Would off road, dirt track motorbiking as a novice be ridiculous/foolhardy?

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  • Beef Oven!
    Ex-member
    • Sep 2013
    • 18147

    #31
    Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
    We don’t want to see Lat go, but there are other ways to get a thrill.......
    Agreed, but it’s entirely a matter for him .........

    Good luck Lat, all the best

    Comment

    • Lat-Literal
      Guest
      • Aug 2015
      • 6983

      #32
      Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
      Agreed, but it’s entirely a matter for him .........

      Good luck Lat, all the best
      Thank you.

      I haven't booked it yet - at £185 I need to be certain - and will decide in the next few days.

      But my Rachmaninov ticket has now arrived.

      There are some very good stories on this thread.

      I'm pleased it has given people an unlikely opportunity to reminisce.

      My parents are ongoing, yes, although their car may not be, sadly.

      Whether they are still fully in the picture is another matter and this could be assessed in various ways.

      Their minds. My eye. The weather - that sort of thing.

      Comment

      • Beef Oven!
        Ex-member
        • Sep 2013
        • 18147

        #33
        Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
        Thank you.

        I haven't booked it yet - at £185 I need to be certain - and will decide in the next few days.

        But my Rachmaninov ticket has now arrived.

        There are some very good stories on this thread.

        I'm pleased it has given people an unlikely opportunity to reminisce.

        My parents are ongoing, yes, although their car may not be.

        Whether they are still fully in the picture is another matter and could be assessed in various ways.

        Their minds. My eye. The weather - that sort of thing.
        Lat, I hope you are double-bluffing me

        My conscience disallowes me from playing along any further. You must not even spectate such an undertaking.

        It's too dangerous, stay away - please.

        Comment

        • Lat-Literal
          Guest
          • Aug 2015
          • 6983

          #34
          Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
          Lat, I hope you are double-bluffing me

          My conscience disallowes me from playing along any further. You must not even spectate such an undertaking.

          It's too dangerous, stay away - please.
          I have driven vehicles. I drove and owned a car from the age of 18 to the age of 32. This latest thing all started when I realised the decision 23 years ago not to take any vehicle onto a road because other people are too dangerous should not have meant that I stopped using vehicles altogether. I don't especially want to drive an F1 vehicle at breakneck speed round a race track on an activity day. I was thinking of tractors but you can only do that in Oxfordshire or Wales. Then there was the milk float idea and the bubble car idea but it doesn't seem that there is any off road place for those at all. I suppose an alternative would be to do the basic motorcycle training which people usually do because they want to go on the road.

          Comment

          • Bryn
            Banned
            • Mar 2007
            • 24688

            #35
            Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
            I have driven vehicles. I drove and owned a car from the age of 18 to the age of 32. This latest thing all started when I realised the decision 23 years ago not to take any vehicle onto a road because other people are too dangerous should not have meant that I stopped using vehicles altogether. I don't especially want to drive an F1 vehicle at breakneck speed round a race track on an activity day. I was thinking of tractors but you can only do that in Oxfordshire or Wales. Then there was milk floats and bubble cars but it doesn't seem that there is any off road place for that at all.
            Bear in mind whar Rik Mayall did to himself on his 'quad bike'.

            Comment

            • Lat-Literal
              Guest
              • Aug 2015
              • 6983

              #36
              Originally posted by Bryn View Post
              Bear in mind whar Rik Mayall did to himself on his 'quad bike'.
              Yes, that's true and Ozzy Osbourne too.

              But this does have professional trainers.

              There is no better feeling of exhilaration than riding a motorcycle over off-road terrain. We cater for all levels of experience from complete novice to experienced road and off-road riders; you don’t even need a licence to take part. A day you will never forget! The perfect Valentine present – Birthday/Valentine Vouchers available.

              Comment

              • Quarky
                Full Member
                • Dec 2010
                • 2677

                #37
                Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
                Yes, that's true and Ozzy Osbourne too.

                But this does have professional trainers.

                There is no better feeling of exhilaration than riding a motorcycle over off-road terrain. We cater for all levels of experience from complete novice to experienced road and off-road riders; you don’t even need a licence to take part. A day you will never forget! The perfect Valentine present – Birthday/Valentine Vouchers available.
                Check out the personal injury insurance arrangements Lat. They can be quite miserly - compensation for time off work etc.

                And I believe St. Valentine came to an untimely end - although he may not have been riding a bike at the time.

                Comment

                • Pianorak
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 3128

                  #38
                  Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
                  There is no better feeling of exhilaration than riding a motorcycle over off-road terrain. . .
                  MRDA (Mandy Rice-Davies Applies).
                  My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)

                  Comment

                  • Lat-Literal
                    Guest
                    • Aug 2015
                    • 6983

                    #39
                    Originally posted by Vespare View Post
                    Check out the personal injury insurance arrangements Lat. They can be quite miserly - compensation for time off work etc.

                    And I believe St. Valentine came to an untimely end - although he may not have been riding a bike at the time.
                    Yamaha do courses so some significant companies can be involved.

                    If you look at this clip, it isn't exactly wild although it could be hard work.

                    It was hard work whenever I "stalled" the kayak last year and had to catch up.

                    But there's no traffic and nice countryside:

                    September 2014, Great day out with Yamaha Off Road Experience! Filmed Saturday 20th August


                    This one is a bit daft by turning into "the last gang in town".

