Neduro Clinic, Arizona style!!

First, I want to give a BIG thanks to Ned and his crew for a great day

I was in the Saturday DS clinic on my Airhead GSPD and really learned a lot. I prevoiusly had zero dirt experience except for about a 6 mile ride up a dirt road shortly after I got my bike. There was one other rider who's name escapes me that not only had never ridden in dirt, but was on his first bike, a 1200 GS, with only 700 or so miles on it.

The clinic had it all, great people, lots of learning, and of course a little carnage. Neds' little helpers made sure to capture everything on cameras and video to record it for posterity so get those posted asap.

It seems Ned brought the Colorado weather he was trying to escape with him. Hopefully the Sunday riders got out of there before the snow started.

I only had a few pics since I was busy picking my bike up off the ground.

We gathered up at a place called the Boulders outside of Florence, AZ. The Boulders were big, the views great, but the grafetti, not so much!




Here is the gang gathered up for lunch.




The KTM riders playing spin the bottle!!!



By the way let the record reflect that the GS riders rode their bikes to the clinic and the KTM's come in on trucks and/or trailers !! Never mind that the KTM's are sweet offroad bikes. And Tims Sherco was awesome!

Anyway, on to the carnage!

Before the clinic I think everyone will agree my bike still looked pretty much like this:




My bike after the clinic:








I hope the Sunday riders were able to avoid the rare Arizona Yeti!! I saw one just after dark in Tucson.




Ned, thanks again for the experience. I encourage everyone to attend if he makes it to your neighborhood.

Russ
Tucson
1990 R100 GSPD (Psst, hey buddy can you spare a fender? and turn signal? oh and a mirror?)
ABC#9237

Hey - I rode my KTM in for the class, no trailer queen here!

The saturday event was a lot of fun and the class was great. Learned a few new things, re-learned a few old things and walked away with a bunch of great skill development drills to keep improving with. Sunday was more of the same, but with more drills and the bar set higher. I really enjoyed Sunday's event and hope Ned offers a "part 2" class some time in the future.

Sunday was cut a bit short because of the cold and rain; we had been in the wet for about 2 hours when it was agreed we should probably move the class nearer to the trucks (Sunday was at a different location). I had a great "lightbulb" moment on the way back when I realized that I was doing all the things we'd been taught over 2 days and I was going faster, and in more control, on that wet, slick run back to the trucks - it was a blast!! Once we got back to the truck most of us were soaked through.........and then the snow started! That was an interesting end to a great day riding.

All in all, I'm really happy I went and definitly saw an improvement in my skills. Ned helped me put it all together and think about bike handling in a better way, as a more cohesive whole - good stuff!

As a minor warrior in the "KTM guys vs. BMW guys" battle I have to (humorously) wonder why you GS guys dont remove the "extra gravity" module on those bikes - they did seem to go down quite a bit more that the KTM's or KLR's did! Many GS dirt naps were witnessed on Saturday; seriously, I hope the guy on the HP2 is OK today.

It was great riding with the AZ group, hope to see you guys on local rides and at Westfest, maybe even somewhere on the road in Mexico!

Cheers.......Mike

Good on ya for riding to the class.

The GS riders that were so fond of caressing the dirt were decidedly newbies to dirt activities. All the KTM guys seemed to be fairly adept riders to begin with. There is probably a lesson to be learned there? Watching Ned and Tim ride the 950 was inspiring to say the least.

+1 on the wishes to the HP2 rider.

Russ

I hear ya. I was really impressed with the guy on the Red GS, wearing Frank Thomas gear - I think he was the new guy. He handled that bike pretty well!

A request for all the AZ folks that went to either days event; do me a favor and post up here with your name and ride. It would be great to have a thread reference to remind me/us who's who on the board later on. Maybe share your own comments about this weekend, too.

Cheers....Mike

Nice pictures and reports, guys. Its a brisk 75 degrees in Tampa today. The ride home this morning from work was brutal...but I managed.

Ned, COME EAST!!!

Looking forward to experiencing some of Ned's lessons in person rather on the ADV board!

Ride safe and often.

Sevoman.

Russ- like so many in the class, you did excellent. Its rare to see such a diverse group(both in equipment and experience and background) able to move ahead at the pace we whitnessed out there. Very enjoyable to watch and be part of. The learnign curve is steep and absorbtion is incredibly high wiht a group like that.

Confidences grew throughout both days and despite the temperatures and precipitation, things went well.

I've arranged to help with more of these as they are a lot of fun. Ned, Ben and I discussed a possible 2 day school, among other things. Neds theory and mobility makes the concpet very flexible, so no two will ever be the same but they will all be good to say the least.

The before and after pictures are good, and I'd say the beast fared very well. I can't tell you how many bent bars, broken levers and smashed sidecases(although no cylinder heads, yet) are in my past - it scares me to think about it. Hope you're not too sore today.

John Neff here -- DR650 and KTM 400EXC, outta Flagstaff ....

Great experience! I have a head full of ideas and bikes and great people that will take a while to process.

