Backroad riding is the essence of adventure motorcycling—exploring remote places and pushing limits. It’s not an everyday experience for most riders, making preparation and caution crucial. In this RIDER SKILLS episode, Clinton Smout shares expert tips for tackling backroads safely, handling challenges, and avoiding common mistakes — your ultimate guide to backroad adventures.

This episode of Rider Skills with Clinton Smout focuses on a technique that doesn’t often get much attention. While experienced riders and instructors use it instinctively, it's rarely highlighted despite being essential for mastering great control. With just a bit of simple, low-risk practice, this skill can dramatically improve your riding and control without the risk of dropping your bike.

In this episode of Rider Skills, we’ll explore the challenges of sand riding and introduce a new technique to help improve your confidence and skills on sandy terrain. Expert riding instructor, Clinton Smout, will share practical tips and advice to help you navigate sand more easily and become a better rider.

Determining the best line for climbing a hill and figuring out how fast is fast enough can be difficult. Understanding when to ease off the throttle and knowing what to do if the climb cannot be completed is crucial. Riders of heavy adventure motorcycles may question whether it is worth attempting the hill at all. This week, our exclusive RIDER SKILLS program will feature pro rider Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures, providing professional instruction on how to climb hills on adventure motorcycles.

This segment of Rider Skills could arguably be one of the most important riding skills you’ll ever learn, yet it’s fairly easy to master and comes with massive benefits. In about an hour, if done correctly, you’ll notice huge improvements in your ability to maneuver and control your motorcycle both on and off-road at slow speeds.  Whether it's in a parking lot, turning around on a road, or navigating through trail conditions, it’s a fundamental skills set for both adventure riders and street riders. You’ll stop dropping your bike as much and feel more confident riding slowly on any type of terrain. It’ll allow you to use your adventure motorcycle in the way it’s designed for - to comfortably explore less-traveled areas - while also enhancing your overall riding abilities.

Understanding the underlying reasons for why we perform certain actions is crucial in building a strong skill set. When you know the ‘why’, you won't need to rely on remembering the steps because they will become obvious. When riding a motorcycle, there's often no time to remember to think about each skill. In this episode of Rider Skills with Clinton Smout, we will explore the essential elements for building and maintaining riding skills and discuss how long it takes to notice a difference in our riding.

Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures returns to ARR’s exclusive Rider Skills to talk about one of the most feared riding conditions we encounter on the street, especially for street riders - gravel. He talks about why gravel is feared, if it should be and what you can do about it to make riding gravel easy and even fun.

Proactive off-road awareness is a crucial safety step which allows riders to anticipate and respond to hazards effectively. Being in tune with the environment enables riders to navigate unpredictable obstacles such as rocks, roots, or uneven terrain, reducing the risk of accidents or injuries. And to talk about that we have SMART instructor, Clinton Smout.

Situational awareness while riding a motorcycle means being aware of your surroundings and predicting what might happen based on what you see. It's about paying attention to the road, other vehicles, weather, people and more. In this episode, Clinton Smout, Chief Riding Instructor at SMART Adventures, tells us how by staying alert, you can anticipate dangers and react quickly to avoid them.

On this episode of our Exclusive RIDER SKILLS we have Chief Riding Instructor Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures talking about common mistakes motorcycle riders make and how to avoid them. Clinton offers unique insights into what can go wrong with novel suggestions on prevention. He also talks about exercises that can be done while driving a car that will improve your motorcycle riding skills and safety.

This episode of RIDER SKILLS is for all riders, regardless of the type of bike you ride or your riding style. Some simple drills that can be done on any surface, be it dirt or pavement. Do them before heading out on a ride, while waiting for a friend, or even when approaching a stop sign or traffic light. These are simple straightforward drills that require no pre-planning, no specific location, and each one will help develop multiple skills at once.

When riding on slippery surfaces, the risk of the rear wheel sliding out from under the bike is ever-present. Whether due to excessive braking or spinning out from rapid acceleration, the rear wheel's speed can cease to match the speed over the ground, causing it to stray from following the front wheel. Without adequate preparation and practice, this situation could lead to a potentially dangerous high side. However, with a grasp of the fundamentals and some diligent practice, managing this occurrence can transform from a potential hazard to an exhilarating experience—one that you might intentionally seek out for the thrill.

