Dark side puts a big smile on your face
At the bottom, just visible, the track turned sharp left into a long muddy pool and after that... what? How did I get here? Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned my decades of road riding because I'd never done anything remotely like this before.
But then I remembered that fellow rider Ben Smallman hadn't even sat on a bike until the day before, and he'd just gone 'over the top' in front of me. So, no excuses, here goes...
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This was within the first hour of getting aboard the Honda 250X trail bike at the Mick Extance Off-Road Experience, set among some of the most stunning scenery in Wales.
Mick (pictured right) and his instructors do refer to that particular part of the 1,500 acres of mountain and woodland as the Dark Side - probably because it's in the forest on the shady side of the mountain, but I couldn't help thinking (once I'd seen the 'training' trails) there was an element of dark humour there, too.
Mick is a veteran of seven Dakar Rallies and has five finishers' medals, with placings that make him the most successful Brit in this toughest test of man and machine. He's been passing on his skills to others for some years, a firm believer that by giving everyone from novice to experienced road riders the experience and ability to control a squirming, bucking bike on gravel, rocks, deep mud and through water, they will be safer on the roads too.
As he has plenty of forest and heathland tracks to play on, and no public roads, you don't even need a licence: indeed on every course he runs there are at least one or two complete novices who get individual tuition on nice level ground until they are ready to test themselves further.
"Recently, we had a 'girls day' and none of the four had ridden before. They left with smiles on their faces and now they can all ride a bike," Mick said. "This is not a race school, it's a training school but some of our students have gone on to competitions.
"We would like to make road riding safer: 90 per cent of our students are road riders but there can be a big gap between through the CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) and riding out there in the road. We had a guy who had been riding on the road for 20-odd years and after a couple of hours here he got off the bike and said 'This is scary'."
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Most road bikers will have experienced a shimmy through their machine, for example on a white line in the wet, when a panicked over-reaction could spell disaster.
While Mick's 250cc machines have less power than a typical 1,000cc road machine, in the slippery conditions the effects of over-zealous use of throttle or either brake are magnified many times.
It certainly makes you think about what you may have taken for granted. As Mick says, get it wrong on the road and there could be a 44-tonne truck coming the other way. The off-road course is a lot more forgiving, as you can make mistakes and have a nice soft landing in mud or heather - and I know, because I did that several times.
Mike's school is based in the stunning Berwyn mountains overlooking the little village of Llangynog, between Oswestry and Bala. The scenery is enough to get you there, without the adrenaline-fuelled rush of the riding experience.
The Mick Extance Experience was recently relaunched and repackaged thanks to a partnership with Bridgestone, the biggest manufacturer of off-road tyres for bikes - all the Hondas are, of course, shod with the company's knobbly off-road Battlecross rubber for maximum grip on the miles of off-road trails on the 1,500 acre site.
The partnership is the jewel in the crown of the new Bridgestone Experience Centre, based at and around the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel, with other activities such as mountain biking, canoeing and golf. The hotel has a biker-friendly history, as the first first-star established in Britain to offer bike tours.
The hotel is now the base for Bridgestone corporate events, with the Experience the headline prize for dealer and customer competitions.
"Bridgestone is always looking at innovative ways to interact with motorists. This facility allows us to do precisely that, whilst leaving a memorable impression on everyone who comes to visit," said training and sales development manager Mark Fereday.
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"We were very lucky to be chosen to set up in this area, because we have had so much support from everyone - the local people, the authorities and local businesses."
It's lucky for the riders too, as there's every type of trail you want (barring, of course, the desert sands of the Dakar Rally).
There are many miles of relatively fast forestry roads - in some places surfaced with loose stone and gravel, in others mud - to the steep and rocky 'training hill' (also slippery) to the steep and boggy bits of the 'Dark Side'.
Most people's favourite is the Top Trail, which as the name suggests is near the highest point of the mountain and offers some spectacular views. If you have time to look, that is, because it's made up of a long loop through bogs, across rocky outcrops, through long stretches of muddy water and even - for the more experienced rider - a couple of impression jumps (I just rolled gently over the top).
With the help of Mick's experienced and it has to be said, very patient instructors, I felt my confidence grow in leaps and bounds during the day.
If I'd known beforehand I would be tackling something like the Dark Side I wouldn't have believed it. It was a real challenge for an out of condition 62-year-old but I did it and that gave me a tremendous feeling of satisfaction and pride.
I've been lucky enough to drive cars on race circuits all over Europe, and covered countless off-road miles on four wheels. But none of it matches the Mick Extance Experience to get the adrenaline flowing and put a great big smile on your face.
By John Griffiths
