Enduro School San Diego

Our San Diego based Enduro and Dual Sport courses are getting busier every year. If you have been wondering what to expect or what you learn at one of these full day Enduro training sessions you will find all the answers here.

Our curriculum is based on Daniel Sedlak’s 25 years of racing experience. With a a 10 year professional career in Motocross and Enduro that took him all around the world he has a good feel about the fundamentals that are needed to make a good Enduro rider. All of our instructors have worked with this curriculum for multiple years which allows us to provide a great quality training across the different groups of riders. Everyone of our Enduro School has two groups of riders. Group 1 is for riders that are new to riding off road and look to learn the fundamentals and group two is for more advanced riders/ racers that are looking to build up their confidence and speed.

All of our Enduro trainings are limited to 15 riders total to allow for two groups of 7 to 8 riders in a training session.

Our training are consists of five specifically build trails that each focus on different Enduro skill sets. Both groups get to train on all 5 trails just at different times throughout the day. Initially we start out on some very basic training loops in order to warm up and focus on the fundamental body position that will make it easier for you to rider more technical terrain later. The goal here is for the riders to be able to fully focus on improving their form and position on the bike without having to stress about the terrain. This loop also allows us to take a look at everyones bike and suspension set up. Often we are able to spot little set up improvements that will help settle your Enduro bike into the trail a lot better.

All of our Enduro trails have options to be more or less challenging depending on the Enduro skills we want to focus on.

We keep a training rhythm of 45 minutes on the trail followed by a 15 minute water break before we move on to the next training loop. This allows everyone to get plenty of seat time to focus on the various techniques that we teach

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

You might say , well I’m not a racer I don’t need the training. Most of our clients aren’t racers. The majority of riders that join our training events are recreational Enduro and Dual Sport riders that are looking to improve their skills, grow their confidence and become better, more efficient riders. After a full day of training and riding on some great trails you will leave with improved riding technique and 15 new riding buddies that you can meet up with again in the future. We make our training accessible to all riders. We have participants that rider a Suzuki DRZ 400 or a KAWASAKI KLX and we have participants that ride a Six Day Edition KTM Enduro bike. We gurantee that we will have the right group for you to improve your riding in a low pressure environment.

Enjoy our private trails while you sharpen your skills and become a better rider.

Interested in joining us? Check out our upcoming classes here and sign up for one of our courses.

Is Electric Dirt Bike Racing The Future

At the end of April 2022 I had the exciting opportunity to be the co organizer of the first ever CAKE One Design electric dirt bike race in California. CAKE held one of these events in Sweden in 2021 and is looking to spread the message of sustainable, electric racing across the globe with multiple events in different countries this year.

I’ve been a fan of electric motorcycles since I got to ride the ALTA back in 2018. Since then I have had the pleasure of riding all sorts of different electric bikes. Some are more off road and track friendly than others, but overall I enjoy the feeling of riding electric bikes and the many advantages they provide. Back in 2019 I had the opportunity to ride one of the CAKE Kalk bikes with one of their sales reps and began communication with the team at CAKE to see if we could come together on a project. Fast forward to fall of 2021 and I was approached to help make their first ever US based event happen. The goal was to find a unique location that can provide easy access and make for good racing. The choice fell on the Del Mar Arena at the Fairgrounds in Del Mar. Over the years different promoters organized all kinds of motorcycle events in the area and it was now time to bring in 16 electric bikes and drop the gate.

Electric dirt bikes get a lot of flack on social media. Uniquely designed products like the CAKE are not everyones cup of tea and I get that. When I first saw the bike I was intrigued, yet not 100% sure what it was supposed to be. When you ride the Kalk model you instantly realize that it is not a “normal” dirt bike. I don’t have a lot of mountain bike experience but from what I hear it also doesn’t feel like your typical mountain bike. It is it’s own category within the two wheel world and I think that’s really cool! What excites me the most about the upcoming trend of electric motorcycles are the different concepts that are being explored and a lot of different ideas that are being turned into reality. Obviously not all of them are great concepts and a lot of them will fail but for open minded riders, we are in an amazing time where we get access to prototype bikes that will shape the future of the sport. In 1997 when Doug Henry won a Supercross on a four stroke, not a lot of people would have guessed that less than 10 years later there would barely be any 2 stroke motorcycles lining up at the Pro races anymore. I’m not saying that the electric bikes will replace the current four stroke motocross bike BUT anyone who says there is no place in racing for this new technology clearly hasn’t ridden an electric motorcycle.

