With all of the recent heavy rain this month lets discuss what you need to do should you miscalculate your attempted crossing and submerge your machine.

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Drifting is our third Advanced Fundamental skill, and it is essentially the same actions and execution as we used for last month’s topic, which was Grinding. Except unlike with grinding where we are sliding the bike pretty much straight along the edge of an obstacle, with drifting we are sliding the bike around the arc of a corner situation.

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Grinding is our second Advanced Fundamental skill, and just like precise wheel placement which we discussed last month, we use this skill to avoid and conquer so many nasty trail obstacles such as long, deep ruts.

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Motorcycling in Australia is as strong as ever, In fact, 2009 saw a massive 115,981 new bikes, scooters and ATVs shifted off showroom floors. While the Global Economic Crisis has seen a slight decline in new bike sales Road bikes are rocketing out of dealerships in their thousands, while more and more people are now turning to off-road bikes for some wholesome, down-’n’-dirty weekend fun.

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Shane Watts demostrates the correct way to cross logs in the first of his online instructional videos.

Precise wheel placement is an integral of you being an efficient, safe, and skilled rider out on the trails. This is the first of our three Advanced Fundamental skills that we need to practice and master.

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As we progress through our fundamental exercises, focusing on implementing another fundamental skill each time, it is now appropriate to move to an exercise we call the "Slow Ride".

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One of the key fundamentals that all of our riding skills out on the trails revolve around is our throttle and clutch control and coordination. This really relates to our ability to “put the power to the ground”. Poor execution of this fundamental is a huge restriction on your ability to conquer the more advanced trail situation. With not being able to put the power to the ground adequately means you may be severely limiting your ability to gain the necessary momentum and/or acceleration required to clear all trail obstacles. 

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Over the last few months we have covered the six key points of being in the correct standing position and the huge benefits associated with executing these correctly. To make sure that you are in the correct position the easiest way to do this is to practice it in the garage on your bike whilst it is up on a stand.

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Point six of being in the correct standing position is the placement of your head. As we are riding down the trail in the standing position, not really accelerating or decelerating, we should have our head located over the handlebar mounts. This allows us to stay centrally located on the motorcycle which maximizes our ability to control and maneuver the bike plus react easier to the trail conditions and obstacles present.

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