Any dirt bikers here?

I am considering getting into the sport, more so to go on trails as opposed to racing/stunts/anything like that.

Is it possible to do while living in MoCo? Are there trails around here and a good community?

I have zero experience on a dirt bike or motorcycle but have always been interested.

Best advice if you want to get into the sport in this day and age is to buy/build a dual sport. There are plenty of events for these types of bikes that allow some trail riding, some street and they are competitive if that's your thing, or can just be plain fun. The availability for trails to just tool around have been dwindled to almost nothing these days unless you own land. There are some trails out in Western MD, but not many around here that I know of anymore unless you want to pay for track time.

It is fun.
D. A. M.N. Riders is a great group. They are a group of dual sport adventure riders in MD
http://www.damnriders.org/

Trek4Ward said:

Best advice if you want to get into the sport in this day and age is to buy/build a dual sport. There are plenty of events for these types of bikes that allow some trail riding, some street and they are competitive if that's your thing, or can just be plain fun. The availability for trails to just tool around have been dwindled to almost nothing these days unless you own land. There are some trails out in Western MD, but not many around here that I know of anymore unless you want to pay for track time.

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This, for actual off-road trails, unless you know someone with land, probably have to trailer bikes for a couple hours. We go to the AOAA in central PA a couple times a year, lots of trails, lots of fun, but far. Of course anyone with 0 experience TAKE A RIDER COURSE FIRST!!!!! they are usually free or cheap, can include your MC license, and can not only save you money on insurance, but can save your life.

With a dualsport, you can ride ride offroad, but can also ride on crappy rutted up dirt roads, in some parks and trail systems not open to non DOT vehicles, and of course public roads.

I own both, my CRF250L wears supermoto wheels 99% of the time, and it's fun around town and for short trips on the highway, so I can ride it as often as I want. It's light and nimble by streetbike standards, maintence intervals are measured by thousands of miles not just a few hours, it's lower and easier to ride on mild trails, and with a few mods can keep up with enduros offroad, and small sport bikes onroad. If I want to explore dirt roads, or take it to trails, I can swap wheels in 30min and have a set of barely DOT legal knobbies, which suck on pavement. Have Yamaha TTRs for the wife and kids, off-road only, so they sit for months till we get a chance to ride around friends/family property, or trailer all of them up to the AOAA. Only downside of a DS is they tend to be heavy, have more road oriented suspension, and lack the power of offroad bikes. Have had offroad 2 and 4 stroke bikes in the past, they are faster, a bit more durable if dropped, definitely lighter and easier to ride through tough stuff, but even so, they are somewhat specialized. My YZ125 was a 2 stroke MX bike, and was tough to "ride slow", tons of power and really light, but was a handful riding in a group with slow riders, and as tall as it was, actually a little tough to go up or down steeper hills. Had enduros, and 4 stroke TTR play bikes(still own a little wheel 125), much easier to ride, much more forgiving, easier on maintenance, but you give up a lot on fast trails, and miss having a plate to ride onroad and to and from trails. Even DS bikes have a range, large heavy "adventure" bikes can't handle much offroad, midsize/price DS like my CRF250L, WRs, and the DRZ400, and at the top are KTM and Husky DS that are essentially full blown enduro bikes made factory street legal with mirrors and turn signals as an afterthought.

With a wheel / gearing swap, I can ride anything from twisty backroads to cruising at 80+ on the interstate, or ride enduro trails and mud.

Same bike,

Mountain Ridge ATV park in Central City, PA

Mountain biking you can do on local dirt trails and it’s good cardiovascularly. You be the engine. All the cool kids ride mt bikes.

Bikebreath said:

Mountain biking you can do on local dirt trails and it’s good cardiovascularly. You be the engine. All the cool kids ride mt bikes.

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They are fun too, don't have to drive as far, and easier to haul, but kinda nice having a bike with an engine, and not having to pedal.

Simple to get involved in the "dirt bike culture"
Steal a dirt bike,, head to Wash DC, evade the cops and ride on the sidewalks.

alucard0822 said:

They are fun too, don't have to drive as far, and easier to haul, but kinda nice having a bike with an engine, and not having to pedal.
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I was obsessed with mt. biking before I became obsessed with guns.

anywhere nearish that I could rent a bike and/or take an absolute beginner class?

