THREE THINGS I LEARNED…
1 Be committed
You need to really commit to an incline at the bottom, or as soon as you can get on the power, and then not be afraid to keep on the throttle as the bike is moving around. If you lose momentum, you won’t make it up the hill, so don’t back off. This is the hardest thing to get your head around as the natural reaction is to feather or reduce power when the bike is sliding but you need to be a bit brutal and batter your way up the hill.
2 It’s ok to sit down
Like most road riders, I feel far happier sat on a bike than standing up on its pegs. While the Experience does encourage you to stand up in certain areas, on a motocross bike when it comes to bends, you sit down. As you drop from standing to a very forward position on the seat you load up the front end; dangle a foot to get even more weight over the tyre and then gas it to get the rear to spin to help turn the bike and to start your build-up of momentum for the next incline. Or to just fire a cool rooster of mud in the air as it drifts.
3 Be pushed not pulled
I’ve always struggled with standing on the pegs but something Craig said hit home. He describes positioning your body so you are ‘pushed’ by the bike rather than being ‘pulled’ by it. This means you keep the top half of your body forward of the bars (the crossbar pad is chest protection, so keep your chest above it) so the bike is pushing you along. When you drop behind the bars and the bike is pulling you along, it is easy to slip back and accidentally open the throttle, probably ending in a very muddy crash.