Dirt Bike and Dual-Sport Books

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Whether trails, motocross, or a dual-sport adventure ride, how-to-ride books will help improve your dirt bike riding techniques and offer tips and inspiration for dual-sport adventure riding. A combination of videos, books, and the Internet all offer a different view into the exciting world of off-road and dual-sport adventure riding. Although it takes a bit of time to sort through all the information, it will pay off in the long run. Here are just a few of the off-road books you'll find on Amazon:

The Essential Guide to Dual Sport Motorcycling. is a good choice for beginning riders as well as street riders looking for info on the basics of dual-sport riding. Quite a few of the dual-sport books focus on the big adventure bikes, but this book also includes info on some of the smaller bikes. Author Carl Adams covers basics like gear selection, bike setup, etc., then moves on to topics such as GPS navigation, advanced riding skills, and choosing aftermarket accessories. There are plenty of color photos and clear explanations. There is now a companion DVD for the book: Dirt Riding Skills for Dual-Sport and Adventure Riders. If you already own the book, the DVD might be a good choice, but it gets a bit pricey if you’re buying both right from the start.

Now now in its 5th or 6th edition, Adventure Motorcycling Handbook: A Route & Planning Guide by Chris Scott just keeps getting better from the looks of it. It tends to focus on far-off places but is a good guide that's filled with practical information that any budding adventure rider should think about, such as proper documentation, gear prep, culture shock, medical emergencies, and even how to deal with bad guys. It's one of those been there, done that, kind of books that will benefit both beginner and seasoned riders. It's also a great resource for those who have ridden locally but are looking to expand their riding horizons to more exotic locales like Morocco, Siberia, and Pakistan.

How to Ride Off-Road Motorcycles: Key Skills and Advanced Training is not written specifically for dual-sport riders, but off-road riding and trail riding share many of the same basic skills and improving one set of skills will improve the other, which in turn helps to improve the rider experience in the long run. How To Ride Off-Road would be a good cross-training book for the dual sport rider that wants to learn a more about the trail riding aspect of off-road motorcycles. It's also a great book for beginning dirt bike riders as well, but is definitely more about trail riding rather than motocross riding. The book has a good amount of color photos with clear explanations, and is written in an easy to understand way.

The Art of Trailriding is a great book for new dirt bike riders, and also has quite a few tips for seasoned trail riders. The book starts at the beginning with bike setup, body position, and throttle control, then goes right on through to the more advanced skills such as ruts, berms, off-camber trails, and even includes a few racing techniques. Written in an easy to understand style, The Art of Trailriding focuses as much on setting up the bike as it does on riding techniques, which will help riders feel more comfortable and confident on their bike. As the title suggests, it's geared more towards trail riders than motocross riders, but motocross riders will also find lots of useful info. It's written by Paul Clipper who has been involved in the dirt bike world for many decades.

Those are only a few of the many dirt bike books on the market. There are scores more books pertaining to off-road, adventure motorcycling, dual sport bikes and motocross, but it's not possible to include all the available books to any one-page website, so check Amazon to search for a specific book. Use several different search terms - i.e., adventure motorcycling, off-road riding, dual sport books, etc. Check the reviews to see what others think but in reality, for improving your off-road riding technique, almost any book is helpful.