Riding off road

Is a lot about knowing how to "Throw your hips" to make fast turns in dangerous terrain. So, as you are going cross country on a dirt road you see a rock in your way but if you hit it you could crash, so you throw your hips to the right or the left quickly to avoid the obstacle. There isn't time to turn the wheel in the dirt but often there is time to throw your hips to the right or to the left to avoid an obstacle and crash.

I remember in the 1970s on my 1974 Honda 250 XL motorcycle which was a dualsport even though I don't think they called them that yet, I was riding after a big rain in San Diego County where I lived then. Most of the Suburban developments between Mira mar naval Air Station and Escondido didn't exist yet and so there was a lot of wild country to ride motorcycles through then and even places you could do hillclimbing if you wanted to.

Anyway, there had been a big rain and my normal route on this dirt road I noticed had washed out and it was a chasm 6 feet deep but I didn't have enough time really to stop in a regular way, so I had to lay the bike down and slide along the ground because I was going to fast at about 35 miles per hour then. Luckily, my left foot peg dug in strong in the dirt and I was at the end of this with my wheels hanging over the 6 foot cliff chasm. But, luckily I had knee high flat toed cowboy boots on so I hadn't harmed my left leg in the slide of about 50 feet into the top of the chasm. IF you are going to ride off road often you need to be ready for anything you might encounter, especially after the heavy weather we are experiencing now in places like California where everything might have changed from last week where whole sections of dirt or rock roads will be washed away from mudslides and various kinds of flooding.

At this point it isn't just about power outages but also about fallen trees where you are least going to expect them in the wilds and new rivers or streams or changes to dry washes from flooding and mud that you don't expect after the heavy rains and snow since Early December this year.