Theory of learning to ride on dirt verses learning on the street.

Statistically, riders who learn on the dirt (off road) are far less likely to crash on the street than those who learn to ride on the street.

I have a theory as to why which I will spell out later.

What say you?

Because dirt riders got all their crashing out of the way before they hit on the street?

Well, it's obvious that learning dirt riding increases your ability to handle a bike in traction compromised situations. In the dirt you lose traction all the time and learn how to handle it, or you are floating right on the edge of traction limits.

If you lose traction on the street with that experience, you're a lot less likely to freak out and dump it. I'm sure it helps. I have no dirt experience and pucker factor is high for me when the front rolls over a pebble or something while turning. I need to get some dirt miles.

I agree with DevilNinjaDog. I grew up on CT 70's and XR 75's and have ALWAYS had at least one dirt bike in the fleet. Other than the dead of winter I ride dirt 4-5 times a week, and I feel that it definitely helps out on the street.

You should've seen the looks on a group of guys that were ALL street experience and on new GS 800's when I hit the ditch close to my house and jumped the lane on my 1200 GSA:eek1

Definitely sharpens your marginal / compromised traction skills!

+1(or 2) with DevilNinjaDog and BullSnake. Gotta get used to some wheel slip whether it's front or back. I try my best to induce some slip (from cold tires, leaves, gravel, sand, whatever's on the road) when the conditions are right (no vehicles, open turns, not ridiculously fast, etc...) to remind myself what riding that TTR so long ago was like.

Statically, riders are a lot safer because their speed is zero. Might get rear-ended, more likely just lose their footing and fall over. Dynamically, speeds are higher than zero, and riders are in more danger of crashing.

I've never seen stats that say those who learn on dirt are less likely to crash on the road. I dont doubt that it is true though and I agree with the points made above. Another possible contributor could be that those who learn on dirt typically learn at a younger age and have that many more years experience on two wheels.

Same thing mountain biking. Learned on dirt and could do things on pavement in tricky situations that had other people walking their bikes. Great way to impress the ladies.

Another advantage to learning on the dirt is that you learn the correct way to steer the bike. In my early riding years I didn't know what the term "countersteering" meant, but I knew how to do it after many thousands of miles riding on the dirt. I was more likely to be pulling on the outside bar than pushing on the inside bar, but it has the same effect on where you go. And because of that, I've never had a tendency to fight the bars in a turn like some people do.

And if you ride in the hills, you'll get good at working the clutch.

I started riding in the dirt with my two sons when they were each about 13 years old. It took a while for them to get good, but after a few years of it they had great control of a motorcycle. Both easily transitioned to street riding.

+1 if anything, it allows you to learn throttle control, proper shifting and proper braking at an earlier age.

To be honest, I've dropped about four times statically, and zero times dynamically. Two of them were due to gravel in the driveway, one of them was because I had to scratch an itch on my left foot and lost my balance (that was my second time on a bike). The fourth one was just embarrassing.

PBC (posting before coffee)


Thanks

I agree with devilninjadog. You don't panic when something bad happens because you are use to sliding and adjusting your position on the bike for better performance.

Last year I had an old guy in a SUV make a left turn from the right lane when I was in the left lane right next to him. I knew I couldn't brake in time to keep from hitting him so I turned hard left while locking the rear brake to put me in a broadside slide. I then grabbed a hand full of throttle to bring me out of the slide and turned with him. That was on a Honda ST1300. I touched him with my elbow and that was all. I never could have done that without dirt bike experience. I never had to think about it. My body just reacted.

Must have been 13-14 when i started riding and it was on dirt, we marked a track in the forest to see who would go around it the fastest, i wasnt intersted in riding the blacktop until years later. I suppose everything you do on dirt is with a lighter touch, i mean the braking , accelerating, as you will slide out of control easier, also you move around a lot more on the bike, using your body weight as a balancer, all the years on dirt bikes have certainly saved my skin riding road bikes later on.

I seem to recall reading long ago that the most successful roadracers also started in the dirt.

I think there is a lot to be said for being able to deal with reduced traction situations and it's a lot easier to learn those things on a lightweight bike off road than on, say, an ST1100.

Rancho

Once again, probably says more about the age they started at than anything else. I think once you get to the top of the tree in road racing, you can deal with traction issues, regardless of the surface.

How about riders with road experience moving to dirt, are they less likely to crash than a new rider just starting on dirt? I think probably yes. So what did that prove? - that experience is good?

I am just starting to do a little dirt riding and it's obvious already that it's going to improve my street riding. I wish I'd had a dirt bike (and a place to ride it) when I was a kid.

I'm in your shoes--I've recently bought an XR600R and am getting it into shape to go out and learn a bit more about riding. I fully expect to toss it into the ground a number of times, but I'm more willing to push my and the bike's limits when it's relatively cheap to do so. Tossing an XR into the ground at 20mph is one thing. My FJR at the same speed would be expensive.

Rancho

Did you guys ever watch the motocross video Throttle? there is a segment on there about super motard and you could DEFINITELY tell who the dirt guys were vs. the road racers. The dirt guys looked natural in "unnatural" settings-ie. jumping, sliding, cornering on slick surfaces, etc. Just that small clip gives a snapshot as to how the dirt experience helps keep a person upright when things get out of round unexpectedly. Watching the road racers in their element is art at it's best, but when you need the skills it's nice to know that you've been down that road before so you can see it coming

After riding & racing SoCal desert (cross country) for lots of years I started to ride on the street, too. My initial thoughts when first transitioning was that those street guys must have superhuman skills in order to be able to control a bike with all that traction.

Ron