THIS is why one needs to know how to loft the front!

And why the fact that its illegal on the road is stupid, but I digress. Didn't get seriously hurt, just sore.

Also, i DONT have video of me killing a jumping cholla about half an hour earlier. That pain was more acute, but shorter lived.

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Ouch.....

ouch for sure. glad you were okay!

we've had two riders go over the handlebars in the last year from similar ditches. i've been working on that trials-based bunny hop techique. get the front wheel as high as possible then as you are about to hit the ditch throw your weight forward and back off the throttle. this lifts the rear end up and you can clear surprisingly large gaps on a dirt bike. it even works on a DR650 surprisingly....

I hate when that happens.. Kinda off topic, but your bike sounds a little lean in the middle?

That or be able to brake within the distance that you can see.

Is it? maybe a touch, cooler weather than when I jetted it. Probably should rasie the needle a notch.

Well the problem is that I didn't realize the ditch was as deep as it was until I was too close to stop. And too unskilled to loft. This weekend: lofting practice.

yeah. being able to wheelie is a key skill, but even more so is riding at a safe speed for the terrain ahead. any A-level enduro rider will tell ya, don't over-ride your braking ability.

then you are riding too fast. period.
the fast guys are fast because they know the terrain.
how about this weekend practice your panic braking skill 1st!

even if you did loft the wheel properly, that ditch could have bucked your rear up and launched even worse. or the ditch could have been way deeper and wider and a wheelie could have resulted in a broken back.

i sure hope you're ok dude.

Steel': thanks for sharing, and I liked the vid clip...good wipe out, hope you're good-to-go

agreed. i should qualify my stuff about ditch jumping by saying you'd want to go out of your way and practice it until you know what you can and can't jump if suddenly confronted on the track with something you can't stop in time for. and yep, if riding the conditions that generally shouldn't happen.

Ouch. I think I did something similar at a motocross track. I screwed up a jump and the rest looked and felt like your video.

Yow! Glad there was no permanent damage.

dang. Sometimes think riding on the street is safer than the dirt..

Glad you came out of that relatively unscathed. Looked like a great trail up until your crash. Where is it? Oh, so how did the practice go?

If you tried to "loft" your front wheel over that, you would still be there laying in the dirt. Slow down. It is just like over driving your lights at night. If you can't see something in the terrain because of a hill/curve etc. Slow down. That is exactly how I broke my wrist a couple of years ago on a dirt road. Rain had gone through, I came over a rise and it was wet clay. Down I went. And I was warned by a rider in front of me. I just didn't slow down enough.

I agree panic breaking is very important (and I think your right it would have been more effective in this situation), but I honestly believe that lofting the front wheel correctly is one of the most important skills when riding anything at speed, especially in the desert. Remember the line "when in doubt gas it" If the front wheel clears the chances are the bike will follow through as long as you have a good body position relative to the situation. This is talking about a true dirt bike, not bigger DS bikes where your asking for a horrific crash.....

I really dont know of any fast rider that can honestly say they always ride at a pace where they could stop in time for ANY unforseen obstacle, ie g-outs/washed out area, logs around a corner, etc. The mark of a skilled rider is being able to use many other techniques when another alternative (ie stopping) is not an option. BTW Im not saying it is not safer to go slow, it clearly is, but I'm sure most of us do this sport for many individual reasons and safety is probably not in the top 3

For what its worth just a few points of advice to the OP when practicing "lofting". I would not suggest throwing your weight over the handle bars and backing off the throttle (trials style) once the front wheel is over the obstacle, I promise you have a good chance of getting bucked off for anything not in 1st gear

Keep it simple...............
-Think about a doing a power wheelie with the goal being to un-weight the front (0-15in).
-Stay on the gas.
-Lean back
-and SQUEEZE the bike with your knees and ankles.

Practice doing short power wheelies in every gear as you're riding along using the above techniques, easy and fun way to learn. Once your comfortable with getting the wheel in the air pick some obstacles that you could normally ride through, like a small ditch, and start riding over the obstacle vs through it.

If you do this you can get through some amazingly tough obstacles and it will really control any bucking action.



Just my opinion, for what its worth.

that man speaks the truth!

Practice went alright. Buddy and I found a piece of 4x4 in one of the flat openb areas of the trail and we practiced clearing the front wheel over it in 1-3 gears. Kinda tough, timing is everything... and i still have this irrational fear of looping the bike even though bringing the front up 2' is tough (due to me, not the bike obviously).

Yeah it was one of those cases where the rut was not obvious until a split second before I hit it. And though those forks are fantastic, the angle and speed and weighting that I hit it at was too much. Though I like to think that they absorbed a lot of the hurt.

Ive since unconsciously slowed down when coming up upon those types of washes, especially after the rains we've had recently where a lot of them have been cut deep due to the flash flooding.

Agreed. Limits need to be pushed a bit. I was cruising at high speed as you saw, but not flogging the top of 6th gear holy shit speed. More of a comfortable but quick pace. Sometimes you mess up. Sometimes the trail messes you up. Sometimes you get hurt. I didn't in the case and am very thankful. Caution and not taking unnecessary risks is a good thing, but not being SO cautious as to not really get any quicker/better/funner.

Yeah, when I did clear that 4x4 with the front wheel, I powered through it with the back. Didn't want to get kicked.

On a different note, here's some video of oh so rare and oh so fun WET desert riding! And i didn't fall at all! Hell, the mud wouldn't let me Right before this video was shot, you don't see that my bike was being held up by the mud... until it eventually sloooowly flopped over. Unfortunately my buddy didn't have the camera rolling as I flailed about in that goose crap to try to pick it up. I'd say it was a solid 18" deep.

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Practice makes perfect,or at least way better.

Nice Husaberg by the way,I just picked up a 2014 300XCW,nicest dirtbike Ive had so far.

But practicing wheelies some,then practicing wheelies over logs,over small ditches,over rocks,what ever and getting the feel for what happens is the only way to gain confidence.

And then there's reading terrain,there's signs of impending big changes coming up out in the desert,any low spot could have had a small creek rip through and make a ditch,some 4' deep,some could be 20' deep so its really good to look before you leap. Be careful!