Ride More, Talk Less: A Plan for life
Another year passes and we’re already well into 2019. But ask yourself – did you really make the most of last year? Did you take that bike out as much as you wanted? Or did you spend more time aimlessly browsing Social media and Bench racing? Yep – we know the truth. So it’s time to crack the whip – we have a plan and it’s very simple – Ride more, talk less.
THE PROGRAM - PHASE 1
# LOVE YOURSElf
So the problem with the Christmas period is that we all tend to eat and drink too much. When the house is packed with tasty treats and enough booze to drown an elephant, the temptation to graze from the moment you get up to the second you hit the sack is enormous. And that’s not helping your riding one single iota.
All this indulgence does not happen without consequences. Jump on those dusty, underused bathroom scales and if you can actually see the readout then it’s most probably far more than it should be and all the carbon fibre trinkets in the world isn’t going to help. If you want to really depress yourself, try popping your height and weight into a BMI indicator …
But don’t be down hearted – you can reduce that figure and the more you lose the better you will feel and the better you will ride. OK it will be miserable doing it and you’ll fill constantly hungry, but lose 10 kg and the difference in your general fitness, heart rate and blood pressure will be worth it. Honest
So the first step is to to know your start weight – the BMI recommendation might seem unachievable, but unless you know where you are, you’ll never get anywhere near your destination …
#2 EAT LESS, EAT BETTER
For the amount of diets that get released each year, you would really think that losing weight was fantastically complicated. However it’s not.
First off all you need to do is eat less than you are at the moment. If your calories intake does not reduce and you don’t do more exercise, guess what? Nothing is going to change.
So smaller portions of what you are currently eating will certainly help, but in reality if you are not eating well, the effect will be limited. You know what you should be eating, and it’s not chips, burgers, sausage rolls and pasties …
So along with eating less, let’s just increase the fruit and vegetables, and cut back on carbohydrate and fat rich stuff. It will make a difference surprisingly quickly.
#3 LOSE THE BOOZE
So all the good work on eating better will amount to little if you are still consuming the contents of a small craft brewery every week. In terms of racking up the calories, alcoholic drinks are major culprits – a pint of lager is equivalent of a large pizza slice so that’s not helping.
If you can’t face the spectre of a dry January or even a dry seven days, you can maybe compromise with a ‘not on a school night’ rule. That way the weekend beers are still a treat but you’ll see the benefits from your mid week abstinence.
#4 GET FITTER, NOT FATTER
OK so we’re not going to get too preachy here, but none of us are as fit as we could be. And the fitter we are, the easier riding your bike will be – you’ll be able to ride for longer, ride better and you’ll probably enjoy it more.
Even doing something as basic as walking for an hour or so a day will help considerably, helping you lose weight and generally increasing muscle tone. If you can scale that up to the gym all well and good, but from our point of view then we’de prefer to be on the bike than a hamster wheel!
THE PROGRAM - PHASE 2
LOVE IT OR LIST IT
So enough of the personal stuff for the moment, let’s change the subject and look at your bike. And it’s time for some tough questions …
Does it still make you smile when you ride it? Does it still do everything you want it to? Do you still jetwash it immediatelty you get home from a ride and then coat it with WD40?
If the answer’s no to all three, then we have a problem – You’ve fallen out of love with your scoot ..
So you’ve got a choice. Spend some time together and rekinle the flame, or smarten it up enough to flog it and trade up.
OPTION a. LOVE IT
So if you go for this option, there’s still going to be some financial outlay, but probably nowhere near as much as a complete change of bike.
How much work you need to put in will largely depend on how far you’ve let things slip, but as a starter you could kick-off with replacing the plastics and graphics. For just about £200 you can freshen up your bike quickly and easily – check out how to do it on our blog here
If it’s just a general freshen up you are after, you could always work through our recent 12 Days of Christmas list. With everything from changing your grips to bleeding the brakes, each simple step will make a small difference, so 12 small steps later you’ve got a significantly better bike for not much effort. Genius.
If you are looking for bigger changes – maybe consider our £100 upgrades menu – from changing the seat to improving the lighting systems, these changes can make quick improvements in a short time.
The final suggestion is combine all these with our Trailbike facelift program – guaranteed to turn your dirtbike from a frog to a Prince.
Get busy people …
OPTION B. LIST IT
But what if you’ve just outgrown your bike and it’s time to move on? If you don’t actually like your bike any more your probably not going to ride it as much!
Well it couldn’t be a better time to buy new with both Husqvarna and KTM slashing 20% of their enduro bikes, and inevitably this price drop will have to filter down to the secondhand market.
However it’s not so good if you are selling for that reason – your used KTM potentially just fell by the same amount, so be prepared to take a bit of a hit. Sorry.
But looking beyond that inconvenient truth, there are some cracking machines just waiting to be snapped up. We did a quick trawl on one our favourite sites and found one beauty we’d be happy to upgrade to in a trice. Specialist sites tend to be far more reliable places to both sell your used machine avoiding the tyre kickers or pick up a new ride from a genuine fellow enthusiasts.
