Other SMIBs do the Rawhyde Clinic sponsored by Bob's BMW

Following behind a couple of the other SMIBs who attended the Rawhyde Offroad Riding Clinic sponsored by Morton's BMW of Fredericksburg, VA yesterday, a couple more of us went to the Rawhyde Clinic hosted by Bob's BMW of Jessup, MD today.

No matter how the day ended up turning out, the ride to Bob's this morning was fantastic



I arrived at Bob's just after the 8am open the gates time to find most of the bunch was already there..



There were moslty BMWs but we had two KTM 950 Adventures, and three of the most impressive off road motorcycles ever made...
the undestroyable KLR (ok, almost undestroyable)
(I'll just wait for you non-KLR riders to stop laughing )
(no, the Can-Am wasn't there for the clinic...)

The Rawhyde Crew (Sean and Lance), spent the first part of the clinic talking to each rider and offering suggestions on how to make their bikes more comfortable for off-road riding...They even had a BMW tech to help make those changes if the rider wanted to.

Here they were working with one of the KTMs



After the tech talks and some instructional information about riding off road, we were to head to Wicomico Motorsports Park. There was a route provided, which was pretty much straight down 301...I figured I'd take the inverse of the earlier trip this morning. Told JAX my plan and soon I was to lead a group 5 others to Wicomico... "Was" being the key word.

When we rolled out I looked back to see five bikes pull out behind me and focused on the road ahead. When I looked back when we stopped for the first traffic light...I had 14 :huh

So I pulled into the first parking lot we could all fit into and made sure everyone knew what the actual plan was...Most followed because they just saw bikes leaving. After our quick check, I got 14 thumbs up and we were off.

I managed this Lance patented "Over the Shoulder" shot while we were following the back roads paralleling 301



We weren't the last group to arrive but we certainly weren't the first. I believe all the other groups took 301, but from the feedback I head, No other group commented on enjoying the ride down....

So what route did you take? Through Croom?

yep....

I spy a GoPro mount.

After a quick pizza lunch provided by Bob's, we moved down to the Dirtwise training field...Some of us SMIBs have been to Wicomico Motorsports Park for off-road training before

As with yesterday's clinic, We too were divided into group "A" and group "1"

Here are the groups combined



There were four basics that the clinic focused on Body Position, Throttle Control, Clutch Control, and Braking
Personally I didn't get too much out of the clinic other than a chance to practice these things.

Jax took a few photos while our group was riding...

On the slow ride excercise, the key element was looking out and ahead..on our second pass, Sean would do his best to try and distract us to make sure we were looking out and past him...I did find it interesting as to how fast he moved out of the way if you rev'd the engine when he got close



OMG WTF doing the counter weighting excercises



Here I am setting up for the same turn



Overall the clinic was enjoyable, met a lot of great people and re-enforced riding fundementals

After the clinic finished, we were free to stay at Wicomico and ride the trails or tracks if we chose to (normally a $40 fee)

I have been meaning to take the KLR around the trails I've ridden before with the KLX 250, so agreed to go with three others on our attempt around the loop.

We had 1 KLR with cases and 1 without, a 650 Dakar and a 1200 GSA with cases (and street tires)...
First, let me say they have changed a few sections of the trail....the spot where Dorito destroyed the airbox on her Yamaha is now blocked off and the trail now loops around to the top of that hill.
The old hill climb was easier....:eek1 as for the rest of the trail...couldn't tell you
This is when we figured this would be a good time for the 1200 to turn around. It had already gone down a couple times while going thru the mud.
The Dakar and other KLR continued on while I played TTRU with the 1200...
We had to back track about a half mile, the other 2 had about 2 miles to cover...They beat us back :eek1



Tried to take some video with my expensive $20 video camera...still editing that mess...
But here are a couple pictures from after we "escaped"

Two exhausted but happy riders
Most of the mud on us was when we got "Juddy-flipped" by his bike while getting through one of the deeper holes



This GSA was close to spotless when we started....notice the projector light pointing towards the camera



About halfway through this mess, I put my kickstand down and put some weight on it to make sure it wouldn't sink when I walk away....Well it did, but with the berm and my cases the bike was still basically upright so I left it there to go help the others.
When I went to get back on the bike, I found out the kickstand didn't sink into the sand in bent in half :eek1
I straightened it back out but it wouldn't hold the weight of the bike anymore...



Guess what I'm working on tomorrow

It was good putting some faces to names. Wish I had enough fuel to ride the loop. Was toast by the time I got back to Leesburg.

Yep, figured out how to match my camera with it...
works great unless you bash it with a branch and it now points way off to the left for the rest of the ride

Met at Bobs BMW at 8 am, and the lot was already pretty full.



Some neat equipment here, a beemer with a winch?






riding to the MX track. The group I went with took the back roads, and it was pretty fun, no other group commented that the ride down was fun



riding into the MX track where they did the clinic




bikes lined up ready to go. They split us up into 2 groups, group 1 and group A. This was actually more confusing than it sounds. This was one of the groups

They ran us through some basics, riding slow while standing up



riding in tight turns, leaning away from the turn to make a smaller radius turn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asZwd-CxlH0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBj3RP52MYM


and it looks like I didnt take any video of the stop and go without putting feet down.

After the riding clinic a few of us went on a quick trail ride. About 1/2 mile in the guy on the GS1200 realized that his bike (with 90/10 street tires) wasnt gonna make it. The trail was basically a single track goat trail, 1-2 foot deep water filled ruts, and a ton of loose sugar sand.




This is where the GS decided to turn around





And then there were the hills, this hill is a little worse than it looks, and by a little I mean I had a rough time walking the bike down it, sliding my back wheel the whole way, and breaking my left mirror off on the tree 1/2 way down it.








and the aftermath

and now that I'm home and settled in showered and rested, its massive margarita time

Nice

It warms the cockles of my heart to know the the TTRUs are keeping tuned up!

Bruce, I got these new TKC's on. Wanna try the loop on the 1200's?

And the spot where I folded the kickstand in half....

Here we are lined up under the shade of some trees.



The best bike this day is......
The one with a gas mask, of course.
It actually holds some wiring together near the instrument panel. He had to do this after his bike was stolen and the thieves tried to hotwire it.

Owned by Reverend Chris. His exhaust guard is an old yield sign.



He's going on the Trans-Lab tomorrow!
His "ONE LESS FIXIE" sticker cracked me up!!
He told me that he parks his bike near a bunch of fixies.
Take that, hipsters!!


What is this giant bird in the sky? Some one in the park had to be medevaced out. No one in the Rawhyde group, though.


Dave on the left, Reverend Chris in the middle, Duoderf on the right??



If Ronald McDonald rode a bike, he would wear this jacket.


BluWolf/mark looking the part. He bought a f800gs around the same time as me.


Here he is wondering if the kool-aid still tastes as good.


We also met overlandhank and radtrinidad (lea). They both rode a f800gs.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of them.
They remember me from my Alaska trip report, so they're pretty awesome!

Overall, I had a great time. I also enjoyed meeting everyone.

Yet another experience to help me be a better rider. I'm going to practice some more and get some bar risers.

The Rawhyde school seems pretty nice to do. If you don't have an epic trip planned, check them out and join one of their classes or rides.

No Coconuts.....

But if you do let me know...I want to take pictures

Almost forgot....Lakota's daughter was there...she made the exercises look easy...must be genetic

yes, i was hot!!
everybody started putting on their pressure suits and jerseys and i was like wtf?