 Lobo and I had a great day at the Off Road Skills centre near Swansea in South Wales with Simon Pavey and his fantastic team - https://www.offroadskills.com/
Lobo has already completed courses 1, 2 & 3 that cover actually riding the GSs properly off road but this was my first visit and this was for the Adventure Maintenance course, something we felt would be very worthwhile for our upcoming trip riding from Sydney back home to Wales (North). Up until now, Lobo was like most BMW owners took our 1250 GSA to the local dealer to be serviced, as much for the ‘stamp in the book’ as anything else and that is perfectly understandable. The Adventure Maintenance course was designed by Simon and is intended to give you the confidence and skills to carry out emergency repairs to get you back on the road, it isn’t a substitute for taking your bike for an annual service. We were practicing on 750 & 1250 GSs but the course would give you the confidence to work on any make of bike, we had Suzuki and Triumph owners in the workshop with us. So what did we cover: what tools to carry, fixing punctures, changing tyres, jump starting, replacing brake pads, dealing with the aftermath of a water crossing if all goes wrong! The course covers so much more than this and Sam and James (a trained BMW technician) are happy to answer any questions you might have for them. This is not about studying the theory in a classroom, this is about being ‘hands on’ in the workshop – we have watched many Youtube films but there is absolutely no substitute for wielding those spanners yourself! Puncture repairs and tyre changes were of particular interest to us as we can’t exactly call the AA if we get a puncture crossing the Nullarbor Plain in Australia! Would we recommend this course or a course like this wherever you are in the world? The Adventure Maintenance course is primarily aimed at those planning a big adventure but we would say that it would be of use to anyone who rides a motorbike, whether you’re heading up to Scotland for a week or half way around the world as we are, so the answer is an emphatic yes. A big thank you to Simon and Linley for the opportunity.
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