BIKE LIFE
Off road novice mans-up, Harley jumblesale and Haydon’s TL1000S.
TRIUMPH’S NEW ADVENTURE Experience in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales is the UK’S latest off-road training centre and seemed like a good place for this dirt novice to cut his teeth. Run by former Dakar rider Nick Plumb, the school uses a custom-built training facility and offers a variety of courses. Prices start at £299 and the courses are built to suit anyone from a complete beginner to much more experienced adventure types. As you’d expect the school uses only Triumphs, specifically Tiger 1200s, Tiger 800s and Street Scramblers – all are standard road bikes apart from chunky knobblies and minus mirrors and pillion pegs. Our group is split into novice/inters (of which everyone but me has ridden off road before) and the more experienced. Having ridden down on the monolithic 1200, I grab the keys to the lighter, more manageable 800. After a quick briefing we head up to the training area, which is a huge slate quarry in, through and over which Triumph have carefully chosen multiple routes to challenge and excite. The plan is to ride to an area, do a little learning to assess everyone’s skill and comfort level, then go for a bit of a ride, stop, practice something new, ride again, each time increasing the level of difficulty. It’s rained non-stop overnight and yesterday’s dusty ground has turned to thick mud with an inch of slime sitting on top. Grip is a concept left at the gate. ABS and TC off, up on the pegs, elbows out, with front and rear wheels going anywhere other than where I want them. I’m a wreck when we reach the first assessment area. It’s chilly, but I’m already boiling, and shaking so much with nerves and adrenaline I can barely strip the
thermal layers out of my jacket. I’m struggling to turn because I’m scared I’ll fall off, and I don’t like the feel of the wheels getting loose underneath me. I’m convinced any attempt to move will result in disaster. I have a firm word with myself. Relax. Everyone else is doing it, so I can too. We practice turning the bike by weighting the pegs rather than turning the bars. It makes sense. I’m remembering speed = stability and looking as far ahead as I possibly can (which is a long way at this altitude). I’m trying to keep my body in the right position – arches of my feet on the pegs, slight bend in the knees, elbows out. With encouragement and advice from the Triumph instructors and my own, previously unrealised cat-like reactions, I’m catching every slide and every twitch. I’m doing U-turns standing up and not falling off. When it goes wrong just drop onto the seat, put feet down, compose then crack on. I’m using the clutch to temper clumsy throttle inputs and, while it ain’t graceful, it’s all working. The first trail ride leads us to the spectacular quarry and on to the next challenge. It’s scary stuff for an off road noob, but I manage it all without incident. The instructors have a great zeroego, no-pressure attitude which makes it easier to relax and feel confident enough to try stuff out. The rest of the day is spent riding a mixture of close, tree-lined trails, deep-rutted quarry roads and wide-open hills. The worst of it are off-camber turns on muddy banks, but all of it is mud-strewn and slippery enough to give even the instructors something to think about. In the afternoon I switch to the Street Scrambler which is surprisingly up for the job. Unlike the Tigers, hitting the killswitch at each stop resets the modes so I keep finding myself struggling on ascents as the TC kicks in. The SS doesn’t quite have the ground clearance of the Tiger either. I clout the pegs and sump guard while changing my mind, last minute, about a rut that looks too deep and I have my only ‘off’ of the day. No harm done to body or bike though, and it lets the instructor demonstrate correct bike picking-up technique. Back on the 800, we end the day on the skid pan – stamping on the rear brake and doing 30-foot skids, weighting the pegs to finish it with a turn. It’s a lot of fun and a world away from how I felt several hours earlier. triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/adventure-experience
‘I don’t like the feel of the wheels getting loose underneath me. I’m convinced any attempt to move will result in disaster’