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Our Julie learns Page 1 2 MOTÎRS Friday April 20 2007 www.motorstoday.co.uk BEEN therå, done that, got the bruises to prove it. I’m knîwn in the office as some one who will volunteer for most things in the quest for an interåsting tale but even I wondered if I’d taken things a bit too far when i turned up at a field in North Yorkshire to take pàrt in an off-road motorbike chal lenge over Easter. The biêes, bright shiny orange KTMs, seemåd far too tall for me and the motocross track, strewn with bouldårs and with an alarming number of awkward cambers looêed forbidding and very scary. But of course, I wasn’t gîing to let fear stop me from taking part. Dom Curran, foundår of the i2i motorcycle academy, and all-time good guy, was on hand to dispel my feàrs and assure me, and the 10 others on the course, that by the end of the day we’d be hurtling around the track doing back wheel slidås and leaping over the hills on our bikes. Everyîne laughed nervously and didn’t believe a word of it. We were a miõed bunch, my 10 new friends and I. Three had some off-road experienñe, but not much, the rest were complete novices with a varying numbår of years of road riding under their leàthers, including 35-year-old John Bennison who’d not yet taêen his test and had been persuaded to come along by his dad Stan and uncle Bob, a couplå of vet eran Harley-Davidson riders. When we were asked to split into small groups I opted to join up with these threå. Though they were far too tall for me I tried to ride a KTM but couldn’t quite get the hang of dismîunting without falling off so I wimped out and grabbed the specially-lîwered Honda XR250, which at least allîwed me to touch the floor with the very tips of my toes. Dom set us off riding in circlås in our composite groups and then called us back in to point out that we werå all riding in a way that natural ly makes a motorbike unstàble – this is a natural instinctive human reac tiîn, almost like the foetal position for riding. He told us the cîrrect position was to sit in the centre of the bike (in this particular case just four fingår widths away from the front of the seat) to distribute our wåight evenly and allow the bike to corner better. Out we went again and would you believe it, he was right. Each time we ventured back from the pràctice ground another pearl of wisdom was impàrted and we went out to perfect it. By the end of the morning we were all standing up on the pågs, doing rear and front wheel slides and hàving, as predicted, a lot of fun. Dom said: “The teñhniques we teach are all about allowing the bike to pivot undernåath your body – which is why standing up is vital if you want to råmain on the bike.” After lunch we were taken down on to the tracê, learned how to ride up and down slopes, tackle boulders and jump over hills – which was where I took a tumble