If you’ve been out riding recently and come face-to-face with a treacherous looking stream across the road, what do you do? We spoke to Off-road hero and Dakar legend, Simon Pavey, who gave us his guidance on how to ride in the current miserable weather conditions and how to tackle deep or murky water.
Over the festive and New Year period large areas of the country were hit with a deluge of wind and rain leaving acres of land under water and many road networks disrupted. So if it’s absolutely necessary to ride your bike in the conditions experienced over the recent weeks then read on for Simon’s advice.
The 49-year old Australian has entered the Dakar Rally on eleven occasions since 1998, including 2006 when he also tutored TV star and adventurer Charley Boorman. Simon now runs the BMW Off-Road School in Wales which includes one lesson dedicated to draining the bike’s engine of water.
He said, “Flooding and deep water can definitely be incredibly dangerous, it doesn’t take much side current to unbalance a bike. From my experience, if the water is above knee height then avoid riding through it.”
His top tips for riding in wet conditions or when faced with water flowing across your path are:
After all, he speaks from experience but of course blames a photographer! On the launch of the BMW 1150 GS Adventure in Spain, the photographer asked him to ride through some deep water again and again but the bike washed away from under him and they floated off down-stream.