Since the beginning of the motorcycle era, people have used the single-track vehicle for transport, whether it’s been around the block, around the country or around the world. People love adventure and riding off of the beaten path, and motorcycles have served that desire well. The difference between yesteryear’s motorcycles and today’s is that many years ago, without the options of today, riders were just badly abusing the then-standard motorcycle. Then along came the term “adventure-touring.” This buzzword started a whole new genre of motorcycling.

The 2004 film Long Way Round was fuel to the fire, and many riders added long-distance adventure riding to their bucket list. BMW basked in brisk sales of their R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure, the granddaddies of adventure-touring bikes, as other manufacturers soon realized the potential of this market and scrambled to design and build models of their own.

Even some seven years since the release of that film, adventure-touring motorcycle sales are still doing quite well, and this style of bike is a predominant motorcycle on our continent’s asphalt landscape.

Everyone craves adventure and longs to explore the road less travelled; after all, isn’t that why most of us ride motorcycles in the first place? I don’t mean that everyone should ride around the world, but even turning off of the main paved road onto gravel can be adventurous if you have never done it before. But beware, getting into soft sand, dirt, mud, gravel or generally slippery surfaces is a whole new ball game, and while it can get the adrenaline pumping, it can also land you flat on your face if you aren’t prepared. This type of riding also requires learning a whole new set of skills to make the most of your off-road experience, but where can a person safely learn skills like this?

There are a number of off-road riding schools in Canada, and these are the ideal courses to learn how to deal with unstable or slippery conditions. I recently spent a day getting dirty, and wet, at S.M.A.R.T. (Snowmobile, Motorcycle, ATV Rider Training), an off-road training centre. Formerly CMTS (Canadian Motorcycle Training Services), S.M.A.R.T. is located in Horseshoe Valley, Ontario, and has a long history of teaching off-road riding to children and adults, but usually on smaller (50–250 cc) and easier-to-handle trailbikes.

The bigger bikes have always been an option at the course, but until school owner and chief instructor, Clinton Smout, earned a BMW rider-training certificate by taking a BMW-authorized training course, he didn’t pursue the bigger adventure-touring bike courses. Now, S.M.A.R.T. is one of only four locations in Canada (see end of article for others) certified by BMW, and he and his crew of instructors are jumping in feet-first and opening the doors to training owners of all makes of big trailbikes. The adventure-touring course is designed so students would use one of the school’s smaller bikes in the morning and then hopefully progress to their own adventure-touring bike in the afternoon. And thanks to a few local BMW dealers, the big trailie training days are filling up fast.

I was fortunate to take part in one of the training days earlier this summer. The sky was overcast and a thunderstorm warning kept many of the students at home for fear of melting. Those willing to brave the elements were Chris Ellis from Triumph Canada, who was on a new Tiger 800XC, Bob Calwell from Kawasaki Canada, riding a new KLR650, myself on a Triumph Tiger 800XC courtesy of Triumph Canada and, of course, Clinton, who rode a resident BMW R1200GS. Clinton also took out a 2012 Yamaha Super Ténéré that is available at the school, but it still had street tires mounted at the time, so it stayed mostly on the sidelines. MMM

by Glenn Roberts

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