Anyway’s this week in the US the AMA said helmet cams could no longer be used during AMA races. I know the ACU in the UK have maintained for a couple of years no helmet cams allowed.
Recently I have been advised not to keep my GoPro Session – https://gopro.com/en/us/ – mounted to the side of my helmet as it has the potential to cause a nasty neck injury in an accident. I have now read these same warning words several times in the last few months.
This has set me looking for a GoPro mount on the front of my helmet and it seems more and more common these days to have it mounted in front of the mouth piece.

So I’ve been looking. Incredibly and co-incidentally I was approached this week by a great company – WANNABES – based out in the US to trial one of their mounts. Sadly none of my helmets are suitable at the moment but I hope in the next few months a prototype will be shipped out to me for my older Airoh Twist. – https://www.airoh.com

So, if you’re in the market for a GoPro mount please check these guys out at Wannabes. It looks an awesome system, sleek and low profile as opposed to the generic ones I’ve seen. They have a list of helmets already profiled and that they support so can ship straight away to you. You’ll be supporting a start up company trying to combat the affects from covid too. I wish them all the success they deserve. https://shop.wannabes.life

Hopefully, having a great set up to record more film will lead to more and more of those funny videos we watch on a Sunday night watching everyone have a massive fail on their bikes and hoping even more so, We won’t be in that same film one day !!! LOL.

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I love the new way that the straps cross over in a X style. Although I’ve been super happy with my old backpack, I have had an issue twice by forgetting the waist strap which locked into the back of the seat almost dragging me off. I’ll be looking forward to not having that issue with my new bag. Also, materials technology has come on leaps and bounds. Look at the hard wearing abrasive resistent materials especially on the Kriega and Klim. I love Kriega stuff anyway and so far my water pack has shown zero signs of damage after 4 years hard work.
That reminds me, all offroad/dirtbike backpacks all seem to come with a hydration pouch now. Couldn’t find a dirtbike backpack that was just a bag.
OK so what did I go for. X style straps, tough material, good price and 16L, which is what I felt was the minimum size I need (20L would have been spot on)……Here it is.
https://tinyurl.com/y3mlawlb

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What am I rambling on about you ask. Bike maintenance/mechanical knowledge is the answer.

I am quite shocked from viewing incidents that happen to readers (admittedly only from FB groups am I referring to) where they are stuck/broken down somewhere and need to call in the cavalry in the sense they make a FB post first then try to figure something out therefater. So the one I’ve seen recently was a guy on the side of the road with a broken throttle cable. Now I have been caught myself like this but had a  spare at home and was able to ask my wife to come and rescue me. I got fixed in half an hour and we as a group of 3 carried on with our 5 day ride. This chap had no idea how to fix it, how to try to fix it and his only option was to call a break down service and have the bike shipped to a garage. He had to wait for the bank holiday to finish before the garage opened and then he had to wait 3 days for a spare to come. All in all he lost 5 days and paid a fortune as he had no recovery policy. He was not out for a wee jolly but on a month long ride. Now OK…You cannot be prepared for everything very true, I get that but he did say he had no idea how to fit a cable even if he could buy one locally. This is my point. I have known people who cannot adjust a chain on their bike, or change an oil filter (granted on a SWM it is tricky) but that’s the point for me. Learn to do it yourself and trust in yourself. I am absolutely shocked the amount of people who buy an enduro/dirtbike and ride it offroad in hard terrain and never do the simplest thing like change an air filter. You should be able to the basics, oil,filter,air filter,chain and water level. As a minimum if you’re off for a jolly offroad dirtbiking or adventure holidaying these simple and admittedly repetitive tasks will keep your bike running and allow you to know if anything is amiss with your bike. I have always been very happy to share any mechanical tips/advise with anyone, client or not. I am not a mechanic and certain jobs I choose not to do because of a lack of skill but basic maintenance has to be in the realm of the owner. Don’t be shy or embarrassed. Ask anyone for help and I’m sure 95% of riders will gladly offer help. If anyone takes the piss (as opposed to pulling your leg humour), well that tells you a lot about that person and you may choose not to ride with them again anyway.

