Satisfied - this was one of those days that makes one feel that the world is a great place. Rose tinted this may be and problems a plenty but it made no difference. I wanted for nothing else but to be on a dirt bike on a sunny day after some rain in De Wildt. I was looking forward to the ride and could not wait. Not as bad as waking up at 3:00am on Saturday morning, but close. Tombstone has this area as his weekend hang-out and one could not wish for a better guide. Sixteen riders made the trek to the far side of Pretoria and a 140km dirt ride from Morula Sun to Jericho and back. Jericho is in itself not remarkable apart from a large rock that presents one with a daunting challenge to ride up. Tombstone got a warm welcome from the local community which can only help keep riding areas open to bikes. Sports equipment was donated to the local school which included soccer balls and goals. The next superstar may be practicing already. My day began well by arriving early for a buffet breakfast before the ride. Not a bad way to start the day. I had an omelet which I never bother making at home. Some strong coffee also went down well.   Life sometimes makes obvious circles and one gets a chance to try things again. I did a Newbie ride a while ago with MuddX and this was going to be a re-test. Riding at De Wildt is always a test actually.  To my horror, not long into the ride I was faced with a long rocky downhill called Aloes. Not to worry I had my positive mood to get me down in one piece. I did have a slow rider in front of me which gave me some time to catch my breath. We then dropped into a washed out river bed. What fun. We had to ride out the sides if it was rocky or full of water. Then we did a track which had large puddles of water which had an agricultural smell to them which we all managed to get covered in. Wonderful fun and no worries. This was my day to enjoy splashing mud everywhere and that I was covered in it did not matter. One of the riders managed to kill his bike in a larger puddle and was pulling his bike out when I went flying past not giving a thought that he was actually stuck. Shark_za went back to rescue him. My apology.  At around this time we got a lecture from Tombstone on how one is to cross water without getting stuck. It turned out that two rivers later, the one and only, managed to drown his bike. This exercise proved to be a challenge not only to get the bike going but not to be left holding a tool. I think the chiefs managed well at passing the tool. I stayed out of the way and prayed that my bike would not break down. It seemed that KTM’s where in the wars and mine must have been on the list. At least my bike was far enough down that we did not get to it.  The masses where becoming restless and started demanding a shebeen stop. We went to the Coconuts shebeen and where greeted by singing children. I did not find out why but I hoped it was something to do with 2010. Fuel bought in 2l coke bottles and beers in quarts we enjoyed our stop.  Next was the Three Fences river bed. This is a wide winding sand pit. I never really got my bike flying but speed is the extent of technique required. Some large personal dangling bits help. Nothing being implied regarding my endowment, I was only looking after my own interests. I did manage a tumble or two and brushed it off with I am not trying hard enough if I never fall. No harm done. Next was something different. We rode through dense scrub having to make a million twists and turns. Nintendo games have nothing on this. This is real adrenaline pumping action. One could go as fast as you know what was just mentioned allowed.  It also involved the crossing of three river in flood for De Wildt – the rivers actually had water in them. We managed so cross just about every imaginable type of terrain in our own backyard. Jerico awaited and the climb of the brave. I took the easy route and got to the top in no time only to get lost trying to get down. Another mountain conquered, sorry could not resist.  Another pit stop at a shebeen in Jerico with blaring techno music. Can you imagine. The masses had rugby to play, sorry support and plans made for a quick escape route back. So the group became four.  The day was not done and Coconuts was the last challenge. I was hoping the we would stop and be given the option of taking an easier route back but this was not to be. It gets its name from the size of the rocks one has to ride over. They do not make for a controlled ride and some blind faith is needed to remain going in the right direction. I did manage to get launched off my bike. I made it to the top in one piece but physically spent. In my exhausted state getting back home was a mission for survival. I did not mind somehow and took this in my stride. We got back at 5:30pm. Tired but happy, a perfect day in everyway. Many thanks to Tombstone for a magnificent day’s riding.  Click on the polaroid to view the whole album.

We did another one anyway, folks were asking so much that I decided to give it another whirl.

Well, what a great ride!

The riders were: Brad, Richard, Peter, Leon, Anfried, Keith, Brian, Justin, Renato, Tyrone, Anton (marshal), Tiaan (marshal), Steve (Marshal), and yours truly.

