Description
When should you sit or stand for dual sport and adventure riding? And why? It depends on many factors. Our overall recommendation? If you are a beginner, you should sit on the seat while you learn the basic off-road techniques for riding on dirt roads and trails. Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia.Psychologically you will feel safer because you are lower to the ground. If you lose your balance it is much easier to put your boot on the ground when sitting. And it will be easier to focus on developing your basic skills. You might be very overweight and/or unfit. And I have seen some overweight riders who can still ride very fast simply because they have years of experience. Clutch and throttle control. Some of us stand on the foot pegs more often than needed simply because it's a good work out, especially for your body core. So there are plenty of reasons to stand on the foot pegs a lot when off-road riding. But there are also reasons to not bother learning this riding technique, or only using it when absolutely needed. Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. Correct gear selection. Braking. And cornering. But once you acquire those basic skills, we recommend you work toward standing on the footpegs as much as possible when riding off-road. Why? It is very tempting to sit on the motorbike most of the time, and only stand on the foot pegs when you really need to. But when you sit on the seat your body is effectively just a lump of dead meat. When you stand, your body becomes a dynamic part of expanding your riding skills and handling off-road terrain better. Once you are fully comfortable with standing, you can then pick and choose when to sit or stand. The benefits of standing? Extra suspension. Your legs and arms act as extra suspension to soak up big bumps. Most adventure motorbikes have about 230mm or nine inches of suspension. Your legs and arms provide at least that much movement again. Body positioning. For many of us there's also the fun factor. Once you are fully confident with standing you may find yourself doing it more than you need to simply because it's fun. It can feel a bit like flying. It's quieter away from the engine noise. And finally... exercise. Stretching your legs. Even on the highway it make sense to stand on the foot pegs regularly just to change your body position and move your legs around. Just make sure this is legal in your country. In recent years it has become legal in most Australian states. You can move your body forward or to the rear for ascents and descents to keep your motorbike well balanced. If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. This also applies for heavy acceleration or braking. And when riding in soft sand or mud it helps to have your body weight to the rear. When cornering you can move your body from side to side. Ditto if your wheels are sliding around on a loose surface. You can quickly move your body to correct for the loss of traction. And you can used advanced riding techniques like weighting and de-weighting the foot pegs. Visibility. Most of us have experienced riding along a smooth dirt road then suddenly hitting a pot hole or patch of loose gravel we didn't see. When standing on the foot pegs you have a much greater chance of spotting potential issues, especially if you have a windscreen. If you just cruise around slowly all the time then sitting will be fine. Also some larger adventure motorbikes have ergonomics that make standing awkward, like the Suzuki V-strom 650. They aren't really intended to do any rough off-road terrain. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. This is one of our three channels, there's also a Cross Training Trials channel, and a Cross Training Enduro channel. All we are saying is there's also the budget option for adventure riding. And it won't hold you back. Why? We reckon it's 80% the rider and 20% the bike. So the Cross Training Adventure focus is just get out there and have fun on two wheels. Instead of obsessing over the latest blinged out Beemer, which tyres to fit or spending a fortune on your suspension or billet alloy gas cap. So subscribe. Or don't subscribe to our Cross Training Adventure riding channel. The main thing is get out and ride while you can with dual sport riding or Adventure riding in Australia, Canada, Vietnam, Romania and beyond! So check out Cross Training Adventure.
INDEX
0:12 Learners should sit
1:25 Reasons to stand
3:29 Reasons to not stand
4:16 Bike setup
5:01 Correct body position
5:35 Your comfort zone
Our website: https://sites.google.com/view/crosstrainingenduro
Our enduro channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrossTrainingEnduroSkills
Our trials channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MOTOTRIALSTRAININGTECHNIQUES
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#dualsportbikes