Dual Sport Motorcycle Skills - Steering with the Rear Tire (Braking)

Many riding skills can be learned well in a parking lot, before they are needed on the trail. Information on such skills is to be found in Skills documents like this one. These articles present more detailed breakdowns of specific skills mentioned in the Challenges document, along with thoughts on how to teach yourself those skills. For more information on why / when this skill is required, see the Challenges post.

Remember to check the "Links: Riding Technique" section in the sidebar for more thoughts on how to handle your motorcycle off pavement. As I find pertinent links or they are sent to me, I will add them there.

Keep in mind that however definitive the text may come across, this is just some blog and I am just some guy. Neither of us knows all there is to know about riding motorcycles, and some or all of what we know may be dangerously wrong.

Last Update: 01/20/07

Steering with the rear tire is a matter of sliding the rear of the bike away from the direction you want to go, rather than turning the front of the bike toward the direction you want to go. By definition, then, you are going to lose traction with the rear tire.

You can cause the rear tire to loose traction in two basic ways; by making it spin faster, or slower, than it needs to spin in order to roll over the terrain you are covering. You can make it spin slower by applying the brake, or aggressively downshifting. You can make it spin faster by trying to touch the back of your right forearm with the knuckles of your right hand, without removing it from the grip on the right handlebar.

A good way to start experimenting with steering by braking is to skid to a halt on a stretch of basic, straight, flat, dirt road. Start out riding quite slow. If you skid 3 feet the first time, fine. Do this a few times, then find a spot where the straight road is tilted slightly to one side: When you skid here, the rear end will slide downhill (to the side) as you come to a stop. Just keep the front tire pointed down the road. This is basically the “steer into the skid” that you hear about. Do this real slow at first, and add speed to get longer skids and allow the rear tire to slide to the side more. Just practice this a while, and you will begin to develop a feel for how the bike behaves when the rear tire is locked.

Endeavour to keep the rear tire locked until you come to a complete stop: If you skid, and the rear tire slides sideways, and you suddenly release the brake, the sudden traction grab could stop the sideways slide. If the bike tires stop sliding to the side, momentum may continue to force the rest of the bike – and you – to the side, which will throw you off balance and likely cause you and the bike to impact the ground.

Now find a flat or slightly descending section of dirt road with a sharp turn in it. This is where you teach yourself to skid into / around a turn. To start, approach the turn without enough speed to get through it if you skid. Where you would normally start to lean into the turn, lean just a bit, and lock up the rear tire. The little bit of lean you give the bike has the same effect the tilted road had; the rear tire slides away. Instead of pointing the front tire straight ahead, you are guiding the front tire around the turn. If you did this at the conservative speed I suggest to start with, you stopped, probably less than half way through the turn. Repeat that a few times, adding speed when it is comfortable. If you find at some point that you get the bike pointed down the road as it runs after the turn, and are not yet at a full stop, let up on the rear brake. You should be coasting down the road in its new direction. You just skidded around a corner.

BUT! Remember what I said about not letting up on the brake: If you let it up while sliding sideways, you might high-side – that’s cool bikey slang for when you are leaning, say, left, and all of a sudden the bike stands up and throws you into the air to the right. If you are still sliding to the side when you get off the brake, that could happen. So if you get around that turn, but are still sliding to the side, stay on the back brake until you loose a lot of momentum, or until you are skidding more straight ahead, and less sideways. Then let off the brake, slowly.

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