Level 1After years of seeing the posters in dealers (and a year after selling my last BMW) I finally signed up, late last year, to the BMW Off Road Skills Level 1 for May 2023. It's a two day course in south Wales at a place I think used to be the Nant Helen open coal mine. It's 4,000 hilly acres of tracks, trees, streams, wind turbines, and occasional transit vans.
Day 1Day 1 began at their storage/garage unit a few miles away, where incidentally Triumph also have their off road skills setup 50m down the same road, and with a Touratech premises opposite.
On arrival nice and early I was greeted by about 34 R1250GS motorcycles ready to go. From the website and google I had expected to see some 800s and 310s, but it seems everyone here had chosen the big bikes. And the low chassis big bikes for a few of us! The group was half Level 1 and half Level 3.
The first task was to variously get kitted up and collect rented gear. I'd chosen to rent boots and gloves. Thankfully they both fitted perfectly well. Next was to stand about and chat for a while. Eventually everyone had arrived, collected kit and keys, proven they had a bike licence and were ready to go.
We then rode the 15 minutes or so to the site. It was nice being back on a GS, although the Metzeler Karoo 4 tyres felt strange on tarmac at first, and riding without mirrors illustrated how often I subconsciously check them. As you can imagine, getting 34 bikes to any destination is going to be a challenge, and here they introduced us to the
2nd man drop-off system. I'd read the theory but never practiced. In actuality it's easy and intuitive and worked great to get everyone to the park. It was slightly amusing to watch the eager beavers zoom off behind the leader and inevitably end up arriving almost dead last to either endpoint!
Once we entered the site it was mostly tarmac/concrete leading the 500m or so to a huge, mostly flat, open area covered in loose dust, gravel and fist sized rocks. Here we all pulled in and were split into L1 and L3, being sent off with our instructors to either end of this area.
The 14 of us Level 1 kids (I say kids, the demographic averaged at probably ten years older than me) then spent a good while off the bikes discussing theory. This led to practicing dropping and picking up the bikes, getting on and off them 'properly', and how to stand on the pegs with the correct posture, passively and during inclines/declines and so forth.
Finally we were allowed to start the bikes! I forget the order of events here, but we practiced weighting the pegs, using the two fingers approach to the hand controls, and did many laps of the arena. Once they'd decided we were getting more confident they set out an ever-tightening slalom course of cones and we were one-by-one sent through. This was a great test of looking where you want to go (I definitely found target fixation was more potent, maybe because this was all new, as opposed to road riding where I feel much less affected by it). It also - as was a theme throughout, unsurprisingly - meant we had to put together what we'd learned already, peg weighting, finessing the clutch and throttle.
I loved this stage, it was very satisfying getting nice tight turns, and perhaps just as importantly I got to see for the first time where I sat in the 'it's been 3 hours how good are you?' ladder. Pretty good I decided, as it appeared the only way for some of our group to make the slalom cones was to ride about 5 metres past the cone before making the turn. When we were all going through together at the end of the exercise this meant I had to really focus on going as slow as possible, which can only be a benefit.
I think we stopped for lunch now. Although I should add that throughout the entire weekend we had a support van which has water, snacks, sun cream, first aid kits etc. The weather was sunny and all the instructors were very clear on the need to keep hydrated. We generally carried two water bottles at all times, crammed behind the windscreen. Lunch was at somewhere on the site, possibly a caravan park pub/community place, I can't find it on the map. Anyway the main thing is it was decent food and kept us fuelled. On the second day we took a different, much narrower and technical approach to the lunch place, which was a lot of fun. It's obvious a great deal of thought goes into the whole event.
After lunch we went back to the flat area. Already it was great to feel so much more confident on the ride - along gravel tracks - to and from lunch. And only once at this stage did an extra eager beaver need reminding not to overtake. If I recall correctly our next and last 'car park' exercise was now what they called "circling the square". 4 cones in a square about 2.5 metres between each (apart from diagonally, Pythagoras). Ride around them for a few laps, then bring the bike inside and ride inside them. After a demonstration we were sent off to find our own space and practice, being told to come back to the three cone squares they'd set up when we felt confident. After a few clockwise and counter-clockwise tests I felt good and went to do it for the instructor. Bam! He'd shown how when we circle outside we're weighting the inside peg, but when he got to inside he ended up counter-balancing so much his inside foot was off the peg. When I got to this stage myself without even realising it I started laughing. Having ticked that box I let someone else have a go and practiced the opposite again, before boshing that one too. I can't do justice to how great it felt, being able to pretty much have full lock on and not fall off. That was something I'd got into my head over the last 15 years of riding, I think, that fear/assumption of doom.
