Okay, so because of my location it means i have to travel around 1 hour 30 mins to get to the closest training grounds which on an evening is to far so i was wondering is there anything i could do in my backyard to allow me to train on evenings as well as the weekends. Bare in mind my garden isn't too big so i couldn't setup a section or anything like that but some little things to try would be great!

depending on ability,

just riding figure 8's tighter and tighter and slower and slower can be very helpful for balance and control.

Logs if you can get them and have room to set up.

take a piece of 2x4 lumber and ride the length of it, this will help with balance and maintaining a straight line.

Nose wheelies------because they are fun and look cool. also when you go over the bars it helps you "crash correctly".

Let your imagination run wild.

Edited September 1, 201312 yr by zippy

Balance drills/practice can be done without even having the bike running. The figure eights, along with the "Circle of Ribbon" are really good turn practice. The Circle of Ribbon is ribbon laid out in your yard, about 10 feet or 11 feet (3 to 3.5 meters?) in diameter. You ride into the circle, and turn 3 complete left hand circles without dabbing, then ride out. Ride back in & do the same thing turning right. If it's too easy, make the circle smaller....... They had us do this at a school event our club's expert riders put on. There were 2 circles; one was REALLY small. That really tight circle they had (all laid out on perfectly flat lawn) even tripped up a lot of Advanced & Expert riders who would normally just start hopping in most situations.

And you can practice just riding & stopping and then balancing. There's a knack to that. Front & rear wheel hopping can be practiced in a small area.

Really, there's a lot of good help for you that can be done in the back yard.....

Jimmie

Balance drills/practice can be done without even having the bike running. The figure eights, along with the "Circle of Ribbon" are really good turn practice. The Circle of Ribbon is ribbon laid out in your yard, about 10 feet or 11 feet (3 to 3.5 meters?) in diameter. You ride into the circle, and turn 3 complete left hand circles without dabbing, then ride out. Ride back in & do the same thing turning right. If it's too easy, make the circle smaller....... They had us do this at a school event our club's expert riders put on. There were 2 circles; one was REALLY small. That really tight circle they had (all laid out on perfectly flat lawn) even tripped up a lot of Advanced & Expert riders who would normally just start hopping in most situations.

And you can practice just riding & stopping and then balancing. There's a knack to that. Front & rear wheel hopping can be practiced in a small area.

Really, there's a lot of good help for you that can be done in the back yard.....

Jimmie

Thanks for that jimmie, i think my balance needs a lot of work so could do with practicing that, do you have any tips for how to improve your balance?

depending on ability,

just riding figure 8's tighter and tighter and slower and slower can be very helpful for balance and control.

Logs if you can get them and have room to set up.

take a piece of 2x4 lumber and ride the length of it, this will help with balance and maintaining a straight line.

Nose wheelies------because they are fun and look cool. also when you go over the bars it helps you "crash correctly".

Let your imagination run wild.

Haha, yeah could do with crashing correctly, just seem to get hurt But thanks again, going to try the figure 8's but not too sure i will be able to put the logs out but thanks again for the suggestion!

Might sound daft but place a marker on the ground, a old magazine will do, and practice weeling the front and placing it accurately, braking and stopping with the front on the mag. You can do a few mags and weelie front from one to the other. Im a begginer, but this should help as placing the front accurately is quite important for allot of other techniques.

Might sound daft but place a marker on the ground, a old magazine will do, and practice weeling the front and placing it accurately, braking and stopping with the front on the mag. You can do a few mags and weelie front from one to the other. Im a begginer, but this should help as placing the front accurately is quite important for allot of other techniques.

Thanks, That is very helpful!

For a quick and regular 20/30 minute exercise in the comfort of your garage, with radio or cd if you wish to relieve the boredom : just try balancing stationary on right lock then left. Most people have a "favourite" side, keep practicing the opposite one to improve. Try to build up the duration of each successful attempt. As a development of this, try balancing off full lock, ie with steering nearer the middle point (more difficult). Also have a go with a wooden block under the front or rear wheel to alter the weight rearwards or frontwards, to simulate the kind of position you might be in a real section.

If all this gets too easy, pump up your tyres to a higher pressure, this really demands finer control.

What I like to do on my driveway is placing the front wheel up against the wall (@ 2:50 in the video)

A very good exercice for throttle, clutch and brake control and coördination, balance and position on the bike.

Here's a video of me training on my driveway (I'm a lot better now of course )

(warning: Video contains extremely boring stuff)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MkJvtI2rBY&feature=youtu.be

Edited September 1, 201312 yr by guys

For a quick and regular 20/30 minute exercise in the comfort of your garage, with radio or cd if you wish to relieve the boredom : just try balancing stationary on right lock then left. Most people have a "favourite" side, keep practicing the opposite one to improve. Try to build up the duration of each successful attempt. As a development of this, try balancing off full lock, ie with steering nearer the middle point (more difficult). Also have a go with a wooden block under the front or rear wheel to alter the weight rearwards or frontwards, to simulate the kind of position you might be in a real section.

If all this gets too easy, pump up your tyres to a higher pressure, this really demands finer control.

Oright, well that is what i am going to try tonight, i can do full lock both sides quite comfortably, should i move to a straight wheel right away or gradually get there??

What I like to do on my driveway is placing the front wheel up against the wall (@ 2:50 in the video)

A very good exercice for throttle, clutch and brake control and coördination, balance and position on the bike.

Here's a video of me training on my driveway (I'm a lot better now of course )

(warning: Video contains extremely boring stuff)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MkJvtI2rBY&feature=youtu.be

Very nice, very helpful however i don't think i would be able to do the wall thing as of yet

Well its time to clean the bike after the weekend practice! After that, i will come back online and see whats on the schedule for tonight's little practice session!

Well done on balancing in a relaxed fashion on both left and right lock, I'm definitely better on left than right. If your bike has bolts for steering stops you could perhaps screw in longer ones to restrict the side to side movement, so forcing you to balance with the front wheel in more of a straight ahead position - definitely harder but worth persisting with. Remember about trying it with tyres pumped up hard as well.

A few hours of this sort of thing will have you saving marks in the sections in months to come!

Well i am his son and today we just practiced stationary balancing with no engine in the garden. Might consider trying it with the wheels pumped up tomorrow!

My wife brought up an issue regarding getting into the sport. , I live "in town" - well, village, but you know what I mean. Its an "urban" area, we have a back yard/driveway (pic below) that's @ 20 by 20 yards square, with some woods (not mine) adjacent - so not a lot of space to practice my trials riding skills! I've got a few cut logs up in the woods I can use, but that's about it. Suggestions?