Some of the biggest benefits from doing your own maintenance; saves money, you know if the job has been done properly (not always so with a garage), once you have bought a few basic tools the routine becomes very quick and so it doesn’t need a lot of your time. The biggest advantage, you get to give your bike a once over at the same time, therefore troubleshooting any future possible issues (dodgy cable, brake pads wearing) etc, etc. Nowadays with Youtube you are very likely to find someone who has already done that job has posted a vid and told you some tips as well.

So for those of you that have never done your own maintenance, grab the bull by the horns, go learn a new skill. You will benefit from it a hundred times over. Safe riding my hearties. Anton

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I honestly believe that running a dirtbike is becoming so expensive that people will start looking for alternatives. Keeping old bikes running longer, opting for less performance oriented bikes that have greater intervals between services, air cooled bikes again instead of expensive water cooled rads that get busted too easily when you drop your bike (which let’s face it is pretty frequently on a dirtbike).

Have you seen the latest air cooled trials bike from FANTOM in Barcelona ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyQ7Wg7be60 Again a company whose motto is to make Trials riding affordable again.

This all leads me onto…The Chinese bikes being produced. How long till more and more of them are seen on the club circuit, out on a Sunday run with the local TRF etc. Honestly, as far as I’m concerned good luck to them. The big names may need the money for R&D etc, etc or maybe they are just taking the piss by asking so much money for everything.

At the end of the day, economics relies on people spending their money on items they choose to spend their money on. This is the role and the power bestowed upon the consumer. Be wise how you spend your money. I know me personally I have to be wise. I don’t have enough money to buy the best of everything so for me, secondhand, lesser known brands or even freebies (as in my backpack) are the norm for me.

Anyway, the good news. My freebie backpack has 2 extra buckles sewn in. My backpack is back up and running. No money spent. Now I wonder, does that 150€ Sherco backpack have free extras included ?

The post Is it worth it ? appeared first on Algarve Trailriding Tours.

Since then I have thought about the typical scenario I seem to read about on many of the FB groups I belong to…..Where selling a bike after 6 -12 months is very normal. I guess these people have 1.Very deep pockets to be able to buy a new bike every year 2. Must be A grade riders to need the improvement in a model after 12 months and 3.Believe in helping the economy get back on it’s feet !! LOL.

Well I have just read about a lady on a PR5 who has 30,000kms on it, has been all over Europe and Morocco and has no intention of selling just yet. Like her, I believe that fresh oil changes are a key component to longevity in a bikes engine, a bit of good luck of course, regular maintenance and not to thrash an engine but use it carefully, sensibly and try to be in the correct gear at all times. No matter where I go someone always criticises these Chinese engines, having never ridden a bike with a Chinese engine before of course they are extremely prejudiced to the robustness of a Chinese engine. 40 years ago ago my Dad used to tell me never trust “Jap Crap”…He was an avid British biker…BSA, Triumph of course and his favourite, Panther. I think it’s fair to say, regardless of the reasons behind the economic failings of the British motorbike industry, Jap Bikes are what people want these days for their reliability, sportiness, good prices and pleasing aesthetics as well as choice of course…Choice in the sense of 125, 250, 500, 650 etc, etc. I’ll be very interested to see where Chinese bikes are in say 20 years time….assuming I’m still around to contemplate this outcome.

So, how about you ? Why or what is your key thought to sell ? I think for me one very important reason is, as a kid I nor my family ever had money. If I got anything I had to care/look after it to make it last. I tend to keep bikes and cars for a minimum of 6 years typically. My Drz I sold last year, I’d had 9 years, My Landrover Discovery, I’d had 7 years. My KTM500 is now 8 years old and I have no intention yet to sell. My newly acquired SEr300 Sherco, I said I’d keep for 10 years…Let’s see.

Anyway, whatever your reasons for buying a new bike, It seems we all look back in around 30 years time and say…..”awww they (insert bike of choice) were great bikes, I wish I still had it”…LOL.

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What do you think Trailriding or Enduro is…in definition terms please let me know.

What am I blabbering on about

See the reason why I have asked myself this question countless times is…for example, the terminology of greenlaning doesn’t really exist outside of the UK, equally if you type offroading into Google for example you get 4×4’s. Type enduro or Trailriding and you’ll likely end up clicking on some mountain bike post or even horse riding post, actually even greenlaning will likely bring up 4×4’s and Landrovers too.