Riding a motorcycle through challenging terrain can be extremely satisfying, but even with experience, things can go wrong, and you may find yourself picking up your motorcycle from the ground. On today’s episode of Adventure Rider Radio’s exclusive RIDER SKILLS program, we have Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures sharing five techniques to help you pick up your motorcycle. You can choose the one or two that suit your style or learn all of them to use in different situations.

Day trips with a group of riders are a great way to have full-on adventures. Whether starting from a hotel room or your own doorstep, having others along not only makes the ride safer but also more enjoyable in many ways. You get to share the experience with someone else and learn from other riders. Additionally, riding with others provides the benefit of working together to tackle tough situations. And if you don't ride with others, how can you follow Clinton Smout's advice to let your friend go first? Today on our exclusive RIDER SKILLS program, we have some tips for riding with others, as well as insights into what a motorcycle instructor and guide packs for their day trips.

Every hill has its own characteristics that often change with the season and over time, which for an adventure rider means having a unique approach for every hill climb. But according to Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures, there is a magic formula. And once you learn it, you’ll be powering up those hills that will make your riding buddies wonder who this new rider is.

Should you stand up on your motorcycle and if so, why would you stand and when would you do it? And if you are going to stand how do you do it and feel confident? Perhaps you're a rider who sometimes stands but automatically sits at the first sign of trouble. If so, then this episode is for you, too. Motorcycle riding instructor, Clinton Smout, covers everything from when and why to stand, to bike set-up and tips that with practice will help you become a more skilled rider.

For motorcyclists, obstacles appear in many forms. On the street there may be road damage including missing asphalt on the road edges, potholes, construction, debris, dead animals and more. And off-road, anything from washouts that weren’t there yesterday, to rocks, boulders, roots, trees, and the list goes on. We have two choices when an obstacle presents itself, we can either avoid it or hit it. That may seem trite but it’s not just whether we hit or miss, it’s how we hit or miss. All with the goal of having the least negative result or, ideally, a positive one.

Combine a heavy adventure motorcycle with a narrow trail or tight space and turning around becomes a foot wrestle at best, or a job fit for a team. Today on Adventure Rider Radio’s exclusive Rider Skills we are learning two great methods to make the turnaround a non-event and get you back in the saddle again.

There is a lot to remember when riding an adventure motorcycle in the dirt and challenges often come up quickly leaving little time for contemplation. That’s when having the skills you need in muscle memory can make the difference between an exhilarating ride or a ‘pick up you bike’ exercise or worse. So, to get some things clear in your mind once again Clinton Smout is going to walk us through almost every challenge we find when riding adventure motorcycless in the dirt.

Chris Birch thinks that sand really gets a bad rap and that riding in sand is fun, not just for him but for all riders. And if you disagree, it could be that you either need to tweak your skills or perhaps you’ve missed one of the fundamentals of riding in sand. Time after time, Chris teaches riders to have fun in the sand, not just survive, but have fun. So, if you fear sand or you struggle in it, this episode of RIDER SKILLS should make it so that the next time you see sand through your visor, you’ll anticipate it with a smile on your face.

Rolling along a trail or down the road on a motorcycle emanates a sense of grace and precision, but when the rolling slows to a stop that same motorcycle suddenly feels like a pig. And trying to move it around while standing beside it quickly become a wrestling match, or more over, a mismatch as you try to shove and pull the hefty two wheeled behemoth while it seems to do it’s best to oppose your every effort and flops down on the ground. On this exclusive Adventure Rider Radio RIDER SKILLS segment, we learn the methods of the pros on moving a motorcycle while standing beside it, all the while making it look like a well balanced bicycle, with you taking control.

Crossing a river, pond or puddle can be great fun, exhilarating in fact, that is assuming you make it through. Because if you don’t, the result can run from mild to very serious, even leaving you stranded or walking out. And it only takes one of many possible mistakes to ruin your day. But there is a procedure, and if you follow it through you will have the best chance of getting to the other side smiling. On this episode of Rider Skills, instructor Clinton Smout will walk us through that procedure, step by step, and give you some exercises to do at home to build your skills while you’re still dry.

