The ABCs of ATVing: Taking the ATV RiderCourse

by Bill Andrews

My thumb gooses the throttle on the ATV, breaking the rear wheels loose and sending dust and dirt flying behind me. The back of the machine slides to the right as I hang off the left side of the seat. With the ATV finally pointed the right way down the straightaway, I'm ready to go up a gear. I instinctively grab the clutch, as if it were a motorcycle, and attempt a click up with my foot. But instead, I nearly pitch myself over the handlebars.

Nope, that's not a clutch in my left hand. It's the rear brake. Just one of the many lessons I learned while taking the ATV RiderCourse recently.

My experience over the last 25 years has been strictly with motorcycles, and just street bikes at that. I used to think ATVs were just scaled down Jeeps with motorcycle controls.

From the moment I arrived for the half-day class, I quickly realized that these aren't the passive machines I thought they were. I discovered that they are neither Jeep nor motorcycle, though they do combine a few traits of each.

Though you straddle the machine and steer it with handlebars like a motorcycle, the controls are different. And the ATV requires a heck of a lot more body movement to direct them - compared to, say, the comfortable seat of a Wrangler.

By design, the ATV RiderCourse is very thorough in teaching the proper operation and control of an ATV. It all starts as soon as you pull into the parking lot of the training course.

All Terrain Vehicle Association Director Doug Morris is our instructor this morning, and as each student pulls in, he rushes over to teach folks the proper procedure for unloading their ATVs.

"A lot of accidents occur before they ever hit the trail," Morris says, as he secures a ramp to the tailgate of one pupil's pickup truck.

With Morris standing along the left side of the machine, he guides it down using the handbrake. "Many folks will sit on the ATV and ride it down," he says. "As the rear wheels hit the ground, they panic, hit the brakes and the ATV flips over right on top of them."

The class gathers at a bench next to the dirt-and-gravel training course, and we talk about why we're here.

We are a small, intimate group of seven, including myself. Most have at least six months experience on ATVs, but have decided to take the class to gain a little more understanding of the machines, and to learn a thing or two about their safe operation.

Like the Motorcycle RiderCourse, Morris starts the class by discussing proper riding gear. We go over the different types of helmets and their proper fit. Then we talk about eye protection, gloves, boots and any other clothing designed to keep us comfortable and safe.

Before we get on the ATVs, Morris says we need to limber up a bit. "An ATV is rider-active," he says. "We need to warm up our bodies just like we warm up the engines."

After a few neck rolls, leg stretches and knee bends, we look over the different ATVs in our class. I discover ATVs have many different types of transmissions and drives. Some, like the one I'm using, have an automatic clutch and only the rear wheels are driven. Others have four-wheel drive and an automatic transmission, like a car. Still others shift by simply pressing an up-or-down button located near the left handgrip. Morris says there are even some models that shift like a motorcycle with a manual clutch. That's why, he says, seriously reading your owner's manual can be invaluable.

Morris goes from ATV to ATV and talks about the different controls and their functions.

The Honda FourTrax Recon I get is pretty standard, as far as ATVs go. But many of the control functions are quite different from what I'm accustomed to on a motorcycle. The left handlebar lever and right foot pedal control the rear brakes. The right handlebar lever controls the front brakes.

Also on the right is a thumb lever for the throttle, which is different from turning the whole grip, like on a motorcycle. The shift lever is by my left boot, like on a motorcycle, but by clicking it all the way down, you find neutral. On a bike, that would be first gear. These subtle differences can obviously make a world of difference, if you're not used to them.

It's time to fire up, and Morris gives us an acronym for the starting procedure, BONE-C - Brakes On Neutral Engine Choke.

Most of this is very much like a motorcycle's start up procedure, except on a bike, you don't first set your parking brake. I then go in and out of first gear a half dozen times trying to find neutral, until I finally remember - all the way down is neutral.

The engine cut-off switch is on the left handlebar, and it's activated in the usual way, thankfully. A stab at the starter and the engine's running.

I click up from neutral, release the parking brake, give a little thumb throttle and … I'm moving. Grab both hand brakes, and the ATV stops - hey this isn't that hard.