Class for riding off road? I know some folks by Gettysburg that do a really nice job of doing this

In MD, you will end up on private land. I always enjoyed going down to WVA on the Hatfield McCoy trails. Great system of 100's of trail miles and towns that are happy to see you. It can get crowded with ATV and UTV's, especially in the Summer. I liked to ride late Fall to avoid them.
In addition to the dual sport club mentioned above, there is a club in Frederick called R&T: http://randt-club.com/TopicsMain.php. They are a good group of hard core riders.

And there is the Southern MD Dirtbikers- which is I believe is mainly track and enduro style events

I live in Maryland, on the Eastern Shore now.

It is hard to get started in Maryland. Most of the good riding is in PA, WVA, NY and VA..

Be prepared to drive.

DAMN is a good place to start, rides are posted on the site, no membership required. Opportunity to meet people and build a riding network. But its been slower this year due to covid
http://www.damnriders.org/

As suggested earlier, Mountain Ridge ATV (Bedford PA) is good place to get started (best in my opinion) with a varying levels of marked trails, but it may be closed for the season now. DAMN usually has a scheduled group ride in May there.

In a normal year lots of organized dual sport rides and enduros. Dual Sport example, Durty Dabbers, Hancock Quarry Run, Michaux dual sport, Seven Mountain DS, Hammer Run (this weekend). Google any of these any you will see videos people post, to see what you are getting into. There is usually a main course that is less hard with options you can try to test yourself.

There is also RAC or now called FAMOUS READING OUTDOORS. Lots of riding, but you need to go with someone that knows the area. This is active mine.

Did I mention rocks? Not sure if you know, but you need to get used to riding rocks. The joke in PA is when people complain about riding rocks and where is the dirt, the answer is you need to bring your own dirt to PA.

There are some clubs that you can join like Northern Virginia Trial Riders (NVR), R&T mentioned above and Delaware Valley Trail riders.

I ride with a subset group of DAMN riders that does a lot of hardcore single track riding, but not a good place to start. I have seen a lot of people come out, get frustrated and give up. It's important to start right to build skills.

One other place to look is riding Trials. Great place to build skills and meet people. There is a web site called Mid-Atlantic Trials.com. Lots of scheduled events each year.

PM me if you like to talk, I can fill you in on you options.

thank you for the DAMRIDERS link
http://www.damnriders.org/

The guy who runs it is also a member on here.
Fantastic group and lots of variants for all types of riding

alucard0822 said:

They are fun too, don't have to drive as far, and easier to haul, but kinda nice having a bike with an engine, and not having to pedal.
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I may end up with an E mt. bike. Until then it's the fat tire bike.

sixspeedshift said:

I am considering getting into the sport, more so to go on trails as opposed to racing/stunts/anything like that.

Is it possible to do while living in MoCo? Are there trails around here and a good community?

I have zero experience on a dirt bike or motorcycle but have always been interested.

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All I can tell you , lived in MoCo entire life and back in the 1970's spent ALOT of time evading avoiding police. There were really no "public" areas to ride. Check out that situation first.
Good option is a street legal dirt bike. Once I hit 16yo was good to go, could actually get to areas then that were kind of OK to ride.

Schipperke said:

Good option is a street legal dirt bike.

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yeah it sucks that there are no legal dirt bike/atv trails nearby. i have a suzuki drz400s dual sport. not sexy by any stretch of the imagination, but here in loudoun county va i have been doing an ~80 mile loop of prob 80% dirt roads starting out from my garage. it is still a lot of fun, though i prefer actual trails.

you can get some real mellow bikes like my drz or the honda L's, all the way up to full-out dirtbikes with license plates (ktm exc line, beta rr-s line).

As mentioned above not much in MD

I don't think Peters Mill/Taskers Gap in VA has been mentioned. Its fairly rocky. The PM trail is newb rideable. Had a friend ride the TTR125LE for his first time on dirt last weekend.
Also Moto Cove in Gore VA. Sections are very rocky.
Tomahawk MX park in WV has a small trail around it. The wife and kid have used that to learn on.
Quite a few other places in VA near the shenandoah/GWNF. Big Levels, etc. Some of those areas you need a plated DS bike. They cancelled the Shenandoah 500 this year due to covid but thats a fun DS ride.

Most trials (note: trials not trails) are northern MD or PA. I ride those too. If anyone wants to buy a '16 Sherco 300 Factory I have one for sale. Not for a dirt beginner though

There is at least one place down near Richmond that has a dirt bike school.

I'm looking to get back into dirt bikes as well- watching this thread with popcorn in hand while looking at the new 701 Husqvarnas...