The idea for running this course came to me when I noticed a lot of customers were booking days out to get some relevant off-road experience prior to embarking on a motorcyling adventure holiday in far-away destinations such as India, Vietnam or Nepal.

There’s a great deal more to trail riding than simply loading a map into a GPS and setting off for the wild blue yonder. This one-day course will help you acquire the skills to get the most out of your trail riding adventures.

The objective of the course is to provide some training in the basic principles of trail riding and provides useful information about route planning, identifying legal trails, map reading, basic maintenance, bike preparation and dealing with simple breakdowns such as a puncture or a broken chain. During the morning session there is some hands-on workshop training which will include a tyre-changing session and other practical workshop experience. For the afternoon session we’ll study a local map, plot a suitable route and then we’ll put the theory into practice and go and ride it.

Although we use a 250cc machine for the workshop session and the ride, the same principles apply to larger machines and riders of adventure bikes will also gain much valuable experience.