As a beginner looking to experience the thrill of riding a quad bike, one thing you should bear in mind is that you will need some basic training before you can get the hang of things. Below are some easy-to-learn techniques that will make you an expert rider in no time.
Prepping Yourself
While the excitement of jumping on your quad and embarking on a thrilling adventure can be overwhelming, it is important that you are adequately prepared before you even think about getting on a quad. Get the right protective equipment (clothing, helmet, footwear, gloves, and goggles), ensure that the quad is in good condition (check the brakes, fuel and oil levels, brake lights, tyre pressure, and accelerator), and take the time to go through your ATV manual carefully.
Riding Techniques
Posture
Good posture makes your riding experience much better. It also makes mastering more advanced techniques and coping with difficult terrains much easier. Keep your eyes forward while watching the ground ahead of you. Your shoulders should be relaxed, and your arms slightly held out to prevent your elbows from jarring your body. Keep your knees tucked in towards your body and balance your feet on the footrests with the toes pointing ahead.
Bear in mind that riding a quad bike involves active engagement, so you will often feel like you are standing or crouching your body even when you’re still seated.
Starting Posture –When starting the quad, taking a forward and well-tucked-in posture serves you best. You will also want to tense up your body a bit to prevent your weight from falling behind when you first touch the throttle. Begin slow, then gradually work your way up to higher speeds and more rapid accelerations.
Turning Posture – During turns, lean your body forward towards the inside of the turn. The sharper the turn, the harder the lean. In a situation where you find yourself starting to lose control of the quad, try to lean harder into the turn while slowing down. If you have room for it, also try to widen the turn.
Stopping Posture – Stopping requires using your front and rear brakes together. Keep your weight centered by sinking in. This way, your body doesn’t get pushed forward and over the handle bars when you halt.
Throttle Control
While you might want to skip this basic stage and get right into riding at top speed, it is important that you don’t. Unless you have the power of invincibility, jamming your thumb into the throttle without proper experience with throttle control will have you falling off your quad or coming face to face with a large tree. So start off slow, build your confidence and try to get used to the power and speed your quad delivers before taking your quad out for a real ride. It is only when you’ve mastered throttle control and how to correctly accelerate that you can truly drive your quad at astonishing speed.
Maneuvering Slopes
For upward slopes, slightly but carefully stand up and pull your body weight forward. This transfers the weight away from the rear axle to the front. If you lose momentum while driving uphill, it is important that you do not reverse back down. Either engage your parking brakes and dismount or turn around and drive back down if it is safe to do so.
When going down slopes, you need to do the opposite of what you do when going uphill, and that is to transfer your body weight towards the rear axle. If you are going down too fast and need to slow down, don’t suddenly slam your breaks; instead, carefully utilise the front and rear brakes.
Reversing
Quad bikes aren’t particularly graceful when it comes to reversing, so you need to make sure that you get enough practice and get familiar with reversing in a simple and safe environment. When you steer in reverse, always keep in mind the curve you are making. For example, when you steer the front right, you make a “C” shape which essentially means that you’re heading towards the right regardless of whether you are going forward or backward. Never reverse at full speed on a quad bike- there is a reason why the default reversing the power of most quad bikes is limited.
Conclusion:
You don’t become a pro quad bike rider overnight, so start slow and master the basic techniques before moving on to the more advanced ones. With lots of practice, you should become an expert rider in no time. To get up to speed, try searching quad biking near me in order to find local experience packages which will improve your confidence and skill level.
