Jimmy Lewis Off-Road Riding School

"Being in the industry 23+ years, I've had the opportunity to take part in Jimmy's seminars initially and then even host his crew for training on the east coast. It doesn't matter if you're a fairly new rider, long time pleasure seeker or aspiring competitor, everyone will benefit from time spent in their classes no doubt whether it's your first or third time attending."

"My wife and I took this course, and Jimmy, Heather (who my wife says is the secret ingredient), and the rest of the crew are outstanding instructors. They do an excellent job of appealing to multiple learning styles and ensuring student questions are answered with credible, well thought out answers. You would be hard pressed to find a better place to spend your time and money than with Jimmy Lewis and his crew. Their training areas are well chosen (dry lake beds, deep sand, hills, big rocks), providing training opportunities from "as easy as you need it" to "as hard as you want it to be" for every skill level. Additionally, they use an effective mix of "classroom" style instruction, hands-on, demonstration, and repetition to teach important skills. All the while Jimmy will provide examples of how each skill transfers to real world scenarios or riding bigger dual-sport or adventure bikes. Speaking of bigger bikes -- they will tell you that smaller is better for the course, and they're 100% right. If you're planning on riding something bigger than 500cc-ish dirt bike you might consider bringing something smaller or renting a bike from them. I briefly considered bringing my DR650 and then took my WR250F instead, at their recommendation. I know for a fact I wouldn't have learned as much on the DR. The cost of renting a bike isn't necessarily trivial, but then again, neither is the cost of the course. In my opinion you can't get your money's worth on a bigger bike (just because Jimmy can do it on a KTM 1090 doesn't mean it's the best way to do things). I waited until I'd had a chance to go riding on my own after the course to write this review so I could apply what I'd learned first and see what happened. Short answer -- I am a better rider. I probably learned more in two days about riding off-road than I'd managed to teach myself in 5 years riding around and watcing YouTube videos. I still have a lot to learn (don't we all?), but now I actually have the skills and techniques to build on to get there. And after I spend some time practicing and getting better I would absolutely go back and do it again. Thanks Jimmy, Heather, and the rest of the team!"

"When I attended the training, I realized that every man there had trained his entire life just to ride with Jimmy Lewis. I learned so much from them, especially not having ridden in sand before. I wish I was good enough, young enough to have really enjoyed the trail ride, because it went through some awesome terrain. Most impressive was Heather Lewis riding a BMW 1200GS through deep sand beautifully navigating in between the guys kicking up rooster tails. It's a super reasonably priced training."

"I had many years of on-road experience, but zero off-road experience prior to this course. The school has an excellent location with deep sand, a gravel pit and a dry lake bed nearby. It has a class room / eating area and restrooms. It is also easy to find. There is a good range of dirt bikes available for rent, several of them lowered, from Honda CRF230 through to KTM 500. As Jimmy points out, cosmetically they show signs of wear but are mechanically fine. My Yamaha WR250F gave no issues and had an amazinginly plush ride from a lowered suspension. I subsequently bought a Yamaha WR250R and the suspension is quite brittle in comparison. Some other students brought their bikes, such as KLR650 and KTM 690. Renting was easy, the bike was fueled up, clean and waiting each day. Ages and abilities of students were quite varied through the class, with one guy attending for a second time. There were over 10 students at the class with roughly 2 to 1 student to teacher ratio. Jimmy and his wife Heather both taught us, with a group of other local riders to assist. I was helped by a variety of people during the course and I found them all to be patient, observant and knowledgeable. There were a series of exercises over the two days with the same format. Jimmy would introduce and explain the exercise, respond to questions and then demonstrate on his dirt bike and/or KTM Adventure (1190 or 1290, not sure which). Heather would occasionally interrupt Jimmy to expand or demonstrate on some points which was a very good way of running things. Two view points on the same topic worked well. After the questions ended we were left loose to practice each exercise while being observed and corrected by the trainers as required. Jimmy's message overall was that being in balance and feeling out traction are key. He demonstrated brute force vs his methods and the results were impossible to argue with. Never having tried riding a big heavy adventure bike up steep sand or gravel climbs, I can't really comment on Jimmy's abilities. However it was comical to watch the faces of the other students as they watched some of Jimmy's demonstrations. There were plenty of jaws dropping and heads shaking around me. One other student, a long time off road rider, was saying he was sorry not to have come to the course years earlier. The course was certainly an eye opener and de-bunked several common theories on off road riding. I suppose the big difference was, while some methods will work, Jimmy's method allows him to get the same results with very little effort. A big difference if you are doing a long ride. I will probably do the course again once I have built up some experience on my own bike. It will help to get rid of any bad habits and refresh my mind on how I should be riding."