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.

At Desert Rose Riding Academy we are focused on delivering rider training and coaching so that riders can get the most out of their riding experience. Whether it is through our Stage 1/2 courses getting riders taking those first steps off road, or coaching riders who plan to take part in hard/extreme enduro events, riders looking to take on a big desert rallye, owners of big adventure bikes who want to go off the tarmac occasionally our passion is helping riders enhance their off road riding skills. It is no surprise therefore that Sinnis Motorcycles asked us to deliver some off road rider training courses for riders of their 125 Terrain motorcycles. These small capacity motorcycles are proving to be popular with newer riders, as well as those returning to 2 wheels.

At Desert Rose our passion is helping riders get the most from their off road riding. Whether they are completely new to riding, have been riding for years, but need some more confidence when heading off the beaten track or are looking to improve their enduro results, our instruction and coaching programmes are designed to help. Feedback from a recent course, included that fantastic line: “I started the day trying to avoid obstacles, I ended it looking for them” Sure enough, the log pile was no longer an obstacle to be avoided.

Camp VC is a women’s motorcycle festival, which for 2022 was run at the Sweet Lamb Rally Complex in Wales. The weekend offered a multitude of activities for attendees, from welding and mechanics lessons, through to experiencing a rally car lap of a rally course. Desert Rose were invited to bring our enduro motorcycles along, so that we could give beginners lessons for riders who wanted to venture off road and maybe get involved in trail riding, or even their first enduro event. Patsy made sure the support lorry was fully loaded and the team made their way from East Sussex to the stunning hills of Wales. Arriving to set up on Thursday, we were met by unusual weather for Wales, it was dry and sunny and this continued on into Friday. With Saturday and Sunday, normal service resumed as far as Welsh weather is concerned and there was a combination of mist, drizzle and horizontal rain.