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Did a ktm motocross experience day yesterday. Never had even sat on a motorbike before! Great day and I'm thinking of buying a ktm bike to learn better skillz and the idea of Green laning or enduro riding sounds appealing. Just wonder what the reality of this means in terms of access to good routes, transporting the bike, etc anyone got any useful insights?
I raced enduro for a few years. The hare and hound variety (think xc mtb). There is a time card version which is more like rallying, or mtb enduro.
Depends where you are but expect a fair amount of travel to get to races. Plenty to be had though. Enduro practice tracks are fairly unusual but you can use mx tracks.
Much like mtb a bike rack can fit to your tow hook, or use a trailer, van, pickup etc. Riding to a race isn’t wise as broken bikes are pretty common.
You spend as much timing cleaning and maintaining as you do racing. You really need to be able to do your own mechanics or you’ll need very deep pockets.
Green laning is the equivalent of riding a mountain bike on a canal tow path.
Green laning in North Wales is ace, some proper tricky stuff.
Wales still has good access, worth joining the TRF.
For transport as mentioned above, a rack works really well if you don’t want a trailer.
I have a Dave Cooper
I’ve also made an MTB rack from some scrap 40mm box and some old roof carriers that attacks to the mount.
Contact your local trf group
Learn about the ‘definitive map’ , these are published by councils and are the legally binding version of what tracks are what (OS, gps etc etc may or may not be totally accurate)
See http://www.rowmaps.com This is pretty good( beware colours of tracks they are non standard)
You can use only Boats ( byways open to all traffic) all other track classifications are not vehicle legal
FYI I gave up trf/trail riding a while ago, main reason being that accessible tracks got done over and the England/Wales amount dropped from about 5% of all tracks to nearer 2% so I’d check your local area and do some careful thinking as there may not be much locally and unlike a bicycle you,ll have annual costs (road ved, ins, mot etc and modern petrol seems to go off quite quickly so I always used mine a min of once a month)
Bike transport
- bike trailer or mate with one
- van
- tow bar bike rack *check tow bar noseweight usually 70kg for a “family car”better with big 4wd etc
- I could get a beta alp 200 (trial style trail bike)in a Berlingo car (just)
- ride,as it’s road legal
For me it was the most fun I’ve ever had but it is different times now.........
**edit you cant ride on restricted byways (restricted means vehicles are restricted) just plain old byway/boat tracks
Thanks guys, really helpful!
A few bikers have gone over to electric ktms in the South Downs...
I rode on the green lanes and enduro for quite a few years and was great fun, though in the end the reclassification of Road Used as Public Path (RUPP) to Restricted Byway killed the green laning for most of the country.
And as said the time in the garage cleaning and fixing finished it off for me. Though I'd take it up again if time allowed one day (I kept my riding gear just in case). It's absolutely great for fitness and such good fun. If you enjoy shiny things and buying kit there's plenty of that as well.
Just a thought though, how about just going for an electric bike (mountain bike), will give you access to a lot more riding. I know its not quite the same.
If your going to buy a bike to learn to ride and race I'd go with a GasGas EC200, super light and easy to ride and buy good tyres.
Have fun!
Definitely look at small two strokes if you’re going to race. If green lane / adventure stuff is more your leaning look at big 4 strokes - they’ll make green lanes more interesting and are practical on road.
It hasn’t come up... you need a motorbike licence, tax, mot insurance etc for green lanes (they’re just crappy roads). Enduro you [generally] don’t.