Each year an increasing number of traditional road bike riders are buying dirt bikes to have fun on. Some state inspirations from Ewan McGregor and his ‘Long Way Round’ trip, some just the worsening road conditions as reasons for switching to knobblies.
Regardless of what you have in your garage, if it's fitted with dual-sport or knobbly tyres then there are two places you can use it off-road in the UK: green lanes or at enduro events. Since green lanes are classed as public roads, the only place you can safely stretch your bike’s legs is at organised enduro events.
Shaun and Matt at Enduro Kent organise practice days in the South East by building relationships with private landowners who give them permission to stage the events. They are restricted to only a handful of days per year and have to run the events with consideration for other land users. Consequently, Shaun and Matt run a tight ship; Bikes are noise tested, checked for VIN numbers and even the rider’s general mental health is assessed on site. If the bike has been tampered with, looks stolen or you’re clearly hanging from the night before, you’ll be turned away.
Turn up with bright eyes, a clean bike and a legal exhaust and after booking in you’ll get to spend six hours riding a five mile track through some beautiful countryside. You’ll find fast, open sections, twisty woodland accents and lots of water to splash around in. You can do as many laps as you can manage as there are no groups and no sessions to worry about. Nothing is timed and if you get in trouble the riding marshals and paramedics are there to help.
I took a Honda CRF250XRL. Because it’s a road legal enduro bike, I rode the 10-mile trip to the venue from my house.
I say that Enduro Kent run a tight ship but Shaun and Matt are two guys who just love riding off road. They also run the local paintball centre. After 10 years of chasing stag-do parties and groups of teenagers around the woods, the guys have started to look for other events to help break the week up.
I turned up, booked in and within five minutes I was out on track. The atmosphere at Enduro Kent events is pretty relaxed and you’ll find the owners and marshals all riding around with you. If you get stuck they’ll stop and help and they encourage you to do the same for others.
The term ‘enduro’ simply means to ride as far as you can for as long as you can. I managed a few hours with regular stops and that was me done. Clearly I need to work on my fitness, but it doesn’t matter; I had a great day and headed home with some pictures from the on-site photographer to keep as a memento.
How much does it all cost? £40 for the day... Cheap or what?
Events like this are fast becoming the future of off-road riding in the UK and you can support the organisers by pre-booking. Check out Enduro Kent's website here for future events and how to prebook. For more images from MotoPix click here
To see more on the Honda range click here
