Welcome to Part 2 of The Dirt Garage: 101 Tips & Tricks for you and your dirt bike. Here you will find one-hundred-and-one different things you can do to your riding, your technique, your bike and your body to help you out on the track and in the garage. Come back next Tuesday for Part 3 of The Dirt Garage: 101 Tips & Tricks. If you haven’t yet checked out Part 1 - CLICK HERE.

35. Practice With The Bike Off

Practicing with the bike off can help with confidence, knowing you can’t whisky throttle off the back. Braking, balance and body position on a downward incline can be taught and practice with the engine off.

36. Deep Breaths

Ever finished a race and felt like you never took a breath? You probably didn’t. Well, not a big one anyway. Pick a section of the track and concentrate on taking a big deep breath every lap.

37. Race Food

Don’t have a special race food for race day. Eat what you normally eat. Changing your diet one day a week can upset your stomach.

38. Learn To Stand

Believe it or not, some riders still have to sit down to change gear. Sounds silly but learning to do everything standing up will make riding a heck of a lot easier.

39. Flipping Tyres

A lot of tyres are multi directional so you can turn them around when the edge is gone. Just don’t wait too long as you still want a decent braking edge.

40. Visor Height

Adjust your visor up as high as possible to give you the most amount of view.

41. Anti Seize

Put anti seize on your axle adjusters. They get put through hell and easily round off when they seize up.

42. Burning CLutches 1

If you keep burning out clutches, make sure you clutch lever has some freeplay. If not it will be slipping the clutch the whole time you are riding.

43. Burning Clutches 2

Consider stiffer clutch springs if you are still burning out clutches.

44. Tough Clutch

If you have small hands and struggle with clutch action, softer springs can help you use the clutch easier. But if you start burning out clutches go back to stock.

45. Carb Breathers

Cut your carb breathers on an angle, giving them more breathing area and less change of clogging.

46. Downed Rider

If you find a rider crashed, never remove his helmet. Either get them to remove their own helmet or wait for the ambulance.

47. Vaseline

Not only good for monkey butt, put Vaseline on the inside of your goggles at the bottom on the foam. It will catch anything bouncing around in your goggles.

48. Slow Through Rivers

Best practice is to go slow through rivers, even in races. Chafing from wet gear can cost you more time than a few seconds of slow riding.

49. Chain Link

When clipping on the chain link, have the opening facing reverse of the drive motion. It will be less likely to catch on something and unclip.

50. News Paper

Good for reading about the world and good for drying your boots on the inside when you get them wet.

51. Bent Bars

Replace bent bars, don’t try and straighten them again. The integrity is gone.

52. Grip With You Knees

Gripping the bike with your knees at speed can help stablise the bike and keep it straight.

53. Fingers On The Clutch

Keeping 1-2 fingers on the clutch at all times can really help with stalling.

54. Think About It

Actually thinking about your riding when you do it can help with tidying up small mistakes and bad habits.

55. Body Position First

Getting your body position in check from the get go will increase the speed at which you develop your skills.

56. Brake Pins

Make sure you brake pins are lubed and smooth. Brake pads need to float on them to work properly.

57. Riding Alone

Don’t ever ride alone. That probably doesn’t need to be explained much further.

58. Get Coaching

You will never regret getting coaching and it will be the best thing for your riding - no matter what level you are at.

59. Upgrades 1

If you really want to improve your speed, get a new tyre before you get a new pipe.

60. Upgrades 2

If you really want to improve your speed further, get coaching before you get a new pipe.

61. Upgrades 3

Do just about anything else before you spend moolah on a new pipe. You probably can’t ride your bike to its full potential with the stock pipe anyway, so spend your money on getting better, not louder.

62. Technique Before Speed

Work on proper technique before worrying about going fast. Speed will come with technique.

63. Sand Speed

Speed in sand is good. It keeps you up on top of the sand and requires less fighting of the bike.

64. Ride To The Conditions

Learn to ride to the conditions. This will come with time and experience.

65. Use Momentum

Using momentum is a great way to help tackle up hills. Get that speed up beforehand and carry it with you to the top. It's hard to gain speed while climbing.

66. Up Down Up Down

Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. The life of a dirt bike rider. Get used to it and embrace it. Good for the glutes too!

67. Bent Arms

Keep your arms bent while riding. Straight arms give you no strength and will allow the front end to get away from you.

68. Counter Lean

Counter lean when you are on off-cambers to help with grip, as well as slippery conditions. It helps put your weight over the tyres.

69. Fingers On Front Brake

Learn to have 1-2 fingers always on the front brake. This will effectively decrease your braking reaction time and could be the difference between hitting something and not.

70. Learn To Wheelie

Learning how to do a controlled wheelie can be a game changer out on the trail.