RawHyde Adventures Offroad Clinic
 

Next weekend the local BMW dealership is hosting a free offroad clinic run by RawHyde Adventures (http://www.rawhyde-offroad.com/home.html). I signed up for it months ago but got in too late and have been sitting on the wait list ever since. My name has moved up from below the 50 mark to number 8 now. I still don't expect to get the call that I'm actually in the class. I think I'm just gonna gear up first thing in the morning and show up with my liability waiver signed and ready to go, and hope for the best.

The Rawhyde pay class out west is a $1300 class for a 3 day class, so i'm guessing that this day is worth $400.

This is video from the camp they ran out in CA earlier in the year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtIe5kLOAUs

sounds cool... only watched 2 min of that video, and got bored... always more fun to do than watch lol

Looks like fun

yep it sure was a ton of fun, pictures galore to follow.

Met at Bobs BMW at 8 am, and the lot was already pretty full.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6146/...0ea1d84e_b.jpg

Some neat equipment here, a beemer with a winch?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/...4b8f9401_b.jpg

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riding to the MX track. The group I went with took the back roads, and it was pretty fun, no other group commented that the ride down was fun

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/...9bfec636_z.jpg

riding into the MX track where they did the clinic

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6018/...11ea61d9_b.jpg


bikes lined up ready to go. They split us up into 2 groups, group 1 and group A. This was actually more confusing than it sounds. This was one of the groups

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6012/...4684725d_b.jpg

I am probably going to do the BMW offroad class in South Carolina next year.

They ran us through some basics, riding slow while standing up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dx0O2YJatg

riding in tight turns, leaning away from the turn to make a smaller radius turn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asZwd-CxlH0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBj3RP52MYM


and it looks like I didnt take any video of the stop and go without putting feet down.

After the riding clinic a few of us went on a quick trail ride. About 1/2 mile in the guy on the GS1200 realized that his bike (with 90/10 street tires) wasnt gonna make it. The trail was basically a single track goat trail, 1-2 foot deep water filled ruts, and a ton of loose sugar sand.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6142/...7768ff78_b.jpg


This is where the GS decided to turn around

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6021/...55d9f929_b.jpg

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And then there were the hills, this hill is a little worse than it looks, and by a little I mean I had a rough time walking the bike down it, sliding my back wheel the whole way, and breaking my left mirror off on the tree 1/2 way down it.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6127/...0a53d6e6_b.jpg

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and the aftermath

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6129/...1ebb3432_b.jpg

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http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6015/...733352ab_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6127/...0a53d6e6_b.jpg

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and now that I'm home and settled in showered and rested, its massive margarita time

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6013/...92f2b3e7_b.jpg

Nice... yeah they have an adventure clinic I was looking at... a trip from Montana to New Mexico... a trip/clinic... be interesting...

This was their freebee riding clinic so it really was just 4 hours, and the dealership provided lunch. Their prices are a little expensive for what they teach, 1300 for 3 days plus travel and bike rental, or 1300 if you ride your own bike. But there are other (and cheaper) classes that I'm sure are just as good