt Rider about EnduroCross rocks: "Keep the front end light. People think I'm in the attack mode, but I'm definitely hanging off the back of the bike."
• Let the bike dance. Webb again: "you have to let the bike dance a little bit sometimes underneath you." Soft elbows and knees, loose grip.
• Steady speed beats attack. Meo: "Riding a little slower but maintaining speed is always better than going into a rock section hard, losing your speed and then having to try and regain it." Webb is "never wide open in the rocks" until he's near the exit.
• Don't shift in the rocks. Meo: "Changing gear causes the rear wheel to lose traction." Pick your gear before you enter. SoCal Off-Road School's rock tip uses second, or third where it's less rocky, because first is snappy and revs out too quickly.
• Easy on the front brake. Webb: "you don't want to pull the front brake in because it can grab on a rock and unsettle you." Control speed with the rear brake and clutch.
• Smooth throttle, clutch covered. Dirt Bike Magazine calls smooth throttle control and covering the clutch "key to maintaining traction and forward momentum".
• Round rocks only. If you have to jump into rocks, Meo says "only jump into round rocks". Square edges bend rims and cut tyres.

Webb also notes that in rocks "you're definitely not looking as far ahead as you would in other scenarios." Look two or three rocks ahead, where the front will be next, then lift your eyes again as soon as the ground allows.

A step is a log you can't roll: a square face with no ramp. The lift is the same as the double blip, but the drive is not. A round log gets a throttle chop as the rear hits, so the tyre rolls over. A square step needs steady drive right through, or the bike hangs on its edge. Matt Phillips, riding a stump for Transmoto, compresses the suspension "like I'm just about to do a bunny-hop, before clutching the front wheel up into a wheelie". Once the front is up, keep the drive on: "Break drive at any point and there's a real danger that either the bashplate or bottom suspension linkage will catch the stump." If the rear spins, "I'll quickly dip the clutch so that the tyre finds traction again."

Steps taller than your front wheel need a splatter, and that's a separate lesson.

Start small, low and dry. Make one thing harder at a time: height, then wet, then angle.

Use a log around axle height and a short rock section. Rest two minutes every ten.