The route I planned took a lot of technnical riding into the start of the ride and then eased off. This was to make sure that the guys could get a taste of the technical stuff before they got too tired. So we left the hotel (had to wait about 10 minutes at the boom for a local funeral procession to pass) and headed along the normal newbie route to the start of the Coconuts/Long Rocks T-Junction road. This is where we changed it up! Up the T-Junction road and down Long Rocks.

It was really cool that a bunch of our usual ride buddies: Nolan, Sean, Andre, Etienne, Brad, Justin, Tom and others were riding their own style and route but in a similar direction, so besides hooking up with all of them for breakfast at the hotel before the ride (I strongly recommend this approach to a day’s riding at De Wildt), we also met them a couple of times on the ride. The base of Long Rock being the first.

From Long Rocks we rode down the the River Bed where the serious technical stuff kicked in since we stayed in the River Bed until the Coconuts exit. Unfortunately we lost three riders before we got to the Coconuts due to a nasty bale and fitness. However, those that left us got back to the hotel safely and happily.

 From the Coconuts exit, it was off to Big Tree, then the MX Section, then the trail to 3-Fences. Instead of 3-Fences, we opted for the Twisties given that the 3-Fences river bed is horrible during this time of year. Go figure…. 7km of river bed whooped out down to bedrock. Not pleasant! 3-Fences Shop saw us hook up with the rest of the breakfast crew again and it was all good times over a couple of beers listening to how they had tried to cut a new trail up the mountain between Aloes and the V. Much respect boys…. but not for me thank you.

After 3-Fences we headed back to the river and rode the banks of the river until we got to the point where we dropped into the River Bed from Long Rocks in the morning. A vote was taken on whether the guys wanted to continue up the River Bed again to conclude the ride by riding up Coconuts or to jump out of the bed at this point and head for the hotel. The majority voted technical!

And so it was. We rode up teh River Bed again, took the Coconuts exit and trailed up to the base of Coconuts. At this point I gave some basic tips on how to conquer Coconuts and headed up to the top. Everybody bar 1 got there on their own, some just took a bit longer than others. Renato…. good effort anyway bud (but I gotta tell ya… I hate walking down Cocos).

Back at the hotel it was the usual boerie rolls and beers which led to some really good and liquid socialising when the res of the breakfast crew arrived. However this was not before MuddX’s standard ride awars was given to Leon for really having an issue with staying upright on two wheels after the 3-Fences shop ;-). A close runner up was Peter who provided us with quality entertainment with the depth of mud he got his bike stuck in and the recruitment of half a township to get it out.

I’m sure I speak for everyone there on the day when I say “Another great day in Africa!!”

Photos to follow

Dear Noobie Dirt Biker.

There are two types of dirt biker out there. The Motocrosser (these are the folk that prefer track riding with jumps and berms and the like), and the Enduro rider or outrider (that’s me – take your bike out into the bush and deal with what nature throws at you).

If you’re just getting into the game and the “outride” option is the one doing it for you right now then read on.

MuddX (Pty) Ltd is an organization committed to extreme sports, initially in South Africa, with specific focus at the moment on dirt biking. We do this through the marketing of branded apparel and products and the organization and hosting of tours and events.

One event that has had enormous success this year is our monthly Introduction to Outrides and De Wildt.

One of the biggest problems for new enduro enthusiasts is that the available places to go and ride in Gauteng are very limited, and due to the ever increasing number of like minded enthusiasts, very crowded. Most folk in this game have heard of the De Wildt area in the North West Province near Brits. It is considered the mecca for outriding if you’re from the Gauteng or North West Provinces. The only problem is that it has this stigma attached that it is only suitable for intermediate or extremely seasoned riders. This is absolutely not so!!!!

What our Introduction to Outrides and De Wildt events tries to accomplish are the following:

• Introduce new offroad riders to a proper Outride
• Introduce new offroad riders to De Wildt
• Provide some low-level rider training
• Make sure that everyone has so much fun and gains enough confidence to return on their own and enjoy this sport

How we do this is very simple. We take between 20 – 25 riders on a well organised outride that leaves from and returns to the Morula Sun Hotel. The pace of the ride is limited to that of the slowest in the group. We have frequent stops to:

• Show you where you are in the De Wildt area, with specific reference to recognisable landmarks
• Explain the type of terrain coming up
• Explain how best to ride the terrain coming up

There are usually at least five MuddX riders to assist. One in the lead, one at the rear, one on each flank, and one roving up and down the rider column. We make sure that nobody gets lost, that nobody is pushed beyond their limits, and that everybody has fun. If there is an obstacle on the trail that a rider is not comfortable with, there is never any pressure to attack it. One of the MuddX riders will either take your bike across the obstacle for you or show you an alternate route around it.

