Many motorcyclists only ever ride on the road, but I am here to tell you, with video evidence, that dirt riding can be as much or more fun than street riding.
These guys are riding through the wilds of Australia along dirt trails, on dedicated dirt bikes. You can see while you watch this that dirt skills are quite a lot different from street skills. These riders use the loose dirt and lack of traction to their benefit.
Don’t feel too badly if you think the riders in the video are way, way better than you are on dirt, even if you’re pretty good on dirt. The rider with the camera is none other than Daniel Milner, a professional motocross racer who won all ten rounds of the Australia Off-Road Championship in 2017 on the KTM factory team. The lead rider is his teammate Lyndon Snodgrass, a 21-year-old who is also a professional dirt racer.
These guys are seriously tearing up the trails and jumping over logs that would make most of us pause and reconsider our route. At one point the lead rider, Snodgrass, hops an enormous trunk and is airborne for at least three seconds, and Milner hits the same thing and flies just as long (you can see the camera footage jolt on landing) with zero hesitation.
Ah, to be young and resilient.
If you’re contemplating dirt riding know that you can start off much slower than these guys, and there are dirt bikes for every body size and skill level. Dirt roads are generally devoid of traffic, so you can go as fast or slow as you want. On a hot summer day, a dirt road is often shaded by trees making them much cooler, and the scenery is just stunning. If you’re out in the desert, you’ll still be a bit cooler on dirt than you would be baking on asphalt. On the minus side, because dirt roads are generally less traveled, there’s more wildlife on them, and if your bike breaks, nobody will be along to help for a while.
You can find a dual-sport motorcycle and put knobby tires on it, so that you don’t have to trailer your bike to the trail head. Remember to ride with a buddy just like Lydon and Dan are doing here, so that you’re not alone deep in the woods if anything were to go all pear-shaped.