We all know that a motorcycle is less stable at slow speeds, which is when so many falls happen. For street riders, it’s usually parking lots or roadside stops where slow tip overs happens, but adventure riders have an even higher tip over rate, just because of the nature of riding an adventure bike. We tend to ride on dirt, gravel, rocks, mud, over uneven and slippery surfaces and that’s part of the appeal of adventure riding. How do we avoid falling over at slow speeds? What are the key ingredients that some riders have mastered so that they can slowly work their way around obstacles at slow speeds and not fall over? What’s the secret?

Both on and off-road, choosing the correct line is an important riding skill and it can make the difference of whether or not you get through a challenging situation. But how do you build the skill of choosing a line? What should you watch for and what are key factors in your choices? On this episode, we have instructor Clinton Smout from SMART Adventures teach us these important skills.

Motorcycle tire pressure settings are critical and for adventure motorcycles heading into the dirt it could make the difference between a fun ride or steady frustration, but does the perfect setting exist? Can we look at the chart, match our terrain and riding style to our payload and suspension, and then adjust our pressure to the recommended setting? Well not quite, but it may be a little easier than you think and to walk us through this we turned to two rider trainers with slightly different approaches. Bill Dragoo, although very technical minded, likes to keep it simple and has some great ideas he has developed for setting tire pressures he can live with. Chris Birch comes from a high level racing background and is very in touch with his tire pressures and how subtle changes make a difference in the way the bike feels. Both are top level rider trainers that will help put us on the straight and narrow for setting our off-road tire pressure on our adventure motorcycle.

Riding a motorcycle downhill isn’t particularly difficult, but what does make it difficult and unnerving for many riders are the obstacles encountered on the hill. If it were just a steep slope with plenty of traction, the type you may have ridden in a parking garage or some other paved steep decent, it would be no problem. But in the dirt, surfaces are not flat, they don’t necessarily have good traction, they may have ruts, rocks, roots and a host of other obstacles that add to the challenge of riding downhill. On this episode of Rider Skills, Clinton Smout walks us through how to deal with each obstacle. Then he has some simple downhill riding exercises that you can practice with your own motorcycle at home, and you wont even need a hill.

Aggressive rider? Sounds counterintuitive but there are times when you want to be an aggressive rider and riding instructor, Chris Birch, explains how becoming an aggressive rider, done properly, can improve your riding performance.

Trip planning builds excitement - who’s going, what does the motorcycle need, what to pack and of course the route. The route is a big part of the excitement and there are some very important details to consider that can easily be overlooked, in part because it’s so difficult to assess - yet it could be the factor that makes the difference between getting into trouble or avoiding it. And when you consider the route, other questions come up. How do you know if your motorcycle, your gear and your physical fitness is suitable for your desired route? All that and more on this episode of Rider Skills with Instructor Clinton Smout.

When you think ‘road hazards’, some of the obvious come to mind. Pot holes, uneven road surfaces, debris… those are just a few of the hazards we have to watch for, but the ones that are of the most concern are the ones you may not even think of. Clinton Smout has seen the statistics that prove that the road hazards he talks about today are ones that all riders need to be aware of and paying attention to at all times. In today’s episode of Rider Skills, some eye opening moments that will make you sit up and take notice.

Counter Weighting is simply balancing your motorcycle with your body, and learning to do it correctly will take your skills to the next level. Today on our exclusive RIDER SKILLS program we have top instructor, Clinton Smout, to walk us through the skill using tips that speed up the learning process and get you on the fast track to improving your riding skills.

Manufacturers have to work within the constraints of a budget to keep motorcycles affordable. If you want to make your bike a serious adventure motorcycle, the trick is to understand which components need to be replaced or what needs to be added to your bike. Clinton Smout has years of experience and understanding of motorcycles and he walks us through his list of necessary modifications to make the factory adventure motorcycle a serious adventure motorcycle.