There is a drinks and snacks stop approximately 65% of the way into the ride and a boerie roll braai and drinks waiting at the Hotel when we return.

The Morula Sun Hotel is approximately an hour’s drive from Johannesburg. We meet there between 8:00 and 8:30 and try to get riding by as close to 9:00 as we can. We usually return back to the Hotel by 14:00-14:30.

The event will cost each rider R175 which includes the half way snacks and drinks and the final braai and drinks. The hotel swimming pool is also available for a nominal charge of R10 per head.

If this interests you, give me a shout on 083 615 8776 or drop me an e-mail at steve.lauter@iafrica.com

Our next one will be on Saturday, August 16^th 2008.

Hope to see you there

Steve Lauter

Some comments from previous participants:

Had the best time ever out at Dewildt on Saturday, and you did a great job organising it all. Thanks again and I look forward to riding with you guys now that I’m more confident … the riverbed and 3 Fences and Back of the Moon that we couldn’t fit in.

*******************************************************************************************************************************……and I think you and your crew deserve all the plaudits you get. It was an excellent day out…..This rates as probably one of the best days of riding I had since I started. Did not feel compelled to do anything I was not comfortable with. Challenging as well.*******************************************************************************************************************************Thank you so much for the ride on 3 Feb. it was great I learned so much and a very big thank you to all the guys that helped me out on the ride they were really great, I will definitely be there on the next one please book me in, just let me know when the money is requiredOnce again thank you so much*******************************************************************************************************************************Just to say thank you for the ride on Saturday, think it is the best ride I have had at DeWilt. It was nice to ride up front and not to be worrying about getting lost or upsetting people by riding too slow. It was a great confidence boost for me as I realized my riding skills are not as bad as I thought, it is my fitness that needs worked on. Thanks again for your help and patience with us slower riders. Best R150.00 I have spent since I got my bike ! Thanks to all involved. *******************************************************************************************************************************Awesome, awesome day, I feel so much better about riding, still not where I want to be but you and your helpers are awesome. Please book me in for the next one, just let me know when************************************************************************Hi Steve, had a great time on Saturday. Thanks to you and your team for a really well organised ride.**********************************************************************************Well done again. Very well organized. Awesome, and thanks again.********************************************************Thanks so much for a fantastic ride on Saturday. It was really awesome! Please keep me on your mailing list as I hope to join the rides as often as possible.*****************************************************************************Big ups to you and the sweepers, thanks for another fantastic day out at De Wildt….I have been to both these Newbie rides and to everyone considering them, they are well worth it. Organisation was fantastic. Once again thank you for an unreal day in bringing a no go zone for newbies to us…*****************************************************************************Just wanted to say great job on this past saturday, it was an awesome day out in the dirt. Would like to thank you and the rest of the guys that helped out for a great ride and introduction to DeWildt. Would glady join if anymore of these socials are to happen, (please keep me informed).****************************************************************************Just wanted to say great job on this past saturday, it was an awesome day out in the dirt. Would like to thank you and the rest of the guys that helped out for a great ride and introduction to DeWildt. Would glady join if anymore of these socials are to happen, (please keep me informed). *****************************************************************************Thanks again for a great day on Saturday, I feel like I am getting better and better all the time Its awesome!!!!!!!!!!!My confidence is way up there, I can join in on Sams race on 17th  thanks to you and your guys : )*****************************************************************************To all who attended the ride on Sat I just like to say thanks you’re a great bunch and i had a lot of fun. To Steve and Brad and Sean and all the other marshalls , a special thanks, it was far better than expected and I believe that for people who haven’t realy experienced DeWildt properly this would defenately be my recommendation of the way to do it especially for the first time. Steve great organisation far better than expected and I will return as my small brain coudn’t process all the directions and markers in one ride. Will need a few more in order to really get my bearings. Thanks a lot guys, keep up the performance, you’re doing a great job of promoting the sport. *****************************************************************************Hey Steve,Thanks again for the ride on Saturday…best fun I’ve had on my bike so far.******************************************************Hi Steve,Just a quick note to say thanks for a great ride on Saturday, Having done the Newbie Ride a month ago, and now the intermediate, it has certainly given me the confidence to go to Dewildt with mates, and would be highly recommended to anyone I meet.******************************************************Hi Steve,Thanks for a great day on Saturday,  I really enjoyed myself and liked the terrain at De Wildt. I will certainly be back, keen to try out the tougher sections and get more familiar with the area.***********************************************Thank you once again for a perfect day : )