Why is this important or even remotely interesting….Ahh because…I have spent a fortune on SEO…Search Engine Optimisation for my website……and as I appeal to a global audience it’s really difficult to write a 1 sentence expression that everyone really identifies with. My friends in the USA often use the term dual sport….this was quite a new expression for me but these days with my social media work I do I now hashtag #dualsport quite a lot.

Does it really matter…well perhaps not really (though any SEO pro would say otherwise)….as long as there plenty of photos and video people can certainly see what it is we do here on our guided trailriding/enduro tours. In broader terms it means I have to use all the above mentioned expressions in my posts so that gives me a bit of free range to make any post sound less contrived and artificial.

What I have taken away for me personally is this….The difference in my mind between Trailriding and Enduro for example is the rate of speed you do the same piece of track/trail at. For example, some of my Trailriding routes here at Algarve Trailriding Tours actually are on parts of the ISDE 2019….I was riding those bits way before they got incorporated into their routes so I still consider them Trailrdiding tracks…however seeing a few hundred bikes belting down the same bit of track doing almost twice the speed I would have rode it at made it clear to me that really Enduro riding is Trailriding at speed. It is therefore more a race trailride and enduro seems to encompass this.

To me Trailriding is taking the time to ride your dirt bike on a track or trail and have the time to immerse yourself in the fine riding that your doing. No need to belt down that trail at excessive speed. Trailriding can take you to some seriously hard areas to ride and overcome but essentially, it’s all about taking the time to see, ride, enjoy and even take a stop for a few photos or video on the way.

This is exactly what we do here at Algarve Trailriding. We choose a route or routes that are hopefully well tailored to our clients experience level then we ride and enjoy the day taking away a host of memories and a few minutes worth of video for keepsake. So far I’d say by far the great majority of clients have enjoyed the variation of terrain we have here in this region. My most frequent client is Bob….I think he’s upto 7 visits now but equally 1 client did 7 straight days of riding once.

Can we do it ? Yes we can !

So, maybe some of you have the chance to mull over this question now and I look forward to hearing a reply from you. Perhaps there is no need to define “it” at all….As long as we’ve been out on our dirtbikes for a great days riding came back home safe, with some silly stories to tell our family and friends then perhaps that’s enough. This day and age everything in life seems to want to be pigeon holed neatly put away in a well defined little box.

I’ve had an un conventional up bringing and I hope my way of delivering a days Trailriding is a great way and interesting and stimulating and a bit challenging equally. We’ve had very good feedback over the last 4 years, hopefully we can keep up that level of commitment and passion. Covid has certainly pushed us to the limit but hey….still here and still gagging to ride bikes.

Fancy a ride or holiday with us…check out our website, see our feedback scores, get in touch. This year more than any other…make it happen….https://algarvetrailriding.com/

And…whether you ride dual sport, trail, enduro or even Trials, we have something here for you….can we do it….Yes we can.

The post Try to be defined – Or Not appeared first on Algarve Trailriding Tours.

Gone of the days when i used a bucket and sponge and a hose pipe, the cleaning industry and detailing world have moved on a bit since then.

Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up over the years detailing and cleaning bikes.

I hope you guys find it of interest and useful.

Prevention is better than cure

Keeping your enduro bike pristine and like new is far easier to achieve if you do it from day one especially if you purchased your bike from new.

It’s harder to achieve good results if the bike has been previously owned and partly neglected, however great results can still be achieved with a little time, effort and patience and often with basic cleaning know how products, you don’t have to buy all these fancy well marketed expensive products ( believe or not these products can be harmful to your bike ) I will explain a little later below.

Step 1.

Preparations

If your lucky enough to own a bike stand, elevate your bike onto the stand on flat level ground, if not pushing your bike backwards and forwards to clean your wheels is fine.