It was mid afternoon by now, and we finally rode off following the instructor, using the 2nd man system to get us to another area surrounding a wind turbine. Here we practiced locking the rear (after turned to 'Enduro Pro' mode, I think!) and sliding to a halt. I think I'd last done this with a mountain bike 20 years ago, but it soon felt pretty easy. At this stage our two instructors split us into two groups of 7. Our group then road off to another area where we practiced locking the front. This was at around 10mph and trying to keep enough throttle so we're being pushed along and can start to just feel the front grabbing. That two finger finessing again. That was really great, and with us practicing this on a 'path', we had to ride loops to get back to it, which was somewhat akin to the first time you ride the bike/car alone after passing your test! Freedom!
The first day ended with a ride back to base and a couple of hours later an evening in the pub, where our meals were paid for.
Day 2Day 2 was all about bringing together everything we'd learned. I believe our first ride was to the top of a very steep and scary looking decline. Here Carl, our instructor, told us we'd be going down on engine braking alone. I likened this to the Defender in low range, trying to build my belief it'll grip enough to not just slide to your doom! And of course it did. That lovely engine had half a moment of building a bit of speed before the engine braking held it at a nice 7-8mph. We then practiced the same downhill run but using the front brake to slow us to 4-5mph. And after that using the front brake and having the clutch completely disengaged. Different feeling of control with each approach. We were building a toolkit of options. After this we went to another bit of the earth to play on:
We all chuckled nervously as Carl walked us half way up this hill (recall photos hide the steepness here!). However, it turned out his plan wasn't immediately to convince us we could surmount this obstacle, but that should we decided half way up that we can't, to show us how to get back down! A 3 point turn on a massive gravely stony rutted hill. Suffice to say, we all did it, and in many ways I now think it's easier to turn a 250kg bike around on a ridiculously steep hill than on the flat! The main points here were making a plan, standing so as to not get crushed if you cock it up, and again those 2 fingers on the clutch. To a man we all succeeded at this, from the bigger than Richard sized to the smaller than me sized! Safely at the bottom we then listened as he reminded us to keep enough momentum to get to the top without having to add positive throttle half way. Made sense to me. Carl rode to the top, telling us to listen to his engine as he went, demonstrating his conservation of momentum without adding revs. We then, one-by-one, rode to the top of this thing, and felt very good about it!
We probably did some more hilly exercises but I forget. The next highlight was going to play around some water. This was a little route most of which couldn't be called a 'track' but a lucky arrangement of gravel and stream. To get onto it we had to first cross a 8-10 inch gulley at the edge of the main track, from rain run-off. This saw one chap get his wheel stuck, and us watch as he briefly span it up trying to get out, which he did. It was then across a raised slag pile, down a narrow rocky part and an unsighted tight right which then dropped down to cross a stream that was maybe 6-8 inches deep. Out the other side, 90 degree left and round to the main track, fly up there and do it all again. We did this for quite a while, and as our exit from the stream got muddier and muddier it was quite something to have both wheels sliding about.
We then left this area and went to another place that Carl told us he doesn't always go to as it's pretty tricky. Essentially it started as a ride up the side of a dried out stream, into a fairly steep rise, which levelled for maybe 3m and then a very steep rise, also rutted with rain run-off channels, to a flat top where another turbine sat. Oh yes, we'd also earlier practiced climbs where we expended all momentum just as we crested, so that we would have time at a blind summit to choose the next step, as opposed to flying up and over and into a tree/car/fruit bat. This came in handy here, for those of us who wanted to practice this skill. This photo doesn't really capture it, but this was from the top:
To be honest after I'd done this the first couple of times in 1st gear, then in 2nd gear, and satisfied myself I was in control at the top, I had the most fun trying to beat my personal best speed flying back up the track for the next lap.
I was pretty much smiling, laughing or chuckling to myself as I rode along, for the entire time. After a while of this we were running out of time and rode back to the staging area part of the park, before riding as a group back to base where goodie bags and a nice certificate awaited us.
From my pre-course state of getting into a flap riding up that track to the space observatory last year, to ending Day 2 having accomplished all of the above, I can hardly believe it. There's a lot to take away for road riding too, and I enjoyed it so much I signed up for their week long Portugal trip next February! The setup there will be similar to the Welsh Ramble, with a home base hotel and daily ride outs. I can't wait.
I highly recommend this course. The blurb on the site says you should be relatively fit, or some such, but we had every fitness level from "well, middle age is coming" to "something went terribly terribly wrong and I solved it with three main courses" and everyone found it manageable. Next is Level 2 Foundation, then Level 2, and finally Level 3. Level 2 Foundation apparently came more recently as they found the jump to Level 2 for some was quite large. I'm unsure what I'll do next, given I'll be doing Portugal before any new courses are available, but I've no doubt they'll be just as awesome and just as achievable. Go do it.