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We had a great ride the weekend at De Wildt and will be back soon thanks for the effort and time spent with us newbies.***********************************************Hi Steve, Just to say thank you for another great ride on Saturday.  Once again just like to say thanks to you for giving your time to us slow riders and newbies. It is really appreciated. Please pass my thanks on to Brad, Anthony and all who helped on Saturday. ***********************************************Man, that was an awesome ride, can’t wait for the next one. Those who have not done one of these rides do yourself a favour and go on the next one. The terrain is so varied and the marshals are very helpful. I learnt a lot and can’t wait to try it out on the next ride. Definitely the best ride I have done.

I have started collecting donations, starting with my own of R250.00. You can add R10 or R10 000, whatever you feel like.

During the last week of July, I will take what has been collected and I intend buying a set of portable soccer goals, soccer balls, cricket kit, baseball kit, netball kit, and rugby balls.

On Saturday 9 August (Woman’s Day), I’d like you, whether you contributed or not, to join me at the Bafana Bafana Tavern at Jericho for a braai, drinks, some dirt biking and the handing over of the sports equipment to the school.Families are welcome. Trials bike riders are welcome. The Rock itself is only about 1km from the Tavern. There is plenty local riding ground to have some fun.The bank account details are:Nedbank
Branch: Killarney Mall 191605
Account name:S Lauter
Account no: 1916062660

You don’t have to put your name down if you want to remain anonymous but please put ROCK in the reference so that I know that the amount it is for this cause.

For more info, you can mail me at steve.lauter@iafrica.com. I have posted this on 25/07/2008, only 3 weeks before the handover of the sports equipment and I have collected almost R7000.00 so far!!!

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It’s Sunday, 10th August 2008. The “Project” was delivered yesterday. WOW!!!! Before I tell you all the story let me first throw out a massive thank you to all the dirt bike community who raised R14 500.00 which was delivered in the form of the desired sports equipment and a R5 000.00 cheque made out to the primary school.

By Monday morning, 4th August we had collected R9 500.00 and I was looking forward to going for some retail therapy on behalf of the kids at Jericho. So off I went to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Fourways with a nice big shopping list.

For their soccer requirement I bought 7 soccer sets, each including a bag, a ball, a pair of shin guards, cones, a water bottle, and a pump. I bought a really up-quality match ball. I bought a pair of dismantleable netted goals.

For their rugby requirement I bought 10 rugby sets, each including a bag, a ball, a water bottle, a pump, training cones, and a kicking tee.

For their netball requirement I bought 2 freestanding netball posts complete with netted hoops, 2 practice balls, and a match ball.

For their cricket requirement I bought 3 cricket sets, each including 2 bats, 2 sets of stumps and bails, 2 sets of batsmen’s pads, 2 sets of batsmen’s gloves, 1 set of wicket keeper pads and gloves, 4 balls for hard and soft play, 10 marker cones, and a score book.

They had asked for baseball but unfortunately the cost of baseball equipment was too rich for our budget, but….

I bought a netted basketball hoop and 2 basketballs. I bought 4 tennis racquets and 4 packs of tennis balls. And finally, lest we forget the folks that have to hep these kids, I bought 3 referee/coach whistles.

Another big thank you to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Fourways for also assisting by stretching our rands a little.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 5th August, I was standing at O R Tambo airport getting ready to fly to Durban when I received a phone call from one of the guys who has already made a sizeable donation in his own right. He told me that his company loved the initiative, would like to get involved, and would like to donate R5 000.00. Wow!!! Unfortunately the shopping was done so a cheque was made out to the primary school for that amount. Awesome.