Block your exhaust silencer exit, with suitable size plastic bung, also cover and protect your air filter, or just leave it in situ if you plan to remove and clean it afterwards ( but do not start the bike afterwards as this will pull water through into your carb or injection system !! ) those are the two fundamental items to do before cleaning a bike can commence, there may also be some other areas on your bike you may need to pay attention too like covering electrical item but in general these tend to be ok if you use common sense

Step two

Prewash

With your pressure washer pre soak your bike with water all over, the key is not to try and remove all dirt in one go, by pre soaking the bike with water all over and leaving it for a short while for some contact time will allow for the bulk of the mud to come off far better

When using a pressure washer there are a number of important key points

1. By standing closer or further away from your bike whilst jet washing makes a big difference to the contact pressure of water hitting your bike and there are a number of key areas on your bike where it is necessary to apply less water pressure force during the pre wash clean, for example

1. Wheel bearing
2. Fork seals
3. Bottom linkage
4. Handlebar switches
5. Electrics.
6. Graphics

It’s important not to blast these sensitive areas with high pressure water as you can potentially cause yourself problems later on and shorten the life of these important components

Remember the majority of your domestic home pressure washer will give you about 150bar and 7LPM so they are powerful.

Pre wash the underside of your bike ??

So many people forget about pre washing the underside of your bike

This is best achieved by leaning your bike over onto your bike stand on the front fork triple clamp this allows for your bike to lean over very low to the ground allowing excellent access to the bottom of your bike alternatively you can lean your bike at an acute angle against a wall to achieve the same results if you don’t own a stand you then simply carry out the same pre wash procedure as you did before.

Step 3

Washing your bike ?

Now you have spent the time removing the bulk of the mud with your pressure washer you will be left will a film of dirt all over the bike !

This is where the soap comes in, Best way to apply soap to your bike is by using a device called a foamer that connects to the lance on your pressure washer if you don’t have a foamer you can buy cheap hand held pump sprayer and you can apply the soap manually

Spray your bike all over in a liberal fashion making sure you pay attention to all areas of your bike.

Two important key points !!!

1. Once you have foamed your bike you must leave your bike to stand covered in soap do not wash off immediately !! By leaving the soap on your bike it starts to lift the dirt residue and the dirt partials suspend within the soap particles

Whilst your bike is covered in soap nows the time to clean and wash over your bike with a sponge for the bulk of the flat areas and for detailing all those knocks and crannies a clean new cheap paint brush works well for all those hard to reach areas, also a non scratch small sponge is ideal for wheels, engine, frame and swinging arm etc

You may need to re apply the foam during your cleaning process as it can start to dry out if you are detailing some of the bike areas especially if its a hot day !!

WHAT FOAM DO I USE ??

Plain and simple, you don’t need fancy expensive cleaning products, just a decent wash and wash from your local Walmart is fine. The nice thing about a wash and wax is that they generally tend to be thicker and of a gloopy consistency and foams well through a foamer and sticks to the bike better and does not run off the bike to quick allowing for better cleaning contact time.

WHAT CLEANING PRODUCTS SHOULD I AVOID !!

A number of the well known dirt bike cleaners I have found to be unsuitable for long term use !! Some of the products will give you good cleaning results quickly but some have a high PH value and over a period of time they can dull plastics and dull chrome and alloy ruining the over appearance of your bike.

They are ok for occasional use if you have a bike that’s been neglected, but it’s important to wash with plenty of water afterwards to neutralise the PH VALUE.

THE MAJORITY OF decent WASH AND WAX soaps are kind and have a neutral PH

STEP 4 Rinsing off your bike

Now you have meticulously and thoroughly pre washed and soaped your bike, nows the time to jet wash the bike off, starting at the top of the bike working your way down and around your bike remembering NOT to blast water into those sensitive areas.

REMOVING WATER FROM YOUR BIKE.

I highly recommend a small portable compressor, you can get them for about £100 from your local Walmart shop, by attaching the air pistol that normal come with the compressor you can now remove all water from the bike this will take some time but it’s well worth doing to help prevent corrosion and unwanted water in electrics etc

STEP FIVE

BIKE PROTECTION

OK so your bike is now clean and dry I would now highly recommend what I call a top dressing there are two that I swear by !!

1. GT85 in a spray can normally comes in 400 ML can, spray all over your bike including plastics, apart from brakes and tyres !!! You can leave to dry on your bike naturally or wipe over with a cloth. It’s ok to spray on the engine but it will smoke a little on initial start up, but quickly burns off.

