Laine MacTague is the man behind EarthRider Adventure Moto Guiding & Instruction. He’s shown here discussing body position in his Fundamentals SkillzDrillz class. MacTague will be writing a new blog series on Rider’s website that focuses on offroad riding skills. (Photo courtesy EarthRider)
Welcome to EarthRider, a new blog series about off-road riding. Here at Rider, we focus on street-legal motorcycles, including dual-sport and adventure bikes that can be ridden both on pavement and off. Although many riding skills?balance, visualization, throttle control?apply equally well to street riding and dirt riding, there are many techniques that are unique to riding on loose, low-traction surfaces.
For nearly a decade, most of the off-road skills I?ve learned and experience I?ve acquired have come from Laine MacTague, who provides adventure motorcycle guiding and instruction under the EarthRider banner. Thanks to the generosity of our local BMW dealership, I?ve gone on dozens of free daylong adventure rides guided by Laine (daylong often means from 8 a.m. until well after dark, covering hundreds of on- and off-road miles), and I?ve paid to take his SkillzDrillz courses, a 12-part series of one-day training rides that focus on particular topics or techniques. Check out the EarthRider 2017 SkillzDrillz schedule
After a year and a half of going on Laine’s daylong adventure rides and taking his SkillzDrillz classes, I joined him (third from left) and several bud...