Morris then has us ride around the perimeter of the course. Here's where it gets interesting. The ATV wants to lean out of a turn like your car. It's at this point that the machine has the most potential to tip over. To counteract this I need to lean forward and into the turn. The faster the turn, the more I lean. To make sharper and faster turns, Morris says we really need to move our bodies off the seat to change the center of gravity.

He next shows us that by hitting the throttle in a turn, on the two-wheel-drive models, we can literally push the rear of the ATV the rest of the way around. For those of us who enjoy racing, this little procedure is known as a broad slide; you break the wheels loose and slide through the turn.

It was at this point that I thought I was really getting the hang of this ATVing stuff. I'm sliding through the turns and having a blast.

Morris says, "Try running from second to third gear in the straights."

"Cool," I think, as I pull in the clutch and … that's not a clutch.

I sit back down after realizing I hit the rear break by mistake again. Just a little wiser, if not a lot embarrassed, I hit the throttle and away I go.

Our next exercise is slalom. We gather together and Morris shows us how he wants us to ride a pattern between the cones. This is a tricky maneuver requiring us to first lean one way, blip the throttle to throw the rear end around, then immediately set up for the next cone by leaning the other way, and again hitting the throttle.

We're never in our seats long during this run, and at this point I realize this is definitely not a passive sport.

After a short while we take a break, and many of us are gulping down water like we've spent an hour at the gym.

Marty Reams, one of the students from Lima, Ohio, says it's a bit of a workout, but it's also so much fun, he can't wait to hit the trails every week. Marty and his wife, Paula, just bought their ATVs and have already clocked a couple hundred miles on them.

The class rejoins at the bench and we talk about the mental aspect of riding.

"You need to use common sense," says Marty.

With that intro, Morris throws out another acronym, SIPDE - Scan Identify Predict Decide Execute.

Familiar? It should be. It's what every new motorcyclist learns on their first day of the motorcycle RiderCourse.

I'm finding that I use SIPDE in everyday life. Just about anything you do can be done safer if we just Scan or look ahead, Identify potential problems, Predict what's going to happen on our present course, Decide on a course of action, then Execute it.

Why, it's almost philosophical.

"The environment we're riding in is constantly changing," Morris says. "We need to be looking as far down the trail as possible."

Indeed, even the area we've been practicing in was flat, packed earth and gravel when we started. In just a couple hours of use we've created very tall ruts in some of the turns, and most of the area is now soft and churned up.

This necessitates a different line into the turns, and possibly slowing a bit in the ruts.

Morris also talks about one of the trails deadly sins - peer pressure.

"How many times have we heard 'Come on, you can make it,'" he says. "And the outcome was usually less than stellar.

"If you're in a group, talk about riding through a rough area together," Morris says. "Show a bit of courtesy with your friends and either take the easier route, or offer to ride your friend's ATV over the area in question."

The bottom line, says Morris, is to not let somebody attempt something he's uncomfortable with, which can lead to a disaster.

We head back out to the ATVs for the day's final lesson. At the back of the course is a small 10-foot hill. Our mission - ride over it.

Morris demonstrates how to lean uphill at all times to keep the ATV stable. He then shows us what to do if we loose that critical momentum.

"Set the parking brake and get off," he says. "It's safer to walk it down than risk riding it down backwards."

With a thumb full of throttle I charge up the hill, ride along its side while leaning uphill, then, lean back to make the downhill run. With all the body movement, I'm again reminded that this is a very physical activity, but it's also a heck of a lot of fun.

At the end of the course, Morris again heads out to the parking lot with the students to show them the proper loading procedures for their ATVs.

The class went quickly, and of course there were many other exercises and finer points that should be experienced first hand. But overall, the class is simply meant to be an introduction to ATVing, designed to show us the proper and safe handling of these fun machines.

To become proficient, Morris says we need to ride them. That's not tough duty, he points out: "Gee, that means you just have to go out and have fun!"

Our instructor, ATVA Director Doug Morris, explains to the class some hand signals we'll be seeing during the course. "This means regroup," he says.	Morris goes over the procedures on how to traverse over the hill.	One at a time we go up, along the side, then down the hill.
The class does a slalom as part of the course. The exercise requires riders to move quite a bit on the ATV.	Marty Reams, from Lima, Ohio, shows good form as he leans into a left hander.	At the end of the day, Morris leads the class on a simulated group trail ride.