Lofting a Loaded BMW R1200GS - Learn the Techniques

The road to Hurrah Pass is full of all kinds of fun challenges. There's a river to ford, there's long fast gravel roads, there's rock steps and shelves, twisty turns, massive outcrops. The road to Hurrah Pass is awesome. So these are really common features here in Moab and other places around the world. We're on the road on the way up to Hurrah Pass and crossing these can be very very intimidating because it's very similar to just doing an obstacle except you're doing it on a hill and incline and you have repetitive obstacles behind it. You have to have enough momentum to make it all the way to the top but speed isn't necessarily momentum. Before you start on the hill you've got to commit to a line and you've got to see yourself at the top. It's a hundred percent in or a hundred percent out. There's no halfway on this. The line I'm choosing for this particular set of stepped rocks is come in right here at this this is about a nine inch step at the bottom and then it's very easily ramped and sloped up from there. The GS 1200 has eight and a half inches of travel on the front which means even if I come in this and I get good throttle at the bottom I'm most likely going to run all the way through my suspension stroke and I have to be going slow enough that that front tire once it clears the top is immediately back in contact with the ground as I go through and then I can bring the back wheel in and get an easy climb over that. If I hit this too hard not only am I likely to damage my rim my suspension maybe cut the tire or damage the tire but that back tire is going to hit a lot harder too. The front end is going to rebound up and it turns into a real mess. The approach on this is going to be very slow. Right before I get to that nine inch I'm going to have just a little body shift back and I'm going to add some momentum by adding throttle and clutch at the same time. I'm not trying to wheelie over I'm just trying to get a little bit of lift and make sure that suspension is fully extended before I make contact. I want all eight and a half inches of travel available so when the front tire touches this sharp edge and it compresses I'm running all the way through. If I come in slow and I or I run in hard and fast on this I'm going to be down inside my suspension stroke which means I'm not going to have a full eight and a half inches to compress all the way in. The first step is the most difficult. That's the one where you're coming straight in on it so you're you have a very sharp edge as you're going in. Once the bike angles up the hill all of the steps afterwards the bike is running at an angle and that means that the tire is going from tip to tip all the way through. You're less likely to have problems with the front end jumping up in the air so you have to be controlled when you get started or the whole thing turns into a mess. These are super common here and they can be very intimidating. You can have larger steps if you're not sure you're going to make it and there's many times that depth perception on on these particular hills can be very difficult with the bright light with the reflection. I'll park my bike some distance away so I know I still have a good run in whatever speed I might need and I'll walk up and I'll double check what the hill looks like. What you ride is going to make a big difference on your strategy going over this. If your motorcycle is more street focused with 17 inch rims and shorter travel suspension you need to be much more diligent about finding ramped steps that connect. It's critical to understand that riding up a set of steps like this is not the same as just riding up a slanted hill. As the bike is moving up these steps it may rock as we cross each one of these obstacles. My body's going to stay in a very neutral center position and the bike's going to move and pivot around underneath me. Riding down these steps can be much easier than going up. Gravity is always in your favor and you can come off of these larger steps even on bikes that aren't as off-road focused or capable because as you're coming down even if you don't have ground clearance you can still slide off of your skid plate. You need to come down very slow. If you get the forks where they become vertical or actually inverted as they come down there's no self-correction forward design or engineering within the motorcycle. And then just continue to keep that movement all the way down. For me it's clutch in. I'm using both brakes. Most of my speed control is using the front as I'm coming down. The back is only to keep the bike stable and almost as a drag shoot behind me. When you're going downhill you want to keep your body very neutral or slightly towards the back of the bike. As that bike tilts downhill it'll feel that you're moving towards the rear. What you're really trying to do is just stay in a neutral balance and my vision is not going to be looking at the front tire. I have to be looking all the way to the bottom so I know where I'm going, how much speed I need to scrub off, and if I am not able to control my downhill speed where I'm going to end up. This hill is more intimidating with a loose surface approach and the rock steps in the middle of the hill. I start by formulating a plan. I look at the top of the hill to figure out where I want to end up and how I need to approach the hill. So I approach the hill from the left. This is mostly just a hill and a ramp. This very first step or rock is really not a concern for me. As I move up I'm going to end up with loose traction. My biggest concern is this step on the hill and what I'd like to do is put my tire right here where I can eliminate the rock completely. The problem is I'm on a 1200GS and my cylinder head will hit this rock on the side so I have no choice but to go over this rock. When I approach this I'm going to add a little extra throttle and I want to get that front suspension to extend just a tad as it comes over and I don't want to get too much wheel lift because immediately after I clear this step I have to make a hard right to continue up this hill. So as I'm coming in I'm going to shift the body weight. I add power and throttle just enough to get the front wheel to clear it and I want that front wheel to touch the ground again. If all goes as planned I'm back in control of the motorcycle here. I can lean the bike underneath me and make a nice turn going right up over this area where there's no step at all. In very technical riding situations like this I turn the ABS on my bike off. As long as I'm riding very slow and I have good control the ABS doesn't affect my downhill descent but if I come off of one of these rocks and I impact the front hard enough that it senses a wheel lock up then it'll start to cycle the ABS and as I go down the hill it'll continue to cycle and put me into a free roll condition where the brakes aren't slowing me down. Modern motorcycles with off-road ABS that either cannot be cycled off or is built and dedicated for off-road use that's not an issue.