Glad I did both days. I was well inside my comfort zone on Saturday -- after all, I ride a dirt bike! -- but learned a bunch. Sunday was a repeat of the subject matter, but on steroids! The EXC can get me out of my comfort range right away, and the young dudes were ready to go fast. (Mike 955i turns out to be one of those -- he was flying in the rain!)
As everyone else trailered up in the rain, Drew voted to ride more. Ned, Tim and Ben were good for it. So I put dry gloves on and realized the Moose suit was doing pretty well. We got another hour of two students and three coaches! I probably got two years better on my new orange bike in one hour of intense coaching.

Ned gathers a heap of talent around him. Tim, Ben, Mike, Jake, and Ned to watch fifteen of us, coaching, picking up bikes and turning wrenches -- no one has ever looked after me like this.

Hope to see each and all of you again. Thanks.

After my crash on the trail ride I came up with a new drill for Ned to add to his clinics. Crossing a deep rut angling across the trail.

You're right about the beast taking it well. Both the bike and I hit the ground hard. The fender probably broke because of being old and brittle more than anything, kind of like me!! I, on the other hand, have some deep tissue bruising on my right side/back but it's feeling pretty good today.

Next time, no mirrors or maybe find some of those trick folding mirrors the KTM 950 had that will fit my bike.

L8R,
Russ

He and I were sitting in line for the Uphill and nearly psyched ourselves out looking at the hill and looking down at our Tourances. We were both wishing we had some TKC's about then.

His turn came and he motored right up, then I did the same. I don't think either of us would have tackled that hill without the class. Gotta love that GS torque curve.


+1 on the names, etc. Not being able to meet each rider was the only downside of the day.

Russ

I was one of the KTM 525 guys there for the Sunday clinic and I must say what a wonderful outing it was. Ned and Tim were amazing! It does not matter if you are a AA rider or just a beginer you will learn something. I have been riding in the dirt most of my life and I learned so much. I was not as tough as John (thegraydog), a dry pair of gloves was not enough to keep me on the bike. I was effin' cold! And as always meeting new ADVriders is never a disappointment. All the guys there were awesome!

I was excited that we were finally able to get Ned and his compadre Ben to come visit us down in the Az desert and I think they were equally excited to leave the cold and snow behind (or so they thought!) Making this a even better deal was the fact that Ned was able to get Tim Hilslamer, a Phoenix area Pro to help out-

Ned leading the Saturday morning D/S meeting. Discussed was proper bike set up, equipment, body position and a host of other topics


Ned discussing proper fore/aft balance and body position. That's Tim kneeling and DustJunkie aiding at the rear.


This shows Ned demonstrating the proper body position for a climb


good technique by Wheels, 1st gear and just walking up the slope...using clutch to modulate without wheelspin.

I wish I had more photos of the DS class but I was a participant, so photos were few- I think DJ will have more forthcoming.

The DS class was a wonderful time and I couldn't believe how much technique was discussed and explained that even I could understand.

As others have said, most everything in the DS class was covered in the dirt bike class but taken to another level. Here's a few pics from the following Sunday.

Ned leading the class onto the next excersize


Brian (Winterhk) showing off his prowlness and proper body position on the tight turns


Josh (FEJ) doing the same


Tim discussing the finer points of trail braking and bike control


Ned going into the details of climbing a steep incline using the torque of the motor and clutch control


Even through the day was cut short by our unusual winter weather, I was happy to see that both days were completly full and hopefully this will induce Ned and Tim to consider doing even more clinics in our great state-

Thanks to Ned and all of his helper for putting on such a great clinic!

you cant get the flared front fender anymore.why ride a nice gs in that situation? get a dirt bike.

Brian here, yellow DRZ.

I had a fantastic time. I learned alot and met alot of great people. Ned, Tim, Ben, Jake...thanks for every pointer. I plan on burning some serious fuel on these drills in the future. Can't wait for next time.

Can't wait to see more pics and video. Tim, email me about hosting at some point.

And thanks to everyone for all of the amazing bike-swapping that was going on. That was a real treat. Especially Mike and Tim.

Go Yellow!!!


.

This was the bunny slope, did anyone get a shot of the big hill?

Russ

DustJunkie was taking many photos (including a few of these w/ my camera) so hopefully he'll post a few.

You're not the first motorcyclist that fell victim to crossrutting in soft sand. It will probably become a lesson in future classes where we have access to that much sand.

Nurse those bruises!

I need to learn that too, but this was on the hard pack surface where over time water had created a rut/ditch that was about a foot or more wide and about the same depth.

I guess ideally you would loft the front wheel and ride over it but that is nearly impossible on the Airhead. Pretty much, I didn't get back far enough on the bike and I didn't hit it at 90 degrees.

Live and learn, or in this case ride and learn.

Russ

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A couple of phone calls to Ned and Ignore Amos got me extending my work travel by three days, and plans to join Ned and crew for a weekend of riding in the AZ desert.
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I showed up at IA’s home around 6:00 pm to find the preparations for the weekend in full swing…
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Ben in a quick fork swap
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And Ned holding a course on how to adjust your valves in under 10 minutes
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With the preparations done, it was off to bed for a couple of hours of sleep…