Slide around in the dirt…
Challenge everything you thought you knew about riding at the Royal Enfield flattrack school
‘Soon my pace got faster, and the grin got even larger’
Take everything you know about riding a motorcycle on the road and throw it in the bin. That’s the easiest way to describe what it feels like to have a go at flattrack.
Hugely popular in the US, it sees riders thundering around ovals with no front brake in a series of mudslinging sprint races on surfaces with ever-changing levels of grip. It’s now worming its way into British biking culture, attracting riders as young as seven to compete at events set up by the DTRA (Dirt Track Riders Association).
Keen to sing the virtues of the sport, Royal Enfield have established a new Slide School – allowing you to get a taste for the action on a roster of modified 24.3bhp single-cylinder Himalayans.
Coaching is provided by three-time champion Gary Birtwistle, who’s been teaching people how to slide since 2019 and races a factory-backed Enfield 650 twin at British championship level. To see what the fuss is about, we went along to the Enfield Slide School at Greenfield Dirt Track,
Lincolnshire, to see if Gary’s know-how could turn this roadbiased reporter into a sideways superstar. “Flattrack teaches good bike control,” the champ-turned-tutor explains. “There are a lot of transferable skills to pick up from the riding and the circuits you ride on.”
The circuit in question today is a muddy loop, which raises the dilemma of what to wear. My fellow slide students have on a mix of MX pyjamas, leathers, textiles and more - but everyone gets fitted with a steel shoe. This hooks over your left boot and allows you to run your inside foot across the ground in a turn to help control the sliding bike beneath you. It also feels utterly bizarre and causes you to subconsciously hobble from side to side like an uneven chair. Suited and (quite literally) booted, we next need to get used to the feel and weight of the stripped-down Himalayan beneath us by warming up with a simple slalom through some cones with a left turn at each end. Sounds easy right? Wrong. You see, with no front brake lever, an over-sized spoon on your left foot and a slippery clay surface beneath, such a simple act becomes a tricky mental and physical exercise. “You’ll feel the bike move below you and the grip level change,” Gary calls out over the exhaust note. “That just makes you so much more aware of the motorcycle.”
A few wobbly laps later and I’ve gained a feel for the surface. Now it’s time to move onto a small oval within the main 1/8-mile track to acclimatise to the acceleration, steering, and use of the rear brake and motor for stopping power. This mini-oval keeps speeds sedate, but you have to force your brain into trusting the 19in rubber to carry you through the bend.
That said, with each rotation comes more faith and before my amateur’s overconfidence gets the better of me, Gary pulls us in for a series of lessons on body position. Unlike road riding, flattrack cornering requires your body to remain upright, with the machine banked over underneath you. Your right butt cheek wants to be over the outside edge of the seat, with your body pushed up close to the tank to get more of a feel from the front end. You also need your elbows up, and as the bike tips in you spread your throttle hand like you’re opening a doorknob, to allow for maximum control at lean. This is all while your left leg skims across the rutted surface with your foot facing slightly away from the motorcycle. I’d be lying if I said I remembered it all right away, but as we moved onto the larger circuit in groups of five my pace got faster, and the grin got larger.
Every session becomes more controlled and I even manage a few deliberate rear slides, but I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m lining up against Gary in a race, though.
Sadly, the British weather finally catches up with us and turns the track into an oil slick. Initially due to be riding from 10am until 3pm, the last hour is instead spent in the classroom, breaking down the racing lines and how professionals extract last tenths when dicing for the win. It’s very interesting, but all the while I’m itching for another stint. I’ll have to come back to put it all into practice soon.