Yesterday morning a bunch of dirt bikers, some with their families, all met at Hartbeespoort Dam from where we left in convoy to Jericho, some 55km away in the general direction of Brits and beyond. On arrival, our cars were herded onto the school’s sports field by a huge group of children in school uniform literally singing us in. Even the most grizzly, gnarly bikers had lumps in their throats.

We unloaded all the equipment onto one of the netball fields in front of a couple of gazebos where all the local dignataries were gathered. Next to them were parents and teachers of all the kids, and place for all of us to take our seats. We were greeted by one of the teachers who acted as MC for the day and who called the local reverend for a brief scripture reading and prayer. I must admit the whole evangelistic “Gimme a halleluyah” kind of thing was quite cool. We were then introduced to the local tribal authority official who delivered his welcome and then to the one of the most important men there, the tribal chief. This guy carries serious weight and commands respect from those around him in a way that I was quite unused to. Then it was my turn. I got the opportunity to present the equipment by sports type to the captain and coach of each discipline. It was amazing to see how cricket and rugby captains were made on the spot! There were pleas by almost all the speech makers for folk who knew the sports to try and find time to come through to Jericho more often to help teach and coach in those two sports which they as, a community, are aching to play. Unfortunately, there is only so much some of us can do. I finally had the opportunity to introduce Lassy and Hannes, who were making the cash donation, to the dignataries. This went down very well.

Final speeches of gratitude were then made by JJ and a final, very moving one by JJ’s own son, also a pupil at the school. Man, I got a huge kick out of the “Viva Tombstone Viva” bit!

The children went to get kitted up for various sports events that were going to continue into the afternoon but it was requested that a very brief dirt bike demo was asked for by the main manne. Hmmmm….ok. Tom and I unloaded our bikes, did a couple of short wheelies on the soccer field, and gave a couple of the small kids a slow ride around the field. We loaded our bikes and took a small tour around the school. 

And then we all headed for the Bafana Bafana tavern. Round two was about to begin.

At the tavern we all headed immediately to the bar to wash out dry throats with quarts of Zamalek (black label beer) icy cold as only African shebeens know who to keep them. After the first three or four gulps had got us back to a feeling of general humanity again, we unloaded our bikes, lit the fires in the braais that had been provided next to long covered tables and chairs that had also been prepared for us and went for our first ride. This was to the Rock. A few of us rode up and down this huge mound of stone and then headed back to the Tavern. One of us rode half way up and fell down the rest…. ouch Brad. (P.S. Brad 3 - The Rock 2. I think that’s the score at the moment).

The fires were just right and, after grabbing another beer, we started braaing. The families that joined us sans bikes were already getting into the swing of things. The afternoon was fantastic. Those that wanted to ride more did so - the Jericho River Bed is another big attraction. Others, like yours truly, decided to spend the afternoon eating, drinking and talking with the locals. How often do us whities get to experience something like this?

As it happens, JJ’s brother Koos, yes his name is Koos, lives across the road from the Tavern. It was the most wonderful thing for a whole bunch of us to be invited into his modest lounge to join him and JJ to watch the rugby.

Bar one unfortunate incident late in the afternoon, although I did get all my credit cards and license back and there wasn’t much cash left anyway, and I suppose this is Africa, it was one hellava day!!! Dirt biking is a fantastic sport, the social aspect of it is a huge passion of mine given the people and experiences and acquaintances and friends I get out of it. This one rated right up there with the best ever.

Click on the polaroid to view the whole album.

So I’d like to thank all of you and welcome all the new folk to our site. We hope it gets to be as rewarding to as it seems to have been to our old faithfull!

Hi Steve

Checked out the Grootkak site. Great! Thats what I like reading about and learning from. I have been on Cfrsonly.com  lately  - only because the content is relative to biking and much info can be learned from experts in their field………

………Good luck - I will support as much as possible.

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Glad to see the site is up and running ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Cool !

