) skills building was all discussed and practiced. When talking about bike setup Max gave time to anyone who wanted to make changes to their bike due to his instruction before moving on. One of the drills was riding with your bike at full steering lock and ride it in circles as long as you could each direction. This exercise really tired out my hands and even my biceps and triceps were sore afterward. It is much tougher than you would think controlling your balance, clutch, and throttle like that. Max met with each rider during this drill to explain what he was seeing them doing, good or bad. For me, I was staying too far back on the bike. After making the body position adjustment it was definitely easier to maintain the tight circle.
About 10:30 we took off for a ride on the hardest trails in the Marana area, the A/B loop and The Sidehill and we had to ride it all only using the front brake! Let me tell you, that was tough and scary as hell!
I still resorted to using the rear brake I think about 6 times on the A/B loop. On The Sidehill section I started out with only front brake but it was getting hot and I was pretty tired by this point so I reverted to riding with the rear brake as well. However, the front brake skills were much more ingrained, and improved, in me and was using it more than the rear which was a huge improvement overall. I plan to practice at least one of these skills building drills every time I go ride now for at least a half hour before heading out for my normal ride just to really sink it home in my little pea brain. In conclusion, it was a fun and informative class that I think any rider could benefit from taking. Max is a great instructor and explains things were you understand the why's and the how's of these skills and how to actually use them. Side note, Max is also just a great guy, period. Dude has no ego and he likes to keep things light and funny. Hopefully I'll have video from the class done soon and I'll post it up under the pics/video section.
Now, if you're ever in the Phoenix area and want personal one-on-one instruction get in contact with him. He'll get you scheduled in. For classes like I did my buddy Scott got in touch with him, we got eight riders committed, and he traveled down to Marana, AZ (just Northwest of Tucson) to do the class for us. Cost for the class was $150 per person, and was well worth it IMO, and way cheaper than most training classes I've seen by people with lesser credentials and professional accomplishments charge for a 1 day class. He might do some out of state classes as well depending on his race and class schedule. Here's his website if anyone is interested https://maxoff-road.com/#
Here's a pic after the class (L-R) My buddy Scott, Beers who everyone knows from my vids, Max Gerston, and then myself.
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