How to Ride a Dirt Bike Over Rocks. A Beginners Guide.

Riding a dirt bike over rocks through river beds and dirt trails has never been easy and they will trip up even the most experienced riders from time to time.

But there are some simple tips that will help you ride over rocks like a superstar and I will be talking about these tips in this blog post.

#1 Ride at a Steady Pace Over Rocks.

When it comes to rocks you need to slow right down and don’t wheel spin.

The trick here is to take rocks at a steady pace and methodically.

If you hit them too hard you will just get kicked off. If you hit them too slow it gets too bouncy and you will also come off.

A good steady pace will help you glide over and around them without having to put your foot on the ground.

#2 Body Position is Crucial

You can’t be sitting down when riding over rocks. Stay up on the pegs in the attack position and keep those legs bent to absorb the shock of hitting the rocks for a smoother ride.

#3 Keep your Legs Apart.

Normally we would grip the bike with our knees in difficult riding situations but not with rocks.

The idea is to keep your legs apart to increase your stability and balance.

This is so when the bike kicks around from left to right, you can easily correct it back to the centre ans you have a broader range of balance.

#4 Keep Your Weight to the Back of the Bike.

Always try to keep your weight to the back of the bike so the front wheel can skip over the rocks without too much issue.

I’m not talking about shifting your weight to the back in an extreme way (like you would do when riding over sand) but just back from center position will do.

This position also provides extra traction to the rear wheel so it can tractor over the rocks without skipping around.

#5 Let Your Body Move Around.

When riding over rocks, your body should be very loose and it should sway around to counter the movements of the bike. This technique will increase your balance even more.

#6 Relax and Let the Bike do the Work.

When riding over rocks, your brain is going to want to tell you to tighten up and become anxious. These thoughts will make you too tense and will burn up your energy to fast so try to ignore those thoughts.

Instead, always stay loose on the bike and relaxed and keep your breathing at a nice relaxed pace.

And always let the bike do the hard work.

#7 Keep Your Controls Smooth

When riding a dirt bike over rocks, you will be juggling your brakes, clutch, throttle and steering.

You will want to keep these as smooth as possible. Any sudden actions with any of these controls will probably send you off the bike and will cause the back wheel to spin. Keep it smooth and even.

Also, always keep your fingers on the clutch and front brake levers so you can react quickly to obstacles.

With the throttle, the best bet is quick little blips to keep the pace up and to get the bike over larger rocks. Try to keep them small though and don’t over rev.

#8 Choose Your Riding Lines and Keep Your Eyes Ahead.

It’s important to choose the smoothest lines possible through the rocks to minimise your work.

Also, always try to keep your eyes ahead and on the lines that you are to be taking.

If you keep your eyes directly in front of the front wheel, you will not be able to keep up a good pace and you will miss the best riding lines.

Also, this eyes down position is also very tiring and will burn up your energy.

#9 Tips for Getting Stuck.

Pivoting: If your front wheel gets stuck on a rock or in a rut that you can’t ride through. do a pivoting move to re-position the front wheel of the bike.

This will give you a new riding line that you will most likely be able to ride out of.

Rocking: You can also rock the bike back and forward if you are stuck in a rut or difficult spot.

Rock the bike by blipping the gas and regulating the clutch and the rocking motion will get you out of a bad situation.

Paddling: If all else fails, the tried and true method of paddling your feet over the rocks/logs will help to push your bike though the difficult spot.

#10 Watch that Deep Water.

If you come across a water way, flooded rut or deep puddle, my best advice is to choose the shallowest line through it with the least amount of obstacles.

Always inspect the water quickly with your eyes as you are riding up to it to make sure that it’s not too deep and there’s no nasty obstacles submerged under the water.

Once you have chosen your line, just keep using the same techniques that I have talked about above and power though and you will do fine.

Next articles:

> How to ride a dirt bike in sand dunes and prep your bike for sand.

> How to corner faster on a dirt bike.