Forget everything you know about riding and bike set up.  Thats what I had to do!  I have been riding a long time, bought the trinkets to make my bike faster, better, more comfortable.  What I found out is that in general, all I did was add crap to my bike which made me lazy, have poor posture and have less control.  Bar risers, brake set up and bigger pegs, seats, suspension etc.

We were not even 10 min in to the session Chris hadn’t even gotten us to start our bikes yet and we all who were self described as pretty good riders were quickly learning that maybe we were not!

For those that don’t know who Chris Birch is, he is a Red Bull Racer, a mechanical engineer, and an amazing riding coach.

My brake levers were in the wrong spot, take off the bar risers, set the handlebars differently…I had busted my wrists 2 years ago and didn’t realize how bad my posture and some of my skills had become.  Once we dialled in the bikes, we headed off to a large gravel car park to do some slow speed drills, slowly building up to log hopping and a little drifting.  In only a few hours I had felt my skills improve.  My back hurt less and I was in way more control of the bike.

After lunch we went out for some riding to test the new skills we had learned.  some faster fire road and some tight single track which I later found out was party of the rally course (and a place where I would eventually loose a go-pro (Sorry Beau I know I owe you one and plan on paying you back when I return from Australia).  By the end of the ride I was hot and exhausted!  throwing a litre bike around and pretending it is a dirt bike is hard!  Even when you are being trained by Chris Birch!

After a hard day training, I convinced Davinder that he HAD to try and get in on one of the upcoming training sessions (which he did for the next day).

We now had a couple neighbours in the camp site and tried to have a small propane powered campfire (which was generally useless)  we drank wine with our new friends and laughed and told lies into the night.  All to hit the reset button and start again the next day.