My wife would like to do some off road riding, and I have found the BMW centre in Wales.

World of BMW | Motorcycle tours, holidays, training and trackdays

Its a bit expensive :-( (£449)

Has anyone done the 2 day basic training ?
Value for money ?

Any other recomended courses ?

TIA

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The people over on UKGSer* ::::* For BMW GS Enthusiasts think it is ok. Go and look at the past reports of their attendances. They do a 'girls only' thing too.

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

I know that there is an earlier thread on this subject in here: a search will bring it up.
In the UK, there is at least one course for most of the major bike manufs.
From memory, some are more highly recommended in that thread than the Beemer version, but I guess it depends if your wife wants to ride the BMW bikes.
I think there are cross references in there to going trail riding with your own bike as well: ideas about where to go etc etc.

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Dave

Hook up with your Local TRF Group and ask if anyone would willing to take you out. If you were near to me I would have no problem taking you on some lanes and helping with technique. I could take you on everything from single track twisties, sand, wet rocks and sloppy mud.

The Enduro training days run by Wynn Hughes are great fun and good value. I learnt some great tips that really helped me with my confidence in tricky situations.

I did the BMW one and you certainly learn a huge amount. Value for money I can't really gauge as I've only done the one.

The TRF here abouts were very anti big bikes. They thought my XT600E should be swapped for a 125 or 250 before I even went near a green lane.

Andy

Hey Bruce - the KTM one is very good - Patrick from the JTR team did the two day course a couple of months ago - here's a little video we did whilst we were there.

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BruceP,
If your wife wants to try off roading for the first time without training ie just to see what it's like, have a look at Southport Leisure Lakes. They have a couple of novice tracks and a full MX track,see their web site for pictures.
It's not far from you and plenty of other activities.
Cheers
Ian

But I wanted to play as well :-)

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Cool, ta, will have to chase that one up

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My experience is that off road is great and make you a better rider ,but you have to ride the right bike for it.if you wife want to have the best experience possible make sure that she is learning on a very light bike, BMW are not great for it and I am not against them ( I have a 1200GS) but compare to my KTM or XR650R its like night and day.You can go to your MX track and ask for classes ,just tell the guys that your wife want to have an introduction to off road and he will certainly find a good 250 four stroke for her to ride. Make sure she have the right boots and protective gear.( can't judge for the price but here in the US you can have a 3 hour classe with a newer bike and a private teacher for $200 a session.
Good luck

Ummm depends on what they are offering.
The tutoring should be for 'Adventure Touring' not racing - yes bike control is part of it .. but riding at max speed is not. Also the methods used have to consider an 'overloaded' bike (in an MXers eyes)...

So say what you want from the training. You don't want to be grouped in with the racers ..

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

If you're using their bikes, and don't have to pay for damage, then its not as expensive as it may seem.

I can highly recommend taking a course taught by experts/professionals. You'll learn more, in a short time from people who know how to teach the material. (applies to golf, tennis, skiing, etc.)

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

august this year will be the third time my mate and i will have done the bmw course in south wales
twice the beginner group, and last time with the brecon adventure i think they call it, just a further day round the 4000?cre site with an instructor in small groups having fun
they split beginner groups up depending on your experience, although it ends up more being based on your confidence. people at the start saying how hugely experienced they are often get a little fazed with some of the terrain, maybe the less experienced listen more to the instruction, and so do a lot better!
it also seems to be the only training i can find that whatever damage you do to the bike there is no further cost. they have a spare bike if you do break it so if you're happy to you can carry on riding. assuming you weren't riding like an idiot
up until this year the only gripe people doing it seemed to have was the large step between the beginner and advanced groups. this was tempered by splitting the beginner group up as i said, but this year there is an official intermediate group.
first time 2 years ago we used 650gs, which standing up all day made my knees really ache, held out at a bad angle by the tank. quite good ride tho. a brief try on the xchallenge made the riding easy. but last year was the best on a 1200gs, soooooo much better!! only bit it struggled on was a standing start slightly uphill across a greasy muddy grassy slope. small throttle openings still made the tyre spin too quick!!
another fab aspect is the people, the price makes it attract slightly older people, tho not more sensible! and the instructors helping Simon Pavey have so much varying experience, racetrack, mx or the dakar itself.
a fab overall experience. book early!

Use the rear brake! And/or second gear. Go back and do it again...

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

Well if it's good enough for these two

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