Well *&% me. I went to check the site and saw a picture of such a hot bike that my instant hard on obscured the screen and I have not been able to see the rest of what is there. When it subsides in a day or so I will check out the rest of the site. Looks really good so far though !  (***note this mail came from the fellow who bought my last bike, which is on the front page )

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F*** at last!!  Make sure all the old stuff is still on with the members. Well done bud _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________thanks Steve always good reading

The most common and most excellent thing you would use a wheelie for and, please believe me, you will find it excellent, is going through water. I’m not talking about crossing a river, although I know a couple of dudes who’ll give gas through a river anyway. I mean a small, shallowish stream, a fair sized puddle, or mud. When you go through any of these, you’ll find that the faster you try get through it, the wetter you get. The reason for this is quite obvious, your front wheel is displacing the water and you are sitting behind your front wheel! If you go through these on your back wheel, your back wheel displaces the water and, well, your buddy is behind your back wheel. And it looks cool. How high you lift your front wheel is irrelevant, as long as it’s out of the water. Bear in mind though, that any of these obstacles is exactly that, an obstacle, therefore creating more friction and slowing you down. Because of this, your front wheel will naturally be coming down sooner. It’s a physics thing. Anyway, in order to successfully wheelie through rivers, puddles or mud, you need to get some practice under your belt in order to get a feel for how you judge how high you want to lift your wheel and how fast you want to do it depending on the length and/or depth of the obstacle in question.

The next place you want to go vertical is over ditches. It is not unusual to come across a narrow, deep ditch in the middle of the trail. Sometimes the width is almost as wide as the bike is long, and very often it is definitely wider than your front wheel. Well, when presented with this little obstacle, you can do one of three things:

1)  You don’t see it until it’s too late and you go across the ditch at full-tilt. Gravity does its thing (yeah, yeah, it’s a physics thing again) and your front wheel dips. What happens next is pretty painful, usually at the cost of a collar-bone (been there, done that). Your front wheel is lower than lip of the other side and you ride, at pace, into the wall on the other side of the ditch. Because of the speed you’re at, your front wheel stops dead, your front forks compress, and your back wheel continues, in a cartwheel-like fashion, over your front wheel. You get to feel like the unfortunate rock in an ancient roman catapult as you rapidly watch your handlebars and front fender disappear beneath and behind you as you are hurtled over them into the ground on the other side of the ditch.

2)  You do see it in time, but all you can do is grab all the brakes you can find and deal with manhandling your scoot over the ditch when, hopefully, you have stopped in time to prevent injury or damages.

3)  You can get your front wheel up and carry on styling over the ditch like it didn’t matter! The trick is to gauge the height of your wheelie so that front wheel stays up long enough to get over the far wall of the ditch. It doesn’t matter how high or low, as long as it clears the lip. The next thing that happens is your back wheel hits the lip of the wall of the side your front wheel has just cleared. This action will bring your front wheel down to ground really fast…yes, you got it, physics!! Beware of the potential kick up at the back.

You will get to that point on a ride one day where you are confronted with a very steep, if not vertical, pretty high drop off. Sure if you hit it at pace the momentum will keep your bike horizontal enough that, even though you may get to the ground front wheel first, the angle will be negligible and you’ll be ok. But if you have stopped to check it out, which is the smart thing to do if you’re new to this game, you don’t have that momentum any more. So what do you do? Well you can backtrack enough to build up enough speed to come off at pace, you can try ride off and hope it’s not steep enough or high enough that you end up eye-to-eye with mother earth, or you can get that front wheel up again. A little pop-up and you’re down on the ground with your back wheel first. Your cushy back shocks taking the hit for you and it all feels good. Even if you come off the top with some pace, getting the front wheel higher than the back on a drop off is always a much more comfortable landing.

As you practice and get used to wheeling and popping, you’ll find more and more uses. Getting over a fallen tree – you need to get that front wheel up and over. Negotiating up rocky steps. Finding how a low wheelie, with your front wheel only dabbing every now and then, is great for riding rocks. But I digress; you all want the answer to the burning question – how?

Ok, my technique may not be the best for everybody. But I’ll share with you what I know and try and relate some insight on how to learn. First off, there are three different wheelies: just popping the front wheel up, a power wheelie, and a balance wheelie.

Popping the wheel up. Used mostly for clearing the rock step, the fallen log, or getting the front wheel up for a drop off. You can achieve this by getting the bike in a low gear, leaning back and cranking the throttle open just at the beginning of your power band. Or you can rev it up a bit and “pop” the clutch. The bike can stand up very quickly and very steeply, beware. I actually used this technique to learn to wheelie when I was a youngster. I used do what they called (or call??) moonwalking From a dead standstill, with your feet on the ground, you rev the bike up in first gear and pop the clutch. The bike stands straight up and you literally walk with the bike. Watch out for damage to the back fender when doing this – too far up and you’re dragging it with you on the ground.

