BMW Motorrad Off Road Skills Courses

[DaveS]

I’ve recently attended the BMW Off Road Skills level 1 course and thought it would be interesting to jot my thoughts down and share some pics.

So the Off Road Skills company is run by Simon (ex Dakar god) & Linley Pavey and their team, they provide off road training on BMW GS Trophy’s 1250 and smaller if required. They offer Level 1, 2 Foundation, 2 and 3. Home - Off Road Skills Ltd

I wasnt sure that Level 1 was right for me, given that I’ve done quite a lot of off road stuff over the years on big and small bikes, but I learnt loads. Our instructor was Carl who was fantastic.
The course is over 2 days, and held near to Swansea at Walters Arena, an off road paradise! You meet at the business park where their offices are, do admin, kit up and then ride out in convoy to Walters.

All of the instructors follow a plan, starting with getting on and off the bike, and covering various techniques, such as hill recovery, slow speed control, etc..
The course really does build your confidence and the way that the lessons and techniques build helps massively. I picked up various useful techniques throughout the 2 days despite the experience I have.
The bits I most liked were learning the grip on the front wheel by holding the front brake just on whilst accelerating on loose gravel! The abs kicks in but you get a feel for the grip and what the bike is doing, you feel a lot more confident front braking in muddy or loose stuff.
The slow control was fun riding in really tight circles, that’s the bit I felt most confident on due to my previous experience.
And then probably doing circuits where we included some steep drops and steep climbs. I remember when we started looking at the climbs and drops thinking wow that looks steep and then after a few circuits you’re launching yourself off the top of a loose gravel drop without a second thought!
Overall it was a great course and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it enough to anyone no matter what your experience.

some pics….

 

[boboneleg]

Looks a hoot Dave

 

[Mikey]

Looks great. Is that Walters Arena?

 

[DaveS]

Looks great. Is that Walters Arena?

It is, I'm being thick calling it Geralds! Updated my post.

 

[Hamster]

Would love to try it.

 

[Boris]

I've been a couple of times on the 1200s and I can highly recommend it. The instruction is really good and they are pretty good at streaming people into the right class for them as some people don't seem to be very good at self assessing their own skill. Lovely people and good day out and the only real negative for me (and it was a big one) was the second time I went they had new bikes which had abs and traction control and they wouldn't let us switch either off (previous bikes had neither) it pretty much meant you could be as ham fisted with the throttle and brakes as you liked and the bike would stop you loosing it. I got so pissed off with the whole thing I just kept turning them off so I could actually increase my skills. In the end I think they gave up making me turn it back on and just let me get on with it but I suspect someone less assertive would have learned little around fine throttle control and cadence braking. The whole ABS thing really grated and came over as less about me learning throttle and braking skills and more like an an advert for how good the BMW ABS and Traction Control systems were off-road negating the need for said skills in a sort of brake as hard as you like and the bike will keep you safe way. Fine for regular users or the sales floor but when you paid a lot of money to learn skills it seems a waste for them to say don't bother to try and out think the ABS and just let it do the hard work.

That was a few years back so maybe it's changed now though. Dave?

 

[Rubberchicken]

I could see the reasoning being everybody has it anyway so might as well use it.

Except not everybody has it, or wants it…

 

[DaveS]

That was a few years back so maybe it's changed now though. Dave?

Yeh it didn’t feel like you’ve described, so hopefully it’s changed. We spent the whole time in Enduro or Enduro Pro mode, so Enduro Pro being the electronics as minimally invasive as possible and warning signals flashing constantly, but even in those modes you can never completely turn the abs off we were told.
We spent time learning the limits of the bike, and when for example the abs kicks in, you do more of that in higher levels I think. But there were plenty of people falling off, you could easily wind up the throttle and power slide in to a fall, and equally grab a load of front brake in mud and come off.

 

[Boris]

Yeh it didn’t feel like you’ve described, so hopefully it’s changed.

That's good. The ABS and traction control wasn't so good that you were invincible but there were some noticeable differences between my two visits. There was quite a rocky decent and the first time we went we were told to put it in first and engine brake down the hill checking our speed on the front brake and releasing when we could feel it slide. The second time with the ABS on it was just a case of first gear then when you felt you were going too fast just pull on brake and let the ABS sort it out. All we were left to do was steer and keep going fast enough to balance which took little to zero skill.

The climbs were the same. First time manage the throttle so there was some slip but not too much. The second time just give it the gas and the traction control will do the rest.

I found it really frustrating as the bikes were hugely capable without the gizmos and the instructors were great and massively skilled but I just got the impression they weren't being allowed to teach as BMW wanted to showcase how clever the bikes were even if that meant devaluing the learning. I guess potential bike sales were a key part of any reduced rates Si was getting the bikes at. I was told on the level 2 or 3 course they taught with the electronics off but on level 1 they had to stay on. I was only repeating level 1 as a friend wanted to do it and I said I'd keep her company. Had I not done the old level 1 course I'm sure I would have been less disappointed as I wouldn't have known how much better it had been before.

Still worth going but, for the 1200 at least, not the skill boost I would have hoped for and certainly not skills transferrable to other non ABS and traction controlled bikes

 

[DaveS]

Yep on level 1 the electronics were off for us as much as we wanted and as much as they could be. We were encouraged to have them off in enduro Pro mode.
The company don’t actually own the bikes, they are loaned to the company from BMW and they get new ones each year. They are due to receive the new 1300s towards the end of this year / early next ready for the next season.

 

[The Don]

thanks for this, I would love to do it