The first thing that comes to mind when people talk about electric mobility is always the environment. A lot of different arguments on both sides of the spectrum with enough material to write an entire book on the matter but one of the main things that is almost never brought up is PERFORMANCE. I personally would choose an electric bike just based on superior performance. The instant torque, the lack of shifting and clutching, the minimal amount of maintenance required in order to keep the bike running. The first time I rode the ALTA MXR I was suprised how good the bike was for an early stage electric bike. We had the ALTA dual sport bike and got to ride some really fun Enduro trails with the battery lasting for almost 3 hours. I have done a lot of riding and training on the Zero off road fleet and on many occasions we were able to complete a 6 hour training day in tight, single trail conditions with out having to recharge the battery. There is definitely room for improvement on the range of electric dirt bikes, especially when the terrain opens up and gets faster but for this early in the development phase we are seeing some impressive numbers. The first 250 fourstroke Motocross bikes were absolute nightmares to ride, maintain or to kickstart for that matter. A couple of years of development later and everyone forgot those early headaches and wanted to ride nothing but a four stroke bike because of the superior performance.

So are electric bikes the future of racing? I think so but in their own unique way. It will be awhile until we see electric bikes straight up replace the factory fourstroke machines we see racing out on the track right now. Electric bikes will have their own niche. Unique concepts like the CAKE One Design race, the new FIM Explorer series, an independent electric Supercross series? Why not? I believe as riders we should look at the possibilities the electric bikes will bring to our sport and industry. Young kids nowadays start on electric bikes. The kids love the ease with which these bikes can be ridden and parents love the low maintenance. Anyone that has ever worked on a 50 cc two stroke will agree that there is no worse bike to work on. Once these kids grow up they won’t want to jump on a 125 cc or 250 cc bike. They will want to stay electric. And at that point we will see more change coming into the top racing series around the world. For the next 10 years we are entering one of the most exciting periods of off road motorcycle riding ever. New manufacturers, new bikes, different concepts for bikes as well as races and we get to go ride it all. If you enjoy riding Motocross or Enduro and you get the chance to test and electric bike, take the chance to experience something new. Try to keep an open mind and don’t compare it to decades of gas powered development right away but remember that you are riding an early stage prototype similar to Doug Henry on that 400 cc Yamaha four stroke back in 1997.

ALTA Redshift MXR | First Ride Review

A competitive electric motorcycle? Tesla has done it on the road and now ALTA is doing it in the off road motorcycle world. In the american technology capital San Francisco in the neighborhood of Apple, Google and Tesla the electric motorcycle manufacture ALTA is working on the future of motorcycling. Since 2009 the crew at ALTA has worked on prototypes of a electric Motocross bike. After many years of development they started testing in public with the help of different professional riders about two years ago. Last year ALTA hired former professional Supercross racer Josh Hill to race the bike at the Red Bull Straight Rythm event. Hill beat factory Suzuki rider Kyle Cunningham over the course of three heats and advanced to the next round showing the world that an electric motorcycle is more than capable of competing with the gas powered competition. A lot of questions still remaind. How would a production electric bike fair out on the track. How fast does it go and would the chassis be up to par with what we are used to? Not only did ALTA decide to push the electric engine they also build their own chassis from the ground up which is a big challenge in it self. I travelled to Perris Raceway in California USA to find out what the ALTA is all about and if this is really the bike of the future.

