Early September saw Desert Rose hold an adventure bike day across 2 of our East Sussex venues. Starting the day with breakfast at Route 1066 Cafe it was good to see riders on a range of big adventure bikes getting comfortable taking the bikes off the tarmac. We had Yamaha Teneres, Triumph Tigers and a KTM 990 Adventure in Dakar trim. With dual purpose tyres on the bikes, once the important matter of breakfast was finished we took a short ride to our first private venue, some 40 acres of open meadow and woodland. Tyre pressures were dropped a little, where possible rider modes switched to off road and surplus gear stowed in the summer house. Now we could focus on the core principles of body positioning and bike handling exercises, all geared to build riders’ confidence when taking these big adventure bikes off road. Mid morning tea meant breaking out the jet boil and then we took a couple of final loops of the woodland before heading off to our second private venue, just 10 minutes up the road. This second venue is some 80 plus acres, mixed between rutted fields, tight single track woodland, short but quite steep hills and a couple of clearings where we have developed skills training areas. The morning’s body positioning and bike handling exercises certainly helped when faced with tight single track sections through the tress.