Pretty much 99% of my riding over the last 24 years had been on road, and the short tracks I’ve taken off road when camping or messing about have been just that, short and messing about……………Well today was different. It was long and there was no messing about!
I joined up with a Facebook group called
Adventure Bike Trail Riding a few months ago with an interest to find out more about riding off road.
I know, yes I can do the BMW off road 3 day course at various levels, but that’s £500 each level, and today was no more than cost a tank of Petrol, a Mars bar and a bottle of water, & it was most likely, more fun in a day than you would ever get on a course.
They organise group ride outs along certain Green Roads up and down the country and are associated with
Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) who are a fantastic organisation dedicated to using, and maintaining the UKs rich, and historic lanes. I met up with another rider from the group in London this morning, and we rode up together to the meeting place… the Red lodge Transport Cafe, in the Thetford, Suffolk.
On arrival we were greeted by the other guys that had already arrived, grabbed a cup of coffee, a bite to eat, introduced ourselves, talked about our bikes, off road riding experiences, general chatter and fun patter. When all the riders had arrived Chris & Mark gathered everyone around and briefed us all about the days riding ahead, the rough route, what kind of terrains to expect, protocol if we met horses, dog walkers and other cars, then we were given the choice of joining the Intermediate or Expert group!