Looking at the new ALTA MXR you fell like you made a trip into the future. The design is nothing that is currently on the market. I didn't know what to expect and was eager to get out on the track. It took me only a couple of laps and I felt right at home on the bike. The electric engine is really responsive and ALTA spend a long time developing a power delivery that would make it feel like your normal gas bike. The chassis feels really balanced and handles really well. The MXR feels like a race bike with a agressive set up that sits a little lower in the rear than your ordinary OEM dirt bike. As racers we spend a lot of time and money to set our bikes up lower in the rear to achieve better handling so it was nice to see a manufacture adopt that from the get go. The WP AER forks and WP shock come with a setting developed for the bike and give you a lot of options to fine tune the bike to your liking.

I was suprised with how easy it was to adopt to the bike. The MXR comes with four different mappings that make it change the power delivery signifantly.

Map 1 ECO: A traction map that offers the best range profile. Also a great mao for just starting out.

Map 2 SPORT: Performance profile engineered to line up with 250f race machinery

Map 3 PERFORMANCE: Similar traits as the sport map but with more bottom end and traction. It also makes a great starting gate map.

Map 4 OVERCLOCKED: Maximum torque and power are available without restriction – if you have the skill to control it. Thermal limiting will protect the machine if you push too hard.

Not having a a clutch or a shift lever was suprisingly easy to get used to. Instead of focusing on my shifting points and controlling the bike with the clutch I could just focus on my riding technique and my line choices which made for a very enjoyable riding experience.

A big point of discussion is the weight of the bike. With 259 lbs it comes in on the heavy side but and this is a big BUT out on the track you don't feel the weight. With out the rotating mass of a normal combustion engine the bike feels light and nimble and really easy to handle.

The big question when it comes to electric bikes is the battery life. How long can I ride until I'm out of juice. With the ALTA that really depends on the surface you ride on and how hard you ride. A professional racer gets somewhere around 40 minutes out of the battery on a hard pack track in map 4. Your average rider gets 90 minutes or more of riding time. With Indian tracks being hard pack for the most part you can expect to get around 90 minutes or more of riding time out of your bike.

The Supermoto and Dual Sport version of the bike comes with different mappings which give the bike around 4 hours of battery life. ALTA's new charging system enables you to fully recharge your battery with in 90 minutes. Four hours of riding time in the city or off road is a good amount with a quick recharge time. Indian riders will enjoy the torque of the bike especially on the plated Supermoto version. With a lot of stop and go traffic you will be able to out accelerate everybody.

ALTA's marketing slogan is "The Future of Fast" and after riding the bike I have to agree. As a professional racer I've ridden a lot of different bikes over the years and I would consider the ALTA one of the best bikes I have ever ridding. I haven't had that much fun riding a dirt bike in a long time. The handling, power delivery and easy to control charateristic of the bike will gurantee a great riding experience for everybody.

The Alta Redshift MXR is Alta's newest edition to their line of electric Motocross bikes. With a improved battery, new suspension, tire and mapping upgrades this is Alta's answer to the traditional gas powered dirt bike. It is designed to be the electric equivalent of a modern 250 fourstroke.

Racer X Interview

I recently came across an interview I did with Davey Coombs and Racer X two years ago. Davey did a really good job summarizing what I'm doing and it gives everybody a little bit of inside and understanding on how some of these overseas adventures work. 

Here is the link. Enjoy the read.

http://racerxonline.com/2015/12/16/between-the-motos-daniel-sedlak

Daniel Sedlak making new friends while teaching Motocross and Enduro lessons in Uganda Africa