The image with the advert above also shows the power of getting an advert right. The bike is immaculately clean, it’s photographed well – bike on a proper centre stand, exhaust side out, bars turned and and it’s well lit – it’s the perfect image. The owner has put even it in a great setting – you can just imagine dropping it off the stand and heading straight into the forest beyond.
But even if your bike isn’t quite so pristine, then you can still show it in its best light. That means clean it thoroughly and better than you’ve cleaned it before – a bit like the way you brushed your teeth before going to the Dental Hygienist …
So that might breaking out the wire wool on that rusty exhaust, getting busy with the Autosol on the rims and cases and getting all that accumulated clag from underneath the bash plate and round the front sprocket. It might also mean investing in new plastic and graphics – first impressions count so if spending £200 will bring in £300 more on the price then it’s a sound investment. Plastics might be a poor indication of a bike’s condition and buyers should always look beyond cosmetic details, but if a bike looks knackered if probably is. If you present your bike well, people are far more likely to think you looked after it well …
But wherever you buy from, internet auction of classified ad, there are some serious ground rules for buying a used bike. We put together a comprehensive guide in our blog, so read this before you go any further to avoid getting scammed or burned ..
THE PROGRAM - PHASE 3
PLAN THOSE RIDES
OK so here’s the knub of the new year plan. If you love biking, then getting out on the bike is what matters. Having eight grands worth of finely crafted metal in the garage counts for nothing if it never sees daylight.
So that needs to change – you need to stop looking at other people rides on Facebook and Instagram and liking them – that’s not the same as riding.
And it also means stopping making excuses for not riding. It’s too hot / cold / wet / foggy / humid just does not cut the mustard.
All over the world riders like you are setting out on the trails and roads in everything from thick snow to thick mud and having far more fun than sitting behind a laptop contributing to rider forums. Fact.
Step 1: GO LOCAL
So you’ve got mates, you’ve got a bike, and you’ve got places to ride. So don’t just sit there and wait for invites – plan a ride, post it on your FB group with enough time for people to make sure they are free and then get riding.
It doesn’t have to be massive trips, it doesn’t have to be full days – it doesn’t matter. Whether it’s a road run to breakfast at a biker cafe, a blast through over the wide open trails on your adventure bike or a day on the nadgery lanes on the trail bike. If everyone is waiting for everybody else to organise, nothing will happen.
We were in the same position after the Christmas holidays and with nothing planned this last weekend, we posted a ride up on the forum. A dozen riders turned up from newbies to old friends and we covered 150 km of local trails over six hours – perfect.
STEP 2: GO NATIONAL
So let’s step things up a bit and get planning some away days. Riding the local stuff is all well and good, but sometimes it’s good to see different parts of the country you live in. If you’ve got a road bike, then it’s just a question of picking a destination and then choosing a great road to get there, a great road to ride while you are there, and a different route back to base. Road bike and adventure bike magazines often have suggested routes, so check out something like Adventure Bike Rider, in the UK, Bike Rider NZ in New Zealand or find another magazine / website that will help find new places to ride.
For the dirt bunnies, it is going to mean finding the mate with the van as travelling long distances on dirt bikes can be unrewarding. That said, the Trans Euro, Trans American and the Great Trail are great ways of following good mixed going routes for larger distances. Just bear in mind that you need to factor in getting back to base – one way van hires can be a good solution.
In terms of where to ride off-road, getting in touch with ride groupd from the area you want to go to can pay dividends. In the UK there are scores of local TRF – Trail Riders Fellowship – groups all around the country and rather than just giving you a route, will probably lead a couple of day’s ride outs for you. Perfect.
STEP 3: GO INTERNATIONAL
If you’ve already got those home rides sorted out, then now it’s time to broaden your horizons – literally.
Booking a biking holiday can combine the two best things in the world – not being at work and riding bikes! And we should know – every year we take hundreds of riders to far away places to spend a couple of weeks of top notch bike adventuring. Whether it’s riding adventure bikes in South Africa or trail bikes in Cambodia, blasting through the Himalayas on a Royal Enfield or weaving through jungle trails on a Honda CRF250, this is the best holiday you can imagine plus some.
But we’ve not just ridden our own tours – riding is an itch that needs to be scratched. The Ride Expeditions team have ridden in California, Columbia, Morocco, France, Italy, Spain – hell we’ve even Trail ridden the Isle of Man TT circuit! And with a bit of planning and determination you can do the same.
All it takes is deciding where you want to go and booking it up – nothing more complicated. Getting a group of mates together might be an idea as you’ll have a great laugh and you’ll probably save money, but getting people to commit is challenging to say the least, and the bigger the group the harder it is.
But don’t let this discourage you and stop you booking. Joining tours with other riders from around the world will be a fantastic experience either way, and riding in places you’ve only seen in the National Geographic will be worth it!
If you want to find out more about our tours drop us an email to info@rideexpeditons.com
Life is always better when on a motorcycle – but you probably knew that already …
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