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So did my first ever enduro today - which was ace - some of the stuff we rode was waaaay steeper than I'd done before!
A lot of the course was so loose that I felt like I was ploughing it rather than riding it. Other than not trying to change direction how do you cope with loose dirt?
Big jaggy tyres usually. And relaxing and letting the bike get on with things, trying to be precise doesn't always work but it can be a bit weird being approximate. And looking for the bits that there's grip- if you get set in a rut right it's like a tiny little berm, frinstance, and you'll be closer to hard ground. More or less, don't worry about the bits where there's no grip because you can't do much anyway, only worry about the bits where there's grip because that's where you have to do everything. I'm not that quick but figuring these things out made a big difference, I used to look at a rut as a trap basically and worry about the slippy bits then spend the grippier bits doing nothing but looking at the next slippy bit.
And, well. Sometimes there's times when planning your failure is useful. There was one innerleithen enduro stage where I just could not keep any speed on, trying to ride it properly but doing an epic #enduroscoot/ multidab I could make bloody good progress, felt a bit of a **** passing people who were doing it "right" though. I ended up about 50 places higher on that stage than the others, if only it was always like that I could just take a pedal off at the top and be a contenda! Foot out flat out maaaan
Always luved lose dirt.
Just stay relaxed in your arms and keep you weight back to unweight your front wheel. concentrate on getting side grips really dug in on corners and any drifting should be progressive
Its small ( fist sized) loose rolley stones I hate. Mediterranen islands yurrgh
Shut my eyes, hold on tight and scream as loud as I can.
Motorbike noises are absolutely key
How do you ride loose dirt?
Badly and head first into a tree is how I rode it yesterday. With 4 hrs immobilized in hospital and a CT scan for afters. So much for not grabbing at the brakes, you just end up going fast out of control instead of slow out of control 😀
Lean the bike, not your body is the best advice I've had. You are not on a motoGP bike so you have no power to push yourself upright again. And of course, look where you want to go. I found night riding is good practice for your reactions, but don't use a high setting and point the beam up the trail so you can't see your front wheel.