Pune Supercross India

To finish of the 2017 season I accepted and invitation to race a Supercross in India. I've tried to go to India and race for years but the timing never worked out so I was glad that I could finally make it. My good friend Dennis Stapleton organized all International riders for this event so I knew it was going to be a fun time. Dennis and I have been friends for a while now. I met him back in 2011 at a race in the Philippines and after that we crossed paths all across the world from Kuwait to Europe and now we are both in southern California racing and running our Motocross related businesses. Along with us came Brian Medeiros and Justin Muscutt two professional privateers that just finished the AMA Nationals. After almost two full days of travel with a quick layover in my old home country of Germany we finally arrived in Pune. Day one was all about setting up bikes and checking out the track. One of the most adventurous things about fly away races are always the bikes you are racing on. In India we were handed 350 KTM's that had a couple years on them. After some minor problems on the first day we all had our bikes figured out and were ready to race. The event consisted of three nights of racing with two main events a night. The track was hand made by local workers and turned out to be a lot of fun. I was impressed with the entire set up. Over the last couple of years I have done a lot of events like this one in all kinds of different countries but non of them had a professional set up like this one. The races were fun, all of us international riders treated it as a fun weekend away and didn't get too aggressive with each other. After three nights it was Kerim Fitzgerald from South Africa who won the overall. Brian Medeiros had a bit of bad luck on the last night breaking his finger after he went down early in the first main event. Other than that all of us made it out healthy and happy. I hope I will be able to see a lot more of India in the near future the country has a huge motorcycle market and a lot of potential for a motorcycle enthusiast like myself. 

Daniel Sedlak travels to India to race the 2017 edition of the Pune International Supercross. From Supercross to Freestyle to absolute moped madness Supercross racing in India offers a little bit of everything. CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE https://www.sedlakoffroadschool.com/ CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/sedlakoffroa... FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/dansedlak/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzZD...

Enduro Training Vietnam

At the beginning of last year I got an awesome opportunity to travel to Vietnam. I was in Cambodia to organize a Motocross training for Top 1 Oil and the decision was made to extend my trip with a weekend in Hanoi. Vietnam doesn't have any Motocross tracks but a lot of Enduro riders so we decided to focus on Enduro riding while we were there. I had been to Cambodia before and it was really hot and humid and after a short look at the weather app seeing 90 degree temperatures I decided to pack for a hot weather trip. Upon arrival in Vietnam I came to find out that even though the two countries are neighbours the weather can be very different. Temperatures in the low 30s welcomed us and I realized that only bringing shorts and one sweatshirt wasn't the smartest move I've made in my years of travelling around the world. After a quick trip to the mall to get some warmer clothes it was time to explore Hanoi and see what the city had to offer. The history and architecture of Hanoi were amazing. We tried some of the local food and had one too many coffee's trying to stay warm. Day two meant it was time to go riding. A lot of rain over night and in the morning weren't a great base for a day of Enduro riding in freezing temperatures. We met the vietnamese Top 1 distributor at the hotel and drove an hour out of the city to the banks of the red river. We had a great view of the city with the Cau Ving Tuy bridge in the background and a lot of sand, rocks and mud to work with. I was provided a Yamaha WR 450 which was perfect for the terrain. Shortly after the riders started trickling in and we were ready to go. 25 riders showed up and were ready to fight the wet and cold weather to learn how to ride their Enduro bikes better. Throughout the day we covered all kinds of riding techniques and little tricks to make it easier for them to navigate the challenging terrain. A nice lunch grilled over a open charcoil fire rounded up one of the best Enduro days I've ever had. Everyone that came out improved their riding tremendously and left with a big smile. It was a surreal feeling riding on the banks of the red river and realizing that 40 years ago this was the side of heavy bombings during the Vietnam war. It put in perspective how lucky I was to travell to so many different places in the world to enjoy riding motorcycles in peace. The riding scene in Vietnam is growing every year amd even though it is hard to find terrain to set up a track or a trail system because of government regulations the enthusiasm of the local riders is at an all time high. If you are intrerested in travelling I recommend putting Vietnam on the top of your list of places to see in Asia. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing more corners of this beatiful country.

Follow Daniel Sedlak and the crew at Top 1 Synthetics while they travel to Hanoi, Vietnam to organize the first Enduro training class ever in this part of the world. After a week of riding and training in Cambodia the journey continued to northern Vietnam.