Power wheelie. This is my firm favourite and I spend a lot of time doing these whether sitting or standing. By the very nature of its name, you need to assess the power of your own bike to know which gear to try and bring your bike up in. On my KTM 300 EXC, for a sitting wheelie, I am able to quite easily power it up in first, second or third gears. For a standing wheelie I’m good to go in first, second, third or fourth. The idea is to find the “sweet spot”. For me the sweet spot is the angle where my front wheel is high enough that gravity is not pulling it down too much but not that high that I am flipping over backward (it’s still pretty high though – finding this place is the scariest part of learning to wheelie). In a sitting wheelie, I shift my weight to the back of the bike and crank the throttle open at the start of the power band. Mother nature, the power of my scoot and, of course, physics, do their thing and my scoot stands up. On my way to, or just before, the sweet spot I often change up a gear. This has the effect of slowing down the climb to vertical a bit and providing longer legs to play in the sweet spot. I usually get pretty comfortable here and shift gears at my leisure. Be careful, if your wheel is pointing too far up and you gear down, you’re probably going to flip over backwards with the sudden rush of power to the back wheel. If you gear up, you are going to gain speed, careful when you put your front down – its fast! A standing wheelie is pretty similar – weight back, grip with your knees, crank it up at the start of the band with a bit of bounce and pull to help her up. Find the sweet spot and cruise. All excellent fun – when you get it, you’ll love it. It is nothing shy of absolute exhilaration to cruise on your back wheel. And…..it looks cool!

Do not, I repeat, do not try and race your buddies while in a wheelie. You get too comfortable, think you’re king of the world, your buddy flies past you, you crank her up, and…..you flip over backwards!

Balance wheelie. Enter into the realm of the expert. This is where you get your bike up really high and keep it there regardless of speed, usually much slower actually. This is a delicate choreography of throttle and back brake. The more you throttle, the more the front will stand up. Touch the back brake and the front will come down. I know the science, I haven’t got this one right yet, but I will. Wang Gang Gang’s Garth “Vertical” Smitherim is gonna teach me!

Finally, some golden rules:

1)  Wheelies are dangerous, its not if you’ll flip, it’s when you’ll flip. Never play on the back wheel without wearing, at the very least, your helmet and your gloves.

2) The back brake is your friend. The back brake is your friend. The back brake is your friend. Just the smallest dab on the back brake will bring your front wheel down to earth very quickly – excellent clench-factor remedy.

3)  Strange as it may seem, a slightly faster wheelie is much easier than a slow wheelie. Because you have more spin on your front wheel, you have a gyroscopic effect assisting you, the very reason we can balance on two wheels in motion in the first place……physics my friends, physics. A slow wheelie relies far more on balance and skill.

4)  It is far easier to wheelie on a hard surface like tar. The traction helps your power transfer between the drive mechanism and the back wheel act on your bike instead of the ground, therefore getting you airborne quicker. Yep, physics. But, when you flip, it’s much harder, much more painful, and much more expensive to repair. That one isn’t physics, that’s just common sense – stoopid hurts.

Hope you get it right, it’s worth it. See you in the dirt.

Keep the shiny side up and ride it like you stole it.