GT85 leaves a lovely shine and protective layer all over your bike to help stop corrosion and it’s great to apply before and after rides for maximum protection

It’s also great for dispersing water and protecting electrics

I use GT85 through the summer months mainly, and I find it works very well

2. ACF50 is another great product but very expensive by comparison, in the winter I use GT85 and ACF50 mainly on the bottom of the frame and hard to clean areas during the winter especially if I’m going longer between cleans

By applying either product before a ride helps cleaning the bike greatly afterwards

STEP 6

PLASTICS

if you want to treat your plastic just a decent well known wax polish is great suitable for plastics to keep them looking fresh.

YOUR CHAIN !!

Remember to re oil your chain after giving it a clean !!

By cleaning your bike often also helps you spot potential issues and problems that could escalate causing you a right headache !!

Of course there is far more to it than that !! If you want to start removing plastics and detailing the bike from top to bottom properly !!

I do what I call a deep clean on my bike once maybe twice a year where the bike get stripped to pretty much down to frame, engine, forks and wheels !!! Then things get serious regarding detailing, cleaning and polishing and all manner of cleaning products and tools are required and used.

Well that’s about it folks, I hope you have found this of some help and interest.

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Long story short….I’ve been mad on scramblers and dirtbikes since being a really young boy aged 7 or so. I managed to get some form of sponsorship aged around 14 years old and I was hoping this would lead to me racing regularly as a teenager. My folks had no interest in dragging me around to race so I pushed as hard as I could as a teenager to make it happen in some way. Upshot of it all….It didn’t quite come off. Years later, I wanted to compensate for the lack of achieving my boyhood dream of being a pro racer. Running Trailriding Tours here in the stunning western Algarve seemed to be a perfect combination of everything I still dreamed about.

I have done a few races since being here in Portugal. Racing at my age has definitely shown me the down side of sliding round corners and bouncing off at speed. Too many long recoveries from a few bad hits means that nowadays I much prefer Trailriding and Enduro riding mixing into the bag some small technical challenges. I said no more racing aged 50 but since then have done 2 large races 1 in the National Enduro Championship and 1 in the Baja Rally TT series. So, as you can see, I’m more semi retired than fully retired. Mind you my wife seems to have quite a lot to say about my continuing racing career (LOL).

So for those of you looking to find a great place for you to ride offroad dirtbikes on some of the best riding trails and locations in Europe, why not check out our website www.algarvetrailriding.com and see if we can whet your whistle.

Having been in business since 2016, we’ve had plenty of clients come through our doors for enduro and trailriding and enduro training.

Glad to say, many clients have become friends. That truly is a magical feeling about running this business.

Hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks, Anton and Chris.

Drop us a line at info@algarvetrailriding.com if you have any queries.

The post How it all began appeared first on Algarve Trailriding Tours.

I have been writing some articles for a Tourism magazine available here in the Algarve and this has inspired me somewhat to put an article type page together for those of you interested in all things dirt bike related.

I hope to pick up on current topics and cover some tips for bike maintenance, riding technique and anything that is of interest to us enduro and trailbiking riders.

If anyone is interested in writing and wants to share something I’m very happy to have you write an invitational a blog post. So especially now in times of Covid restrictions, please feel free to let your inner writing demon free.

Upbeat and funny articles will be particularly welcome. Anything that keeps us entertained is obviously very welcome.

So just to let you know, as of this week starting Mon 18^th May 2020 some travel and social distancing restrictions have been lifted. This in fact means we have just booked up 2 Trailriding Tours in a week and both our holiday rental houses are booked out for the next few days. The corona virus has been devastating for us so this week feels really positive.

I’ve already made a video of the 2 days guiding trip I did just 2 days ago…Here’s the link….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9PJD59eilM

This was a private 2 day guided tour with the focus on enduro technical riding as asked for by the client.

From feed back received – Algarve Trailriding Tours knocked it out the ball park.

So, here we go guys, anyone interested in booking up before the summer heat comes and closes off the majority of the riding during the months of July and Aug get in touch ASAP.

This year, during usual fire restrictions, I’ll be running tours slightly differently, no forest riding but we’ll be on tracks and trails with visits to points of interest etc.

Look forward to hearing back from you. Anyone who wants to drop me a line can use info@algarvetrailriding.com

Regards, Anton and Chris.

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