BMW Certified GS Off-Road Training

The weather in and along the Rocky Mountains can be unpredictable at best, especially in April. So after a few weeks of unseasonably warm weather, I was a little disappointed to wake up to sub-zero temperatures and freezing rain and a little snow on the morning of my scheduled BMW GS Off-Road Riding course. The course run rain or shine, although the website did not mention anything about snow… If you've seen Long Way Round then you may be familiar with BMW's introductory off-road riding course, I'd been looking forward to taking it for ages, and hey, if it is good enough for Ewan and Charlie, it is good enough for me.

The course is run by Blackfoot Motors , the local BMW Motorrad dealer here in Calgary (If you look closely, you can spot them in Long Way Down as well) and for $300 they provide a full day of off road instruction by BMW-certified off road instructors who know a thing or two about riding big GSes in the dirt. The training takes place at Calgary's excellent Blackfoot Wild Rose MX Park, which has a huge assortment of trails and varying terrain to challenge all levels of riders. We had the entire motorsport park to ourselves, they even provide lunch.

Having recently completed a 14 month, 48,000km tour of North, Central and South America on my trusty 2000 F650GS Dakar, I've done a fair bit of off road riding, I've ridden plenty of dirt tracks, mountain trails and back roads all over the hemisphere, however most of my off road riding skills were learned from a book, from fellow riders or more often than not, from trial and error. It was high time I learned from the experts, I would have taken the course before I left on my trip, but time and money were both in short supply before I left, so it was not to be.

The day started early, meeting for coffee, before heading off to the nearby training site as a group. We started off with some snacks and introductions by the 3 instructors and the men and women that made up the students. The age range and experience and skill sets were quite diverse, as were the collections of motorbikes on hand. There were a few R1200GSes, a couple of F800GSes, 3 Dakars (including mine), a Triumph Tiger 800XC, a couple of KLRs and a loan KTM 990 Adventure. The after learning the proper way to pick a massive R1200GS off the ground unassisted (it is surprisingly easy), discussions about riding positions, weight distribution, balance and standing on the pegs, a quick safety inspection of the participant bikes lead to the fun part, riding.

The first of many slow speed exercises involved riding around to get a better feel for the balance of the bike. Riders were asked to ride around a small circuit while kneeling on the seat of their bikes, riding side saddle, with the left foot on the right peg, using one hand and so on. We soon moved on to some super slow riding over rough terrain to practice throttle, brake and clutch control, while building on the balance and body positioning lessons we'd already learned. Then it was off to riding over obstacles and through raised wooden trenches. The course took a very logical approach, with each lesson building on the previous exercises; this made the riders comfortable about moving from one skill to another while demonstrating progress and building confidence. The 3 instructors provided a lot of personal and group feedback, while demonstrating the excises and showing some fantastic bike control, who knew an F800GS could slide that far sideways and still come back? It was pretty impressive.

After a quick lunch we were back on the bikes and learning about riding steep hills on dirt. The first part of the exercise was to practice the inevitable; riding up a hill then realizing it was too steep before making it to the top. This involved riding up a steep hill, stopping mid-way, stalling the engine, leaving it in gear and backing the bike down the hill using the clutch. Although the hill seemed really steep once we stopped the bike, getting down proved to be surprisingly easy. We warmed up to for the next phase, riding up and down very steep hills in soft dirt and sand by taking an extensive tour of the motocross park, where we would encounter an opportunity to use the skills we'd been learning, including hills, obstacles, curves, and a variety of surface conditions. Standing on the pegs for the entire route was more or less a given.

Arriving at the bottom of the hill climbing course, I was feeling a bit intimidated, the hill looked very steep and very sandy, not to mention very high. The object of this particular test was to ride up the steep section, and then ride down what appeared to be an even steeper descent as slow as possible. Even after the instructors had explained and demonstrated the technique several times, I was a bit nervous when my turn came. I let my speed carry me up the hill where I was met by one of the instructors who guided me to the descent route, around the corner another instructor coached me down the very sharp, sandy descent at a slow walking pace back to the starting position. It was not at all scary; in fact it was pretty fun. We repeated that drill many times until everyone had more or less mastered it, and then they added a degree of difficulty to the routine by adding a series of cones that needed to be navigated on the way down. This really challenged riders to start putting all the pieces together, throttle, clutch, braking and steering skills were put to the test. A few cones were blown off the hill due to the heavy winds, which also made the riding a bit more challenging, but everyone returned unscathed.

Sadly the weather was not cooperating, the winds had picked up, the temperatures continued to drop, and there was even the occasional snow flurry. We spent the next part of the afternoon riding all over the very extensive motorsport park, encountering a huge variety of riding conditions that really challenged our skills. Even though it was getting pretty cold, I was working up a sweat, riding the bike hard and concentrating like mad. Sadly, the snow really started to fly (it was late April near the Rockies, what do you expect… ) so we had to end the course a little early, much to the chagrin of the students and instructors alike.

Overall I'd say the BMW GS Off-road ring course is excellent, it proved to be a fantastic introduction to off road riding for dirt newbies as well as a great refresher for those with more advanced skills. In fact I think it was the perfect way to start off the riding season, as it tuned up all of my skills for both street and dirt riding. The level and quality of instruction was excellent, Blackfoot Motorsport did a great job and I'd highly recommend the course, it was money well spent in my opinion. I only wish I took this course before I did my South America trip…