Steve “Tombstone” Lauter

The basics – a two stroke motor is so named because there are only two strokes in a cycle – a compression stroke and a combustion stroke. A four stroke motor has intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust. In a two stroke engine, start with the point where the spark plug sparks. Fuel and air in the cylinder have been compressed, and when the spark plug fires, the mixture ignites. The resulting explosion forces the piston downward. Note that as the piston moves downward, it is compressing the air/fuel mixture in the crankcase. As the piston approaches the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust port is uncovered. The pressure in the cylinder drives most of the exhaust gases out of cylinder. As the piston finally bottoms out, the intake port is uncovered. The piston’s movement has pressurized the mixture in the crankcase, so it rushes into the cylinder, displacing the remaining exhaust gases and filling the cylinder with a fresh charge of fuel. Now the momentum in the crankshaft starts driving the piston back toward the spark plug for the compression stroke. As the air/fuel mixture in the piston is compressed, a vacuum is created in the crankcase. This vacuum opens the reed valve and sucks air/fuel/oil in from the carburetor. Once the piston makes it to the end of the compression stroke, the spark plug fires again to repeat the cycle. A four stroke engine works like this: The piston starts at the top, the intake valve opens, and the piston moves down to let the engine take in a cylinder-full of air and petrol. This is the intake stroke. Only the tiniest drop of petrol needs to be mixed into the air for this to work. Then the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture. Compression makes the explosion more powerful. When the piston reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plug emits a spark to ignite the petrol. The petrol charge in the cylinder explodes, driving the piston down. Once the piston hits the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust valve opens and the exhaust leaves the cylinder to go out the exhaust pipe. Probably the most confusing novice question on the issue is why do you mix two-stroke oil with petrol in a two stroke engine? To most rookies, this is the definitive difference between a 2-stroker and a 4-banger. Now that the way the motors work has been explained and the oil isn’t really why they are different, let’s check the oil issue out. In a four-stroke engine, the crankcase is completely separate from the combustion chamber, so you can fill the crankcase with heavy oil to lubricate the crankshaft bearings, the bearings on either end of the piston’s connecting rod and the cylinder wall. In a two-stroke engine, on the other hand, the crankcase is serving as a pressurization chamber to force air/fuel into the cylinder, so it can’t hold thick oil. Instead, you mix oil in with the gas to lubricate the crankshaft, connecting rod and cylinder walls. If you forget to mix in the oil, the engine isn’t going to last very long! Why is the exhaust header (the piece that comes directly out of the motor) so thick on a two stroke compared to the thin exhaust pipes on a four stroke? This little bit of engineering always intrigued me. You ever notice on a two stroke the oily discharge out the back of the pipe and the four stroke always looks so clean? Well, since the exhaust is pushed out of the cylinder in the same stroke that fuel/air mixture is sucked in from being compressed in the crankcase, and even though the intake port and the exhaust port are at different heights in the cylinder so that the piston can block one of them while the other is open, some of the fuel/air mix will still find its way into the exhaust. Bearing in mind, the high pressure that this “escaping fuel” will be under, imagine that when the exhaust is expelled some of the expelled air/fuel mix will be leaving the cylinder at a really high speed. All of this leaves into the thick header pipe which tapers off into the thin exhaust pipe. The shape of the header and the tapering off causes some of the escaped air/fuel mix to “bounce” back into the cylinder to be used in the next combustion stroke. Obviously some of it doesn’t make it back and that’s the discharge you see on a two-stroke pipe. Some of this explanation may be making some lights come on in terms of why they race 250 4-strokes in the MX2 class and 400-525 4-strokes in the MX1 class. Well, the classes used to be called 125 and 250. This was based on the engine capacity that was allowed to compete in the class. With four stroke motors making such great strides in engineering allowing them to be competitive in, what was once, a two-stroke dominated sport, the engine capacity classification had to be revisited. Why, you may ask? Well, considering that a 125cc four stroke has double the piston strokes that a 125 two stroke has, it is obvious that the two stroke 125 is going to have double the power of the four stroke 125. This is because power is delivered to the back wheel in half the time – 2 strokes instead of 4. Therefore, the average horsepower of a four stroke is the same as that of a two stroke half it’s capacity. So, MX2 now has 125 two strokes competing with 250 four strokes and 250 two strokes competing with 400+ four strokes. Theoretically, the power in the classes is consistent for competition. So now you’re waiting for the million-dollar comment – which is better? Well I’m not going to tell you! Each has it’s pros and cons. But which is best depends only on you. They are different rides, the provide different rushes, and for every champion of a two-stroke, you’ll find a champion of a four-stroke. What bike do I ride? Well……….I ride two-strokes. In fact, I am a two-stroke nut. But that’s just me! The bad news however, is that two strokes have a shelf life right now. Environmentalists have shouted them down and in some states in the USA they are illegal. The gut-feel on the street is that two-strokes will only be available for the next 5 – 6 years. If you are new to the game, try get a ride on both types before you go out and buy a bike. You really need to “feel” the difference to really make your personal preference. Keep the shiny side up and ride it like you stole it. Steve “Tombstone” Lauter