Sedlak Offroad School on Youtube

We recently started our YouTube account. The goal is to provide you guys with video content from our events, trips and training techniques. We will feature How To videos on riding technique, bike service as well as work instructions for you to do at home or in the gym. Our YouTube channel will also feature a VLOG that follows Daniel around the world so you get a look behind the scenes of his camps and events from San Diego, California to Pune, India. Make sure you check it out and subscribe while we are working to fill our channel with more and more cool content.  

In this weeks Sedlak Offroad School riding tip Daniel Sedlak is giving you a couple helpful tips on how to properly wheelie your dirt bike. For more riding tips please subscribe to our channel and visit www.sedlakoffroadschool.com to stay up to date with our current clinics and classes.

Follow Sedlak Offroad School's Daniel Sedlak on his journey to Asia to teach and Endurocross school for Top 1 Synthetics in Cambodia. Logs, Rocks, sand and mud pits the terrain in Cambodia hat a lot to offer and challenged the riders that participated in this class.

SOS Kids Motocross Camp Mexico

This past Sunday we organized a kids Motocross camp in Rosarito Mexico. We've organized big bike classes in Mexico before but it was our first time working with young riders south of the border. Upon arrival we found a nice hard pack track in the rolling hills of Baja. It reminded me of a practice track in Italy or France. We had a good turn out of local kids which was good to see. Most of them have never had any formal training so we took our time to explain all the little details before we hit the track. Throughout the day everyone improved not just their speed but more importantly their riding skills and their safety. At the end of the day we had a lot of smiling faces and happy riders. It was great to see so many kids being eager to learn and improve their riding. Baja Mexico is not a Motocross hot bed but with the amount of kids riding and training down there the future is looking bright. I put together a VLOG to give you guys a little inside in what a SOS day camp looks like.

Follow Sedlak Offroad School's Daniel Sedlak and Edgar Cota during their one day kids Motocross Camp in Rosarito, Mexico. For more information about our camps and classes please visit www.sedlakoffroadschool.com

How To: Travelling overseas to race

Travelling overseas always requires a lot of planning and packing even more so if you are planning to ride or race overseas. I’m getting ready to head to India to race the Pune Invitational Supercross there next week and I’m giving you a little inside on what it takes to get there.

Luggage: I’m a big fan of Ogio bags. I’ve been using Ogio products for many years now and I’m very happy with the durability and space they offer. I’m only going to India for one week with a total of four days of riding so I decided to pack light and only travel with one checked bag.

Gear Bag: Ogio 9800

Carry On: Ogio Layover

Backpack: Ogio Gravity Backpack

Four days of riding requires four sets of gear (jersey,pants,gloves,goggles) a set of boots, knee braces, chest protector and a helmet. I use my gear bag for all my riding gear. I protect my helmet by putting it in an extra helmet bag to make sure it gets to my final destination in one piece. I also pack my jersey in that helmet bag to give it some extra padding and also to save some room for the rest of my stuff.

I also bring a couple tools to make sure I’m able to set my bike up once I get there. A set of T-Handles, a couple wrenches and a small screw driver are always coming with me.

The top pocket of my gear bag is for snacks. Travelling to far away places and not knowing what you will eat can make a race weekend very long and difficult. I learned this the hard way when I first started travelling 10 years ago so nowadays I always pack energy bars, a bag of trail mix and a couple small protein snacks to give me some energy in case the local cuisine only serves crickets and fried lizard (It happened before).

Lastly I always bring a couple posters and stickers from my great sponsors. For this trip to India Top 1 Synthetics hooked me up with some really cool key rings that I will be handing out over the race weekend.

My carry on luggage has all my casual clothing, underwear, deodorant and a tooth brush. It’s always nice to have your every day clothes with you when you land. There is nothing worse than finding out that your luggage didn’t make it after you’ve been travelling for 24 plus hours so it is good to know you will have some clothes to wear when you get to the hotel.

My backpack carries my laptop, my camera, phone chargers, my note pad and a sweatshirt in case it gets cold on the flight.

That’s it. That is my packing list for next weekends race in India. I’m excited to go see a new country that I haven’t been to yet and I’m looking forward to meet many new Motocross enthusiasts over there.