                    It's like what they do when selling the gliding dream with some music of the gods playing.

                    It isn't like that in reality.

                    But the main point here is that many of the people are not especially young:

                    video, sharing, camera phone, video phone, free, upload
                    Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-08-18, 22:06.

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                    • Lat-Literal
                      Guest
                      • Aug 2015
                      • 6983

                      #40
                      Originally posted by Pianorak View Post
                      MRDA (Mandy Rice-Davies Applies).
                      I would have read that as MDMA if you hadn't provided an explanation.

                      This is the tractor driving one:

                      At The Great Barn we offer a wide range of outdoor activities to help with team building and to bring out your adventurous side. Find out more here.


                      The good thing here is that they provide an opportunity to drive ones without a cabin. You tend to get cabins with the new ones and it would be a bit like being indoors.
                      Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-08-18, 22:00.

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                      • Quarky
                        Full Member
                        • Dec 2010
                        • 2677

                        #41
                        BMW also - a highly professional outfit:

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                        • Lat-Literal
                          Guest
                          • Aug 2015
                          • 6983

                          #42
                          Originally posted by Vespare View Post
                          BMW also - a highly professional outfit:

                          https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/en/wo...ills-in-action
                          Thank you.

                          That Level 1 video is very educational because it shows the patience that is needed in the beginning. I found that with the kayaking. It looks like a breeze but it is quite intricate, almost as if being taught golf, - not slow, but steady, although with an impetus through the training to move on. I did eight hours of that at the local lake - four on Sat and four on Sun having emerged from almost a decade, possibly in some respects a lifetime, of being mainly deskbound albeit I have hiked. Then, of course, with all these things you find out that there is masses of other stuff to learn on further levels up. It is almost impossible to believe and questions arise about capability to do that. I haven't returned to kayaks as I feel I need to do Level 1 again although I got the certificate. I don't recall learning to drive a car being quite like it but perhaps it was and just didn't seem like it at the time, being 17/18. Anyway, that video also shows a person lifting a bike. The lifting is arguably one of the more tricky areas. The turning of the kayak back upwards. And after I went in the glider, I was required to steer it by its wing with some push into the hangar although there was towing from the front. But overall, I think that BMW film shows me it is not beyond the realms of approachability.
                          Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-08-18, 22:37.

                          Comment

                          • MrGongGong
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 18357

                            #43
                            Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
                            I would have read that as MDMA if you hadn't provided an explanation.

                            This is the tractor driving one:

                            At The Great Barn we offer a wide range of outdoor activities to help with team building and to bring out your adventurous side. Find out more here.


                            The good thing here is that they provide an opportunity to drive ones without a cabin. You tend to get cabins with the new ones and it would be a bit like being indoors.
                            "Mind the ditch John"

                            But who will take over your pigs ?

                            Comment

                            • Richard Tarleton

                              #44
                              Originally posted by Lat-Literal View Post
                              This is the tractor driving one:

                              At The Great Barn we offer a wide range of outdoor activities to help with team building and to bring out your adventurous side. Find out more here.


                              The good thing here is that they provide an opportunity to drive ones without a cabin. You tend to get cabins with the new ones and it would be a bit like being indoors.
                              I learnt tractor driving in the same way I learnt how to ride a motor bike, by bluff and actually doing it. When looking for a job in nature conservation (before the events outlined above) I spent some time working on farms, to gain experience. The first was a large apple and sheep farm, the farm owner being being an architect who employed a farm manager to run the farm. The owner kindly agreed to take me on for two months. The manager and farmhands were clearly more sceptical, and on my first day told me to take the tractor and trailer to a farm machinery depot some miles away to collect a huge door for the apple cold store. The tractor was a rusty old Massey with a rear-mounted forklift, suitable only for farmyard jobs. I set out anyway - it was do or die - and got to the depot in one piece. The trailer (it turned out) was too small to take the door safely. The staff at the depot nevertheless helped me lash it on (vertically), and I drove back without mishap, to general astonishment, avoiding low bridges and overhead wires. I was then shown a vast, jumbled heap of empty wooden 500lb apple boxes and told to put them in tidy stacks, using my fork lift. This I accomplished well before quitting time, to general amazement, and I was accepted as a full member of the team.

                              I only drove tractors without cabins on the farms. Apple picking meant placing the empty 500lb apple boxes between the rows of trees with the forks of the tractor for the pickers to fill from their picking baskets, moving them along as necessary, and taking the full boxes to load onto the trailer. I went on to work on an apple, sheep and hop farm, where my (by now) considerable tractor driving skills were put to good use driving the hop pickers’ trailer. This was a flat trailer with a rail down the middle on which half a dozen pickers stood with billhooks or machetes. Their job was to slash at the hop vines and lay them over the central rail while I drove at exactly the right speed up and down the aisles. When we had enough, I had to drive at speed to the hopping (‘oppin’ ) shed where the vines were grabbed by a hook and a large female workforce was waiting to pick the flowers off the vines onto a conveyor belt. The slightest inaccuracy on my part was greeted with torrents of abuse, so I rapidly became skilled at this.

                              Comment

                              • MrGongGong
                                Full Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 18357

                                #45
                                Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
                                I learnt tractor driving in the same way I learnt how to ride a motor bike, by bluff and actually doing it.
